A year after three men were found frozen in their friends’ snowy backyard in Kansas City after an NFL viewing party, their families still have no explanation for their sons’ mysterious deaths.
Clayton McGeeney, 37, Ricky Johnson, 38, and David Harrington, 36, were found dead behind the home of their friend Jordan Willis on January 9, 2023. Two days earlier, the four men had met at the home to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play the Los Angeles Lakers. Angeles Chargers.
In the days before McGeeney’s fiancee found the men’s bodies, Willis could not be reached on the phone and didn’t answer his door, said family members who searched for the three friends who never returned home.
A representative for the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the investigation into the men’s deaths is ongoing. Family members of each of the three men said they still had no update on the case a year later, and Johnson’s mother said she was “heartbroken.”
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David Harrington, Clayton McGeeney and Ricky Johnson were found dead outside their friends’ home in Kansas City, Missouri on January 9, 2024. (Ricky Johnson/Facebook)
“There are no updates or developments,” a source close to Willis said Wednesday. “It’s very frustrating and we don’t know what the holdup is.”
“He’s having a hard time with the anniversary,” the source said. “We thought there would be closure by now.”
Although preliminary autopsy results that family members have shared with the media indicate that fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana were in their systems, the families of the deceased men have questioned Willis’ involvement in what happened, and some have threatened to file lawsuits.
In September, Willis’ attorney, John Picerno, told Fox News Digital that “the allegations [will be] to be released in the next few weeks,” based on “internal conversations” with prosecutors.
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An exterior view of Jordan Willis’ home in Kansas City, Missouri on January 26, 2024. (DWS for Fox News Digital)
“They claim the case is still under investigation,” Picerno said Wednesday. “But as you know, [the] the prosecutor told me a few months ago that my man was acquitted of any guilt in connection with the harming of the other three persons.”
Julie Rendelman, a former prosecutor, told Fox News Digital that if Willis was responsible for the deaths of his friends, “he probably would have been arrested by now.”
In addition, she said that she “would be shocked if a prosecutor’s office promised that no person would be prosecuted, especially if the case is being investigated.”
Family and friends of Clayton McGeeney, left, David Harrington, center, and Ricky Johnson are searching for answers after the three men inexplicably died in sub-zero temperatures outside their friend’s home in Kansas City, Missouri. (Facebook)
“I’m not saying that [Picerno] he’s lying, but none of us were privy to any conversation that took place,” she said on Wednesday.
“It seems to me that there’s room to give some answers without giving them away, even if the answers are ‘we don’t have the answers,'” Rendelman said of the Platte County DA’s office. “It happens – cases go unsolved.”
Defense attorney Ted Williams told Fox News Digital that a year later, the medical examiner should have the full results of the autopsy.
“After getting the autopsy results, which I believe they have all of the results so far, you would think that would be enough to indict someone in connection with the deaths of these three men,” Williams said Wednesday.
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HIV scientist Jordan Willis, 38, checked into rehab after three of his friends were found dead in his backyard on January 9, 2024. (GitHub)
“What’s strange and mysterious is that this is still an open case with the Kansas City Police Department — if they believed this was not a death that was caused by another person, you would think they would have closed this investigation out there, and they didn’t,” Williams said. . “It’s still open, so… it can still be considered a murder… The big question is where is the investigation going?”
But Rendelman noted that while toxicology results and an autopsy are likely complete, the medical examiner may not have been able to determine the cause of death.
Rendelman also said it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Kansas City police detectives are still gathering information on the case. Perhaps they are withholding information from the public so as not to jeopardize that investigation.
“I have had cases as a prosecutor where we have not charged anyone for years,” she said. “We kept them very quiet and close to the vest because we didn’t want outsiders to affect our ability to fully investigate and hold those responsible … they might be concerned that anything they say to the public might affect their ability to investigate this one.”
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“Are there any law enforcement offices that just need more time to investigate things? Yes. Are there any prosecutors’ offices that aren’t as smart at determining what the public needs or doesn’t need to know? Yes,” Rendelman said.
Family members of the men previously told Fox News Digital they intended to take Willis to civil court. Father of David Harrington he told Fox News Digital that he and his son’s mother were “convinced that Jordan Willis was somehow involved in this” and “just [hadn’t] realized how else.”
Rendelman said that in addition to holding someone responsible for their sons’ deaths, the families could get the information they seek through the discovery period of the civil case if the prosecution continues to keep them in the dark.
“Sometimes people sue just to get information — you can get a subpoena, get depositions,” Rendelman said.
“I would have to believe that there will be a civil lawsuit that will bring out more than the public will learn from the criminal investigation,” Williams reiterated.
