DES MOINES- It was a spring day in March of 2015, when Darin Stevenson set out to finish what he had started.
After months of perfecting his kids’ “play barn,” a playground with hidden doors, swirling slides and running air conditioning, Darin wanted to add one more element.
An engineer at heart, Darin wanted his three kids, Lucy, Collin and Nora, to have a zip line. The zip line would start 25 feet above the ground perfectly angled to land, feet first, on the ground. When the line ended five feet too high, the perfectionist had to have it fixed.
Darin leaned his ladder against the tree, zip line in hand, and climbed.
“I thought I had let out all of the tension in the zip line. I had the line in my hand and it just pulled me off the ladder,” said Darin.
Inside, Erika, Darin’s wife, heard a loud thud and groaning.
