Four men watched the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Los Angeles Chargers on January 7. It ended up killing three of them. It’s a bizarre story, one in which lawyers have become involved, which has curbed the flow of information regarding how three men could freeze to death outside, and no one knew about it for two days. What was the fourth friend doing in that 48-72-hour period? The odd part is that the fourth man claims not to have known his three friends had frozen to death outside.
Ricky Johnson, 38, Clayton McGeeney, 36, and David Harrington, 37, were discovered by Kansas City police on January 9. Two things tipped off the authorities that something was amiss. Communications from one of the men’s fiancés went unanswered, while another didn’t show up for work at their family’s construction business. All three men went to the home of Jordan Willis, whose home was searched twice by police. No warrant was needed; Willis, a scientist, allowed them onto the premises.
The families of the victims are frustrated over the lack of details, with some wondering if Willis drugged the men and left them to die. While the whole story hasn’t been pieced together, some family members are raising eyebrows at some details, like one of the men going outside willingly without his coat for an extended period. Why didn’t one of them break a window to regain entry into the residence if things were amiss?
Neighbors are reportedly shocked and disturbed since they heard no sounds of distress around the time the men succumbed to the elements. To make things more suspicious for Willis, he moved out of the home after the discovery of the bodies. Police have been adamant upfront that this isn’t a homicide investigation (via Fox News):
The last contact the men made with their loved ones was on Jan. 7, when they joined a group at the Northwest 83rd Terrace home of their friend Jordan Willis to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play against the Los Angeles Chargers.
According to the victim's families, Willis met officers at the door in his boxers with an empty wine glass in hand – his attorney, John Picerno, told Fox News Digital it contained water and had been refilled after holding wine the night before.
In the 48 hours prior, the families claimed, Willis had ignored repeated emails, Facebook messages, texts, phone calls and knocks at his door. Willis' attorney claimed he went to sleep on the night of Jan. 7 with Johnson, McGeeney, Harrington and a fourth man still awake inside.
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"There’s no allegation of any animosity between Jordan and his three friends," Picerno told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. "People want to speculate – [but] it’s not like anyone ever called the police saying ‘we’re afraid of this Jordan guy.'"
Picerno said that two of the three men had been friends with Willis since high school, while the third was a close friend for about four years.
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Johnson, a father of three, never showed up for work at his father's construction company that Monday – at that point, Rickie Johnson Sr. told Fox News Digital, his family worked to find the address where his son watched the game.
Meanwhile, Johnson's family and friends on social media claim one of the men's fiancées had broken into Willis' house after repeated attempts to reach him and answered knocks at his door. There, she found one of the men's bodies and called police to the scene.
Johnson Sr is the one who lobbed the allegation that Willis might have drugged the men. On his part, Mr. Willis claimed to have worn noise-cancelling headphones and had a loud fan blasting, which prevented him from hearing any signs of distress, if any, along with a concerned woman who had broken into the house. That woman was reportedly Clayton McGeeney’s fiancé.
Johnson’s father also said he’s not naïve: his son probably had a few drinks that night but wasn’t irresponsible. He also said his son would “never would have gone outside without a coat”:
The bereaved father said that he was one of several concerned friends and relatives who called Willis on the men's behalf before he arrived at the house. But Willis' attorney denied that claim in an interview with Fox News Digital.
"The thing that strikes me that’s strange about that is that none of those people called him on his cellphone," Picerno said. "One of them, I believe it was the fiancée, did send him a message on Facebook Messenger. But he didn’t receive it until after police had."
Picerno said his client did not hear knocks at his door before police arrived because he was sleeping with noise-canceling headphones and a loud fan. Willis also didn't hear when the concerned woman broke into his house, Picerno said.
And, as Fox News reported, there was a fifth man in this house? Fox4KC delved into that detail, which was publicized two weeks after the deaths of these three men:
They were found dead in their friends backyard two days after watching the Kansas City Chiefs last regular season game on Jan. 7.
“It’s got a lot of holes in it, like last time he saw them they were leaving the house, but he didn’t know they had left, that doesn’t make much sense,” Caleb McGeeney said.
In a Saturday statement Picerno released on behalf of Willis, Picerno said the last time Willis saw the three men was when they left the house and he went to bed.
He’s changed that story. Now he claims Willis went to sleep while the three victims and the fifth man continued to hangout in his home.
“When he would have people over at his house, yes sometimes as people, they get tired, they’re people that are very close to you and you feel comfortable going to bed and allowing them to leave when they want to leave,” Picerno said.
Picerno said Willis never left his home once he got back home Sunday. That’s why he didn’t notice the victims’ cars were still there.
Picerno also claims that his client didn’t hear anyone banging on the doors over two days, nor did he hear Clayton McGeeney’s fiancée break in and scream his name but minutes later he heard police knock on the door.
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“Somebody has to end up in custody over it regardless of any situation. They are at your house and three people are dead,” Caleb said.
The next big piece will be the toxicology report on the three men.