KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas water slide billed as the world's tallest remained off-limits Monday as authorities pressed to figure out how a state lawmaker's son died of a neck injury while riding it.

Details remained murky about what happened Sunday to Caleb Thomas Schwab on the 168-foot-tall “Verruckt” — German for “insane” — that since its debut two years ago has been the top draw at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kan.

Kansas City, Kan., police issued a statement Monday saying that Caleb suffered a fatal neck injury around 2:30 p.m. while he was riding the slide with two women, neither of whom was related to him. They suffered minor facial injuries and were treated at a hospital, police said.

Emergency responders arrived to find the boy dead in a pool at the end of the ride, according to the statement, which offered no further details.

In a statement Monday afternoon, Schlitterbahn said it was “deeply and intensely saddened for the Schwab family and all who were impacted by the tragic accident.” The park was tentatively scheduled to reopen Wednesday, but “Verruckt is closed,” according to the statement.

Officer Cameron Morgan said no police report about the incident was available. He said investigators were treating Caleb's death as a “civil matter” rather than a criminal one and deferred additional questions to the park.

Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio declined an interview request Monday but told reporters a day earlier that Caleb had been at the park with family members, adding that “we honestly don't know what's happened.”

Leslie Castaneda, who was at Schlitterbahn on Sunday, told The Kansas City Star based in Missouri that she saw Caleb's crumpled shorts or bathing suit at the bottom of the ride, along with blood on the slide's white descending flume.

“I'm really having a tough time with it. I really am,” Castaneda said.

On the water slide certified by Guinness World Records as the world's tallest, riders sit in multiperson rafts during “the ultimate in water slide thrills,” subjecting “adventure seekers” to a 17-story drop, the park's website says. Passengers then are “blasted back up a second massive hill and then sent down yet another gut wrenching 50 foot drop,” the website adds.

Each rider must be at least 54 inches tall, and the group's weight is limited to a total of 400 to 550 pounds. Authorities didn't release information about Caleb's height or the combined weight of his group of riders.

Caleb's parents — Kansas state Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife, Michele — have requested privacy as the family grieves, saying in a statement Sunday that “since the day he was born, (Caleb) brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with.”

Authorities initially said the victim was 12 years old, but Clint Sprague, a pastor acting as the family's spokesman, said Caleb was 10 and is among the couple's four sons. According to rules sent to the media in 2014, riders had to be at least 14 years old, but that requirement is no longer listed on the park's website.

Verruckt's 2014 opening repeatedly was delayed, though the operators didn't explain why. Two media preview days in 2014 were canceled because of problems with a conveyor system that hauls 100-pound rafts to the top of the slide.

Prosapio said Sunday the park's rides are inspected daily and by an “outside party” before the start of each season.