Netflix's Trainwreck docuseries has covered everything from 2013's Carnival "Poop Cruise" to the deadly crowd crush at 2021's Astroworld Music Festival. Now the series turns its lens on one of the most bizarre news stories of the 21st century: 2009's Balloon Boy hoax.
Trainwreck: Balloon Boy revisits the nearly two-hour-long period on Oct. 15, 2009 during which the United States watched, transfixed, as a helium balloon flew over Colorado, reportedly with a 6-year-old child inside.
That child was Falcon Heene, son of Richard and Mayumi Heene. However, he was never in the balloon in the first place. Instead, he was hiding in the attic above the Heenes' garage. Falcon's discovery and the subsequent media storm prompted suspicions that the entire crisis had been a hoax cooked up to bring attention to the Heene family. What happened next, and where is the Heene family now?
Why did people think Balloon Boy was a hoax?
Suspicion that the Balloon Boy incident was a hoax began during an interview with Wolf Blitzer, in which Falcon Heene said he'd heard his parents calling for him while he was in the attic but didn't answer because, "You guys said we did this for the show."
In Trainwreck: Ballon Boy — which features interviews with Richard, Mayumi, and Falcon Heene, as well as his older brother, Bradford — Richard, Mayumi, and Falcon claim that "the show" was in reference to the general amount of media attention the family was receiving at the time.
Other suspicious elements included the family's prior appearance on Wife Swap, which many believed to be a sign that the Heenes wanted celebrity, as well as eyes on Richard's inventions. Then, when Richard released footage of the family's panic once the balloon was airborne, critics denounced their reactions as reality TV-style acting.
What happened to the Heene family?
Richard pled guilty to the felony charge of attempting to influence a law enforcement official and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Mayumi was sentenced to 20 days in jail. The couple also had to pay $36,000 in restitution.
According to Richard and his attorney David Lane, he accepted a plea deal because Mayumi was under threat of deportation to her native Japan. The Larimer County District Attorney's office denied these threats.
In 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis pardoned Richard and Mayumi Heene. "Richard and Mayumi have paid the price in the eyes of the public, served their sentences, and it's time for all of us to move on," Polis said in a statement. "It's time to no longer let a permanent criminal record from the balloon boy saga follow and drag down the parents for the rest of their lives."
Where is the Heene family now?
In the years following the Balloon Boy incident, the Heene family moved to Florida. Richard Heene continued to invent contraptions, including HeeneDuty Truck TransFormer, a robotic device for loading and unloading things from pickup trucks; the Bear Scratch, a wall-mounted back scratcher; and the BlowJab fan, a fan in a plastic box used for cooling genitalia. Of these inventions, only the Bear Scratch is currently being sold.
The Heene sons — Falcon, Ryo, and Bradford — also started a heavy metal band as teenagers. Known as Heene Boyz, the band's songs include "Balloon Boy No Hoax," the video for which features footage from the balloon chase.
Since then, the Heene family has moved into the tiny home business with their Florida-based venture, Craftsman Tiny Homes. According to Craftsman Tiny Homes' website, the entire family is involved.
Is there any new evidence that the Balloon Boy incident was a hoax?
In 2019, Denver magazine 5280 published a feature titled "The Balloon Boy Hoax — Solved!" The article saw staff writer Robert Sanchez catching up with the Heene family as they worked on a renovation project in New Hampton, New York.
During his work on the feature, Sanchez got permission from Mayumi and her attorney Christian Lee to look through her case file. There, he found handwritten notes from Mayumi, including a timeline of the events of the Balloon Boy incident, starting all the way back on April 27, 2009.
The notes mentioned that the Heenes had been pitching a science show, but that it kept being rejected. They also detail the construction of the balloon.
On Oct. 6, Mayumi wrote, as transcribed by Sanchez, "We have a video of Falcon saying, 'I want to get inside of it.'"
On Oct. 14, Mayumi wrote, "Richard mentioned what if Falcon hid for 1/2 hours later and landed... Falcon can hide in the closet with a safe in the basement."
According to Sanchez, these notes were proof of the Heenes' attempts to engineer a hoax. However, since Falcon hid in the attic instead of the basement, as had seemingly been the plan, his parents wound up unable to find him and panicked that he had actually been in the balloon. As Mayumi wrote in an Oct. 18 note about a meeting with their attorneys, "Richard revealed he came down to the basement to look for Falon, but he wasn't there. Richard thought really Falcon would be in the flying saucer."
When Sanchez asked Richard and Mayumi Heene about the timeline, they denied any of it happening. Mayumi claimed she made up the story for her attorney.
