It was supposed to be a summer day at a water park.

For Scott and Michele Schwab, it became the day their family changed forever.

On Aug. 7, 2016, the couple arrived at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas, with their four sons.

“Six went to the park, and five came back,” Scott would later say.

Their 10-year-old son Caleb Schwab had been eager to try Verrückt, the towering attraction that had been promoted as the world’s tallest waterslide.

Before Caleb and his older brother Nathan headed toward the ride, their father gave them a familiar instruction.

“Brothers stick together,” Scott told them.

Caleb answered simply:

“I know, Dad.”

Scott repeated himself.

“Look at me. Brothers stick together.”

Again, Caleb replied that he understood.

Those became the final words Scott remembered exchanging with his son before the tragedy.

Verrückt was unlike an ordinary waterslide.

Standing roughly 168 feet tall, the attraction sent riders in multi-person rafts down an enormous initial drop before carrying them over another large hill.

When it opened in 2014, it was promoted as the tallest waterslide in the world and became one of Schlitterbahn’s signature attractions.

Caleb rode in a raft with two adult women.

During the descent, the raft became airborne.

Caleb struck part of the overhead structure supporting the ride’s safety netting and suffered fatal injuries. The two women riding with him were also injured.

His brother Nathan was waiting near the bottom.

Michele later recalled that Nathan came running toward his parents in distress, repeatedly shouting that Caleb had “flew from the Verrückt.”

At first, his parents struggled to understand what had happened.

Michele attempted to move closer to the scene.

A man stopped her.

“Trust me, you don’t want to go any further,” she recalled him telling her.

She understood almost immediately that something catastrophic had happened.

Scott later described the minutes afterward as almost impossible to process.

He needed someone to tell him directly whether his child had died.

The day that had begun with a family outing ended with the Schwabs leaving the park without Caleb.

The accident immediately raised questions about Verrückt’s design, testing and operation.

The enormous slide had been conceived as a record-breaking attraction.

But later investigations focused on whether the ride behaved unpredictably when rafts carrying riders of different combined weights traveled over its second hill.

Prosecutors would eventually allege that designers and operators had ignored serious safety concerns.

Those accusations became part of an extensive criminal case brought by the Kansas Attorney General’s Office.

Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry and lead designer John Schooley were among those charged.

Prosecutors accused them of recklessly creating and operating a dangerous attraction.

The criminal prosecution, however, eventually collapsed.

In February 2019, a judge dismissed the indictments against three individuals and two corporate entities.

The judge concluded that prosecutors had “irreparably tainted” the grand jury by presenting prejudicial material, including inadmissible evidence and misleading testimony.

The dismissal did not amount to a finding that the ride had been safe.

Instead, it meant the criminal cases could not continue after the judge found serious problems with how prosecutors had obtained the indictments.

A separate civil process produced a very different result.

Court records revealed that Caleb’s family received settlements totaling approximately $19.7 million from multiple companies involved with the park, ride construction, raft manufacturing and safety consulting.

About $14 million came from two companies connected to Schlitterbahn.

Another $5 million came from the ride’s general contractor.

Additional settlements came from the raft manufacturer and a company that had consulted on the attraction.

No amount of money, the family made clear, could replace Caleb.

Verrückt never reopened after his death.

For more than two years, the massive structure remained standing over the Kansas City park while investigators and attorneys worked through the criminal and civil cases.

In 2018, a judge finally authorized its demolition.

The 17-story structure was dismantled later that year.

The tragedy also intensified scrutiny of amusement-ride regulation in Kansas.

At the time of Caleb’s death, critics argued that state oversight of amusement attractions was too limited and relied too heavily on operators themselves.

Kansas later strengthened its amusement-ride laws and inspection requirements.

Yet for the Schwab family, public policy and court cases were only part of what followed.

Months after Caleb’s death, Scott and Michele spoke publicly for the first time about the boy they had lost.

Michele said she missed ordinary things: hugging him, hearing about his day and watching him play soccer.

Scott said the family remained in pain but was trying to move forward.

Their interview also revealed the tiny exchange that would remain frozen in Scott’s memory.

There was no dramatic farewell.

No sense that anything unusual was about to happen.

Just a father reminding two brothers to look after each other.

“Brothers stick together.”

And a 10-year-old boy answering:

“I know, Dad.”

Minutes later, everything changed.