The Tragedy Of The World's Tallest Waterslide: The History of Schlitterbahn

the story of Schlitterbahn is one of family A place built by families four families of Big Dreams High Hopes and pushing harder that ultimately ends with tragedy this isn't the happy story of a company well a family that I could and should have been this is a story of failure if we mess up it could be the end thank you [Music] in 1966 Bob and Billy Henry purchased the 20 year old rundown Camp Lander a 13-acre campground with a spring-fed pool on the river in New Braunfels Texas throughout the next decade the family would Revitalize the resort purchasing as many adjacent properties as they could to grow and develop the camp into the Lander Resort becoming a 40-acre Riverside Resort filled with multiple different types of entertainment the Lander resort was a full family affair with the children working in different sectors of the attraction at the grow inlander Resort the Henry family observed how many people who came to visit were drawn to the river while Bob Henry oversaw the new resort and attraction his children will be a huge part of its operation Gary Henry would be in charge of the numbers after graduating as an accountant from the University of Texas jaina Henry the young guest would work in Market tin and Merchandising after majoring in fashion merchandising the middle child Jeff Henry had no interest in a formal education Jeff had many different roles growing up opening a video game arcade bar and helping out other family attraction the resort had the odd water slide but nothing extreme Jeff was seen as the problem solver when people were hit in the water too hard on one of the slides he created a water break a dip at the end of the slide that slowed people down Jeff was creative and had been trying to find a way to channel that creativity the late 70s saw water Parts become in the new Big tourist attraction open up throughout the United States from George malay's wet and wild to Disney's River Country in 1977 Jeff Henry at the age of 22 intended to take a break from the family business and took a trip down towards the Florida Keys on his way in Orlando he got to see the recently opened Wet and Wild and Disney's River Country and couldn't get the idea out of his head he called his brother Gary his sister jaina and his parents and they all loaded up an RV and took a trip to Orlando this trip will be the start of something special and changed the direction of the Lando Resort forever foreign would be to create a version of these parts of their own at the resort located on the River in Texas taking full advantage of the area's natural resources that same year construction will begin on the Lander Resort's first official slide as part of the water park they would call it the Schlitterbahn a made-up German word combining the words for slippery and rude chosen due to the town's German Heritage in 1979 designed by the Henry family the first planned slide of many they came up with opened they were going to expand and add more very quickly the river near the resort was quite stagnant so the Henrys came up with a plan to pump the water to the top of the slides with it flowing back into the river at multiple points to speed up the flow and clean the river out also increasing the fun that could be had in the river a year later a 60-foot structure modeled on one of the towers of the song Castle in Braunfels Germany was completed designed again in-house the new highlight attraction featured four slides each slide would empty into the white water tube Chute before dumping out into a man-made Lagoon in addition to this Tower five other slides were also in the process of being completed around the area's water park other editions included a barbecue restaurant and an arcade the Henry family now began calling Schlitterbahn a fully fledged family water park the place built by a family for families year by year the Henry family continued to add more rooms slides and experiences to the resort grow in larger and larger the slides were created in-house in a shed at the back of the property neighbors regularly complaining about the smell of fiberglass slides being made and the traffic that the new attraction was bringing [Music] [Applause] right from the start Schlitterbahn became incredibly popular during 1980 over 250 000 people were estimated to visit the water park and the Lander Resort in 1989 Bob and Billy retired from running the business and it passed through to the three children foreign loved the family feel of the park the fact they could bring their own food and most importantly Jeff Henry's slides which have been getting more and more daring over time over the next two decades the parks saw many expansions purchasing Resorts and land nearby to get more space the Schlitterbahn name was becoming synonymous with water parks around the United States perhaps even the most well-known of them all along with wet and wild many slide Concepts were developed through the Henry's in-house slide creation Workshop including the first water coaster concept and a surfing attraction by 1988 for the Park's ninth season the water park featured 17 water slides and would later become the top attended seasonal U.S water park in 1995 seeing 900 000 visitors a season by now creating water slides at Schlitterbahn was Big Business Jeff Henry the innovator of the family with the slides at the park and is father had formed nbgs International Inc in 1984. the company later grew to an over 200 person Workforce that was creating rides for Six Flags Wet and Wild and Disney among others with many popular water slide attractions the success of the family and their now patented slide designs cannot be understated Bob Henry and his family had not only created one of the largest most recognizable names in water parks but were also creating slides that thousands of people around the world would experience Jeff would remain the Wild Card of the company scruffy looking and often called combative by those working with him stating that he thought that he was always right in 1994 he pleaded guilty to a third degree felony of drug possession after he was caught with a large amount of marijuana but he made no apology he said that if he was demanding an impatient it was because he was consumed with making Schlitterbahn the best water park in the world he had no formal education After High School no design or engineering experience outside of the company and people didn't question it he had a creative spark that he would focus on making water slides that people were loving he was obsessed with making bigger and scarier attractions to Thrill those visiting in 1989 at a water park in Brazil created a 135 foot high slide called insano at the time it would be the world's tallest water slide he still wants it bigger he wanted the bad best and he wanted it first there was never any secret about how Schlitterbahn had designed and come up with any of its slides trial and error it will be over two decades after the original park opened that Schlitterbahn would expand to a second Park Jeff Henry had big plans to expand and in September 2000 they broke ground on their second Texas Park hoping to compete with the already struggling Super Smash Adventure in Edinburgh the new Schlitterbahn featured a q system where you would wait in your tube before getting on the Park's main attractions while the original Park was German themed this new park would take on the film of a Brazilian Beach managed by Jeff Henry Schlitterbahn's second 13 million dollar water park opened in summer 2001. around 200 000 people attended the opening year and the friendly family atmosphere from the original Park was kept with the layout and slides of this new version being considered groundbreaking a third part joined the company's portfolio in Galveston Texas with constant success and growth the company began planning to open the first Schlitterbahn outside of Texas located in Wyandotte County Kansas across from Interstate 435 also home to the Kansas Speedway the new planned 300 acre three times larger than the company's other Parks 300 million dollar resort was set to be called Schlitterbahn Vacation Village and was announced in October 2005. originally the pans were to be built in a different city but Kansas City officials convinced the water park owners to bring it to Kansas complete with indoor and outdoor sections Rivers Link in hotels to the park Treehouse accommodations a casino multiple restaurants in a covered Riverwalk and a marine life section the plans were ambitious and local officials said that the park would result in 3 000 new jobs and an annual payroll of about 90 million it would have a huge impact on the area with some areas operating year round rather than the park costing local taxpayers it will be slitter who would agree to purchase the star bonds to make the whole Resort a reality as they were convinced of its success star bonds required them to be paid off through the sales tax revenue generated by the development and were scheme introduced to increase Regional and National visitation to Kansas the promise for what Schlitterbahn would bring to the area was huge offering much more than just another water park this would be a whole destination Resort Schlitterbahn Vacation Village construction was set to begin in 2007. with the Park opening in 2008 during the groundbreaking celebration it was announced that ex-town development company would partner with the water park company on this new project with retailers such as House of Blues and Ron Jon expected to open the new location by late 2007 it was confirmed that the water part would be delayed until 2009 while the groundbreaking ceremony was held it wouldn't be until mid-2008 when construction would begin on the water park project and while the rest of the project was looking to be delayed the water park was planned to open on time in 2009 as construction continued around the site the targeted opening date of June 2009 went by and no employees had yet been hired to operate the park we have a progress update on the new Schlitterbahn Water Park in KCK it was originally supposed to open in late May or early June tonight KMBC 9's Marcus Moore has learned it could open in a week the recession not only had stored all other plans for the Mega site but had impacted the construction of the water park just a few months before opening the Project's construction manager for the entire Resort from Turner Construction left and Schlitterbahn had to take over fully to try and finish the park many began to question if the troubled Park would ever open Billboards even appeared with the word Schlitterbahn sucks as people were unhappy they had not hired any local construction workers for the project Schlitterbahn Vacation Village would welcome its first guests in a soft opening during July 2009 announced quietly on the company's blog on Twitter and for anyone waiting outside around 50 people paid 20 per person to experience the sort of finished water park after it opened mid-afternoon Kelly if you weren't on Twitter or just hanging out here at the front gate you probably missed it but those who did find out and made it here for this surprise afternoon opening had a ball the park insisted a grand opening would happen later this summer but for now 8 of the 13 planned attractions were up and running and this could be considered a sneak peek what was on offer had been hugely cut from what had been originally planned there was no indoor section and it was very much just a generic water park just a few days after the soft opening the Romanian attractions slowly opened and Schlitterbahn began charging it's 4 32.99 admission the first Schlitterbahn park outside of Texas was now open within a year the company had deemed The Venture a success and announced plans to open another Park in Texas and one in Fort Lauderdale well it's still not everything it was supposed to be by now but the Schlitterbahn Water Park is now open in Kansas City Kansas for its first full summer season Schlitterbahn began its first fall season in Kansas on May 14 2010. the opening year didn't really make the best first impression with tons of delays lower than average temperatures and anger over not hiring local construction Crews the company went into 2010 hoping for a fresh start urging Kansas citizens to come check out the park even though nothing new had been added from the first year we were just about to announce the next major phase of construction which will include the Riverwalk retail area once we get that going we will let you know more about what's coming next at the water park as early as as this summer despite the economy Schlitterbahn had invested 180 million dollars into the project those bonds originally planned to be used for the whole Resort had not been issued and this was built using all private funds those plans for the surrounding resort area were still coming also they said and they hoped it would open in 2012. while the surrounding area had been cleared out the economy had meant the project would already be delayed things already had to be cut such as a river that guests could ride to attractions and from their hotel none of the expansion and surrounding areas were ever completed the project was pretty doomed from the Star the park opened alone and achieved moderate success not as successful as hoped but not too bad in 2011 and 2012 new rides were added to the park finally completing the Circuit of the transportation river system for Riders to get around the park the park was now home to the torrent River the world's largest tidal wave river storm Blaster a water coaster and multiple exciting attractions these however were nothing to what was coming all right boys kissing goodbye man are you ready for the bin ready on November 15 2012 a newspaper reported that a colossal slide was coming to Kansas it was called the world's tallest fastest and most extreme water slide ever built a mega blaster speed slide not like anything seen before all details about the attraction for now would be kept secret the idea for the new attraction came spur of the moment by Jeff Henry and his chief collaborator and designer John Shirley a former yacht Builder and slide designer in Asia before he started working for Jeff in 1998. at the ayapa trade show a team from the Travel Channel producing an extreme water park TV show and looking for their first episode asked Jeff what he have been working on he answered with the tallest fastest slide ever made something he came came up with on the spa to wow those and get the TV episode Schlitterbahn had no plans to build anything like this and after returning from the Expo he sketched out his plan for a one-of-a-kind slide that would not only drop Riders from the highest point on the slide in the world but feature a large Hill much of the process and designing and making of the ride will be captured for the TV show and Jeff wanted to design and make it in a record-breaking short time frame the hype around what will be coming to Kansas was at a high that the somewhat media water park had never before seen Jeff Henry had the media call in to find out what was coming he called it the most terrifying ride ever built in a water park but he did also mention that safety came first so a rigorous testing period would be used just extremely quickly he called The Coming Attraction a game changer for the industry he was right just not in the way anyone expect did just like with every slide created since the park opened and there was no secret to how they had done it in the past everything would use trial and error to design he often said no model of how to do it existed so he had to come up with it himself that was the nature of making something new if it didn't meet Jeff's expectations he said you go back you fix it and you make it work you also keep it safe it had always worked in the past and he was selling his designs to some of the biggest amusement companies in the world while they often consulted with Engineers the duo had no formal education and often disagreed with what the experts were telling them they would have to try and figure out everything from the acceptable weights in the raft to how many forces the Riders would feel this was a bigger more dangerous offering than either of them had attempted before and with the deadline of the TV show Lumen they had to make it fast firstly they create to the model of what they hope to build this was Then followed by a nearly 90 foot tall two hundred thousand dollar test slide half the real size of the final project they built this prototype in a mud field near the company's headquarters in Texas the final height of the Finish Line was Kept Secret at all times after the ceremonial fruit roll the test grass filled with sandbags went down the Prototype slide nobody was allowed to ride till at least 10 rafts weighing 700 pounds made it to the bottom safely as the first rafts went down and hit the hill they launched into the air as those watching burst into laughter it was seen as just another problem for them to work out and part of the testing process in reality even from the Prototype the design was flawed from the very start I want to point out it was later stated by Jeff Henry that the footage shown in the Travel Channel program was exaggerated for Dramatical effect for the show and to make the upcoming slide look scarier he even said that the rust flying into the air were faked you could actually see the wheels they added to the rafts underneath in the Travel Channel footage originally the test slide featured a 60 degree drop but it wasn't working to stop the boats flying into the air there angle at the bottom of the drop was lessened the heavier the weight the faster they flew and the easier it was to launch into the air on the hill this kind of hail is commonly called an airtime Hill in the roller coaster world the difference being that roller coasters have up stop Wheels to keep the trains launching into the air the first people to test the half-size model would be Jeff Henry after some tweaks they made it to the bottom and took the trial as a success ready to head back to Kansas to build the real thing [Music] the slide will be called Beirut meaning insane in German just previous tallest side had been called insano insane in Spanish construction on the rail slide began with only four months set until it was supposed to open with hundreds of custom form pieces of fiberglass forty thousand pounds of steel was used to make the 16 story 264 step high stairs and four giant freight train tankers were cut down and painted to be later stacked to make the tower the slide would launch from Jeff Henry had become a master at reusing equipment for his Park and had a huge Boneyard full of metal from old amusement parks and even ships he would use to create his rides what was somewhat becoming a tradition at the Kansas Schlitterbahn the construction would not be easy whether delayed construction yet after just over a month the mammoth slide would be complete the new slide used a brand new never seen before water nozzle to propel Riders up the large Hill after the drop and it was causing issues with the tight deadline for the opening the new slide would reluctantly have to be delayed seven months after the planned opening in 2013 missing the whole water park season verukt was thought to be ready with the nozzle system finally in place the nozzle system to protect Riders of the second Hill if needed not only did not work reliably but didn't adjust the amount of thrust in proportion to what was required to get over the hill so a raft carrying 400 pounds worth of riders got the same thrust as a raft carrying 545 pounds yeah breaking records and scaring a heck of a lot of people Cynthia it is 17 stories high let me step out so you can get a good look at this thing 264 steps will get you to the top of this Slide the official height 168 feet and seven inches in April 2014 Beirut would be measured by the Guinness World Records and its official height Finally Revealed the water slide stood at 168 feet tall a new world record beating the current tallest in Brazil but had overtaken Jeff's previous tallest slide Jeff said he rightly had the record back on American soil while measured and confirmed veruk's troubles were not over the opening originally set for May would be delayed again what was originally set to coincide with a one-hour Travel Channel special release on the ride was still not already the three days and counting until the world's largest and tallest water slide is expected to open to the public ferrook was supposed to open back in May but the debut date has been pushed back a couple of times for more testing behind the scenes things were not going well the slide was not working rumors began that Ross were flying into the air to try and hide this being seen by the now watching media testing had to be done in secret at night during the secret testings Samba graphs were just as an earlier testing flying off the top of the hill the whole completed slide had to be redesigned after it was full ready the forces were too high and passengers might pass out on air if they didn't fly up into the air over half a slide would be taken apart and reprofiled the opening date would not be met and media days were canceled I think we almost got it to my team is still a while in just a few months the bottom of the first drop will be shallowed out to try and slow them down and the second Hill would be made five feet longer with the 45 degree climb change it to 22 degrees rush in as the whole project had been from the start once again the design was hastily changed to try and make the slide work this rebuild alone cost nearly 1 million dollars well you see that hill right there in the middle that's where a lot of the problems are right now they have decided to take that down in size in fact they even reconstructed the slide took parts of it apart and rebuilt it but they're still having trouble with the conveyor belt and really pushing that raft up over that hill and getting those passengers through safely Jeff Henry and Jones stated they have based their calculations for Designing the slide on roller coasters but that just didn't translate well to a water slide causing the rafts to fly into the air on the Hill Media continued to report on the slide's troubles and delays with testing on the rebuilt slide only taking place again at night seemingly to hide any issues Nets were added to the slide the same netting system that the park had used on other slides yet this time the clearance from the slide was quite low and Riders were instructed to keep their arms down just in case they could touch the net in at speeds well over 60 miles per hour by finally after months of failures Schlitterbahn believed they finally had the tallest slide in the world working and they were ready to let people ride it once again just like the Prototype Jeff John and the brother of Jess's sister would be the first Riders on their design they just barely made it over the 55-foot hill on the second try with a nozzle not firing correctly on the first try testing would continue until on July 10 2014 the world's tallest water slide would finally open to the public for multiple years now Jeff Henry had been consumed with making this attraction work and making it the best slide he had ever made right before opening a safety consultant hide by the park gave concerns about the safety of the attraction there were consistent rumors that rafts were going airborne yet the park denied it the safety consultant recommended nobody under 16 should ride the designers decided that 4 14 sounded better the age limit was dropped completely just before the opening with stickers covering it on the sign a height of 54 inches was the only Factor on who could ride Riders would be divided into groups of three and told to step on a scale if the total weight of three Riders was between 400 and 550 pounds they could climb the stairs to the top a ride we were Airborne we were in the air we made it my hand I'm just shaking still I mean you know I mean that that is without a doubt the most extreme radical thing I've ever been in me too in any right anywhere Baruch was finally open publicly and it seemed like a success it was voted best new water park ride at the 2014 golden ticket Awards the writers we spoke to loved it despite the reservations and weigh-ins Thrill Seekers started lining up before five o'clock this morning to experience for root but before taking the plunge they had to be measured and weighed Beirut operated for the remainder of the season and throughout 2015 seemingly with no issues behind the scenes though those issues were being covered up Verruckt was open for around four months during the season each year almost immediately injuries began to be documented for the attraction from multiple concussions to neck pain and even broken toes coming from Airborne rafts to collisions with the wall at the end of the runout pool some writers even indicated they came inches away from the net in and Hoops above the slide on June 16 2016 one Rider reported hitting the overhead hoop a netting of the ride after the raft went Airborne causing his eye to swelch up for the rest of the day publicly these issues were unknown to the point that the director of the park was requiring the reports from the lifeguards to be destroyed and altered to hide some of the incidents their injuries continued and rafts continued to go Airborne many injuries coming from one specific raft that continued to be put out of service and returned the ride's maintenance was fallen behind and only essential work was completed rust could be seen on the attraction and parts of the slide continue to fail including a break-in system there was no mention of rasco in Airborne or break failures in the ride's manual so staff mostly had to guess what to do the incident reports were kept hidden and from the outside the rides still looked like it had no issues all of this was kept secret until the worst thing that could have happened was about to occur breaking news tragedy at a major American Water Park the details just coming in word of a child killed on the world's tallest water slide see it there the park now closed through at least tomorrow the investigation just underway less than two months after someone else reported they had hit the net in on August 7 2016 Caleb Schwab the 10 year old son of a Kansas state representative tragically lost his life while riding Verruckt his wrath went Airborne on the hill and collided with the net in something that should never have been allowed to happen the other two Riders were also heavily injured we honestly don't know what's happened that's why an investigation a full investigation is the park was closed immediately for investigation though reopened three days later with just farooked and four other slides closed that were deemed not to meet safety standards after many delays it would take until 2018 for the indictment to be issued by a grand jury the charges against the Park's director of operations and Schlitterbahn included in voluntary manslaughter an interference with law enforcement among others a Parks director of operations had withheld daily reports that could contain incriminating information against himself and the ride's operation this was only found when one of the lifeguards who was forced to hide the slide's troubles came forward to help the investigation the evidence with how delayed the investigation by over six months among the reports were dozens of incidents alerting the director of the park about Airborne raft incidents the park announced the same year that veruct would be demolished follow when a criminal investigation the family of the boy who lost his life settled out of court for around 20 million dollars in 2017. further details came out in the indictment experts in ride design and safety examined veruc after the incident and found physical evidence that other rafts had gone airborne and collided with the overhead hoops and net in they noted that the ride's design violated nearly all aspects of the long-standing Industry Safety standards published by ASTM which were not required by law to be followed but was heavily suggested the park complied with you if any of the Industry Safety standards the indictment argued that The Rock's operators knew about the growing list of injuries and that more would be expected to happen with the ride posing at risk much of the aftermath focused on the rushing of fundamental steps in the design process in place of mathematical and physics calculations they have rely died on trial and error methods evidence from email stated that Jeff Henry was responsible for The Rush timeline to make the ride happen emails also stated that it was a designed project for a TV show it couldn't be changed to anything else speed was required and it had to work he had set a completion deadline for the entire project as June 15 2013 a period of only seven months including all design construction and testing the design and construction of the riveract Prototype began and was completed within 36 Days of when the idea was first conceived the indictment stated this Rush schedule affected quality control many of Jeff Henry's comments from the TV show and footage were used to prove that the creation of the attraction had been unsafe Henry said that he was not going by the standards as this had never been attempted and he will be redefining those standards it was also found found out outside engineering firms performed accelerometer tests as close to a week before the attraction opened and indicated that rafts would likely go Airborne on the hill the data was recovered during the aftermath from hsc's own project records that showed that both Henry and Shirley had access to it either they completely just disregarded it they didn't understand the results or they understood it but opened the ride regardless Jeff later said that everything the experts had told him had usually been wrong while upstop wheels are used on roller coasters to prevent trains from leaving the track no system was in place here from the Star from start to finish the safety of the attraction was signed off by the rides designers themselves water parks in Kansas were able to self-inspect the state of Kansas would vote to change the law that allowed All-State Amusement Park attractions to now have to be regularly inspected by the state the demolition of the slide was approved in July 2018 and began in November after the Park closed for the 2018 season taking two months to be completely removed Schlitterbahn Kansas would never open again following 2018. the impact of the incident which could have been avoided had greatly affected the Park's reputation and revenue and feuds were reported between the Henry family owners the tragic incident would Mark the end of the family run Schlitterbahn that had operated for decades during 2019 two of Schlitterbahn's Texas Parks were sold to Cedar Fair to try and cover costs including the original Park in New Braunfels which started it all Cedar Fair would now own the Schlitterbahn name they had the option to also purchase the now closed Kansas city park for just six million dollars Cedar Fair decided not to pursue purchase in the park or further expansions such as Fort Lauderdale Dow were canceled the park they didn't sell to Cedar Fair was retained by the Henry family and rebranded and operates today as Beach Park after the indictment was issued three days later Jeff Henry was arrested in Texas in connection with the incident a new indictment was filed charging Jeff Henry surely in the Henry and Sons Construction company owned by Schlitterbahn with second-degree murder in addition to the 17 other felonies the trial began in October 2018 with all defendants pleading not guilty Jeff Henry walks out of the Wyandotte County Courthouse after pleading not guilty to multiple charges against him including murder I don't have anything to say today thanks I'll be talking to you guys shortly after I get some rest Jeff Henry never gave any explanation about what happened on the attraction to cause the death he said he just didn't know what happened and had never been told about the Trouble behind the scenes of the ride he thought the reports that oscargo Airborne were based on outdated information and that he had been instructed and acted to make the ride seem scarier than it was for TV entertainment the Henry family made no public comment during the whole process afterwards is it true you're a high school dropout no sure it's not I have a high school diploma from New Braunfels High School he does not have any formal education in terms of engineering or physics correct and neither did Henry Ford and he built the car the indictment claims there were multiple injuries on verukt before Caleb's death including spinal disc injuries concussions Whiplash and broken bones if that in fact is true which we don't believe is true that was never reported to Jeff Henry later said that he thought he had designed the biggest baddest thing ever built a ride that could operate safely and never have a serious accident ever if things were complied with and if the thing was maintained and operated as designed he stated that the ride that was built by John and Jeff was not the same ride that that boy was on the day he died on February 22nd 2019 criminal charges were dropped against all defendants because inadmissible evidence had been presented to the grand jury the judges rule in reprimanded state attorneys for presenting the extreme water parks episode to jurors as fact instead of as a fictional version of events created for entertainment the charges were fully dropped and all references to the extreme water parks episode were removed Jeff Henry never went to Schlitterbahn again reports came out in 2007 and 2013 related to Jeff Henry's drug use in 2022 Jeff Henry would be sentenced to 36 months of probation for possession large amounts of meth during a 2018 incident the day after Jeff Henry walked out of a court hearing in his murder trial in Wyandotte County in July court records State he was involved in criminal activity at a Miriam Inn Miriam please officer Christian josinski responded to a reported disturbance further investigation found Jeff Henry with more than 61 grams of meth 18 hypodermic needles and 16 Xanax pills court records further claim Henry agreed to pay a human trafficker 400 for a prostitute but instead paid him 240 dollars in cash and then 10 Schlitterbahn all-day passes to make up the difference when Caleb died I think a piece of Jeff died too and since that time he's been in a depression Henry had checked himself into a mental health clinic in Houston and is ordered to return there if he makes his new one million dollar Bond we asked his attorney about Henry and Drugs in April and today and had two different answers your client has a multiple marijuana convictions does he have a drug problem sir he's got two marijuana convictions two misdemeanor America marijuana convictions one that happened 12 years ago and another one that happened about 20 years ago that's it so no he does not have a marijuana problem does your client have a drug problem I don't know I don't want to talk about that in view of the these other charges that have surfaced he was spat jail time as he had spent some time in a sober living facility and was continuing mental health treatment the story of Schlitterbahn is a sad one a place that was full of hopes and dreams that impacted and changed the very core of water parks in the United States and Beyond Schlitterbahn was a place that provided so much for many many years a place that was meant to be fun the reality is that none of this should have ever happened and even more sadly could have been avoided the safety of veruct began and ended with those who built it and they failed they failed everyone from Texas to Kansas and Beyond but especially the young boy who lost his life Schlitterbahn Kansas City would be demolished in 2021 after sitting abandoned for three years the family-run park for families would be no more the Texas tradition was over and everything related to varupt would be a huge tragedy for everyone involved thank you so much for watching this episode of exposition extinct if you enjoyed it make sure you subscribe to join the Expedition follow us on social media for updates on upcoming episodes and a special thank you to our patreons for supporting the channel we will see you next time foreign [Music]

Channel: Expedition Theme Park

Views: 1,924,551

Keywords: expedition theme park, expedition extinct, schlitterbahn, Verrückt, kansas, water park, troubled, failure, water slide, history, theme park, expedition

Id: xZCTWm3SLbc

Length: 41min 15sec (2475 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 30 2023