Six months ago, a group of friends in Kansas City, Missouri, gathered to kick it and watch a Chiefs game, which ended in three men going missing for 48 hours and then all found frozen to death in the one surviving friend’s backyard as he slept.
The body of Lorie Kruse’s longtime boyfriend, 37-year-old David Harrington, and his high school friends Ricky Johnson, 38, and Clayton McGeeney, 36, were discovered frozen in the backyard of Jordan Willis’ Kansas City home on Jan. 9 after an NFL watch party at the home. The three men were last seen alive inside the house two days prior, watching the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers.
Families Want Answers
As of July, the families of those three dead men are frustrated and still searching for answers and feel like investigators are ignoring them.
According to WDAF, the new outlet was previously told that medical examiner reports were holding up the investigation.
Yet nearly six months after the reports were certified, all three families have struggled to get any additional information out of police or the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office except confirmation that this is an open investigation.
Based upon prior reporting, the police have admitted that drug use was involved. Autopsy results showed that each had fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid, in their systems, which would explain how they fell asleep long enough to freeze to death. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the overdose death rate for 2023 was 112,000 people, a new record.
Is Case Closed? Families Still Feel Nefarious Activity Led To Deaths
It doesn’t help that the families of the victims suggested that they died because of the nefarious actions of the homeowner, who despite having a clear view of his backyard claimed he fell asleep for two days and never realized his friends were outside.
It prevents them from accepting the tragedy and moving on. It seems the police have.
“Through this whole thing I’ve had a hard time getting anybody to answer me,” Jennifer Marquez, the mother of David Harrington, said. Jim McGeeney, the uncle of Clayton McGeeney, added: “My nephew died a tragic death along with two of his friends and nobody is being held accountable.”
In fact, after reaching out for months to the prosecutor’s office, WDAF news was told there was “nothing more to talk about (with) this case at this time. (Platte County Prosecutor Eric) Zahnd is not commenting on phone or otherwise about it until the investigation is complete.”
A lawyer close to the families told NewsNation that due to the time that has passed and the lack of communication from police and prosecutors, it leads him to believe charges may never come.
Will Jordan Willis Be Charged?
The family wants someone to pay for the death of their loved ones, but at this point, police don’t seem motivated to charge anyone with a crime. It appears this will be left as an unforeseen and terrible tragedy.
Preliminary Medical Reports Show Fentanyl Levels at 30
According to Fox 4, preliminary toxicology reports were released to the families in January, showing high levels of cocaine and fentanyl in the systems of the three men.
“The family source says level 10 fentanyl is enough to kill,” according to the source. “The #KansasCity3 were at level 30.”
NewsNation reporter Alex Caprariello later reported that the details have now been confirmed by a second family member.
“Yes, our office finalized cause and manners of death for all three of the referenced decedents,” said Kelsie Gwartney, the chief of investigations and administrator at Forensic Medical of Kansas in a statement.
However, the medical examiner has also refused to release the official cause and manner of the men’s deaths, even to their parents.
Family Says Foul Play Was Involved
Willis, the homeowner, who has relocated since describing his experience after the incident as uncomfortable, says he has no idea what happened to his friends and didn’t speak to them.
Kruse and the family members of the deceased still insist there is foul play involved. She says her boyfriend wasn’t a drug user and says murder is the only answer.
Kansas City Police completely ruled out homicide being investigated as a cause of death for the three men early in the investigation.
Kruse, however, insisted in an interview with News Nation’s Chris Cuomo that Harrington’s death was not an accident.
“David was murdered,” she told Cuomo. “Those three guys were murdered.”
Jordan Willis Was Sleeping, Doesn’t Know How His Guests Died
“I don’t know if Jordan gave them something like they’re talking about,” Kruse continued. “David wasn’t a drug addict like they’re talking about… David didn’t do stuff like that.”
“Maybe they did take something because they were drinking,” she continued. “But I know David wouldn’t have taken it.”
Willis is lawyered up, and his attorney, John Picerno, told Fox News that his client was sleeping for much of the period between allegedly escorting his friends out of his house after the Chiefs game on Jan. 7 and police knocking at his door around 8:51 p.m. on Jan. 9 after finding the bodies on his property.
According to reports, McGeeney’s fiancée contacted police on Jan. 9 after finding one of the bodies on Willis’ back porch. She broke onto the property after McGeeney failed to return her calls and texts and no one answered the door.
“It does not make any sense to have three men dead, laying in the yard and [Willis] asleep for 48 hours,” Kruse told Cuomo.
She had plenty of things to say about Willis despite never meeting him personally.
“I’ve heard a lot of terrible things about him,” she said. “I don’t know the truth in it … David never had a conversation about Jordan.”
She also told Cuomo that Willis was “on drugs” but didn’t say what kind.
As the families of the deceased Chiefs fans continue to search for answers, police and medical examiners seem to be content with the results, another tragic end because of fentanyl.