Kansas City Chiefs fans’ deaths: Victims’ families at odds over ‘angry’ speculation, lawyer says

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“Angry, speculative” theories espoused by family members of three Kansas City Chiefs fans found dead in their friend’s snowy backyard have compromised the “dignity” of the investigation into their deaths, according to an attorney representing Clayton McGeeney’s mother and fiancée. 

McGeeney, Ricky Johnson and David Harrington were found dead on their friend Jordan Willis’ property Jan. 9, two days after they watched the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers at the home.

Although Tony Kagay said drugs were detected in the men’s systems, according to preliminary toxicology results shared with their loved ones by police, he could not confirm which drugs were detected. 

Although the Kansas City Police Department was quick to announce that their deaths were “100 percent not being investigated as homicides,” relatives of Johnson and Harrington have suggested that party host Willis played an active role in their deaths. 

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David Harrington, Clayton McGeeney and Ricky Johnson were found dead outside their friend’s Kansas City home Jan. 9, 2024. (Ricky Johnson/Facebook)

Meanwhile, McGeeney’s cousin, Caleb McGeeney, told NewsNation that Willis, an HIV scientist who went to Park Hill South High School, “is the chemist.”

“They all knew him as that,” he said, according to NewsNation. “It was easy for them to go have fun, but he f—ed up. He made a mistake.”

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Kagay represents Clayton McGeeney’s mother, Nancy Bossert, and his fiancee, April Mahoney, who discovered one of the men’s bodies after breaking into Willis’ house out of worry and desperation. Kagay said Wednesday “whipping people up into a frenzy isn’t in [his client’s] interests.” 

In an earlier interview, Kagay said it would be “very hard to explain” how Willis could “not realize what happened to his friends” when they were “frozen in his backyard for two days.” However, he said, it is important to “let professionals do their work” and this time should be about “finding out what happened.”

The family of Clayton McGeeney, pictured, is anxiously awaiting the results of the Kansas City Police Department’s investigation into his death, says his family’s attorney, Tony Kagay. (Facebook)

“I think it would be fair to say some of the more vocal members of Clayton’s family may not have Clayton’s best interests at heart,” Kagay said about interviews other McGeeney relatives have given the press. 

“Some of the families who have come out as aggressive or hostile with law enforcement, I think that was premature,” Kagay said.

“Nancy would prefer the kinds of angry, speculating statements that are coming from some of the family members, if those wouldn’t happen, so the investigation could proceed in a dignified manner,” he continued. “Let’s wait to find out what the police say happened and what the prosecutor chooses to do with that.”

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However, Kagay could sympathize with those striving for answers amid a minefield of unanswered questions surrounding the case.

“A lot of these TikTok sleuths and people on the internet, people are getting all worked up thinking, ‘This is b——-, there’s no way [Willis] didn’t know these guys were around,” he said. “There are still a lot of unanswered questions and understandable skepticism as far as an explanation for how this happened.”

HIV scientist Jordan Willis, 38, checked himself into a rehab center after his three friends were found dead in his backyard Jan. 9, 2024. (GitHub)

Kagay said there has also been “disappointment” over the way the Kansas City Police Department immediately ruled out foul play in statements to the press about the men’s deaths.

“I don’t think they were in a position to say that. Clearly there is an ongoing investigation,” Kagay said. “I just don’t know how they made that determination, and I don’t know that was helpful to say … when you say there was no sign of foul play, there was no gunshot, no stab wound. But it doesn’t mean that there wasn’t something that occurred was illegal. … I don’t know that was handled in the ideal manner.

“I’m not saying that anybody did anything intentional,” Kagay said. “[But] I don’t think that it would be required for there to be criminal liability.”

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He also said that some of the department’s communications have been “a bit inartful.” 

“I don’t think they did anything wrong, but the situation would be clearer if they had communicated better,” Kagay said. 

However, his clients are “supportive” of the KCPD.

“When we get to the end of that, maybe they have some criticisms for how things are handled, at the end of the process,” Kagay said. 

Family and friends of Clayton McGeeney, left; David Harrington, center; and Ricky Johnson are clamoring for answers after the three men inexplicably died in freezing temperatures outside their friend’s Kansas City home. (Facebook)

When full autopsy and toxicology reports are available and police complete their forensic investigation of electronic devices — at least two of the men’s families have been asked for their son’s phone passwords — the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office will decide whether criminal charges should be filed against Willis or Alex Weamer-Lee, a fifth party guest who left the house alive Jan. 7.

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This view shows the backyard and porch of Jordan Willis’ home in Kansas City Jan. 26, 2024. (DWS for Fox News Digital)

Last week, representatives from the families of Harrington, Johnson and McGeeney met with the prosecutor’s office. Kagay said “prosecutors wanted the family to know this situation was being investigated thoroughly” and that they would “cooperate with the families in the future.”

“There are still a lot of unanswered questions and understandable skepticism as far as an explanation for how this happened,” Kagay said. “There are attempts being made to resolve those questions.

“A lot of these questions may never be answered in a way that makes people satisfied.”

But McGeeney’s family is patiently awaiting police findings until more information is released, and “their position is that we don’t know if [an investigation was] done appropriately or inappropriately because we don’t know how it was done.”

“There are still a lot of unanswered questions and understandable skepticism as far as an explanation for how this happened.”

— Tony Kagay

KCPD Capt. Jake Becchina, though, told Fox News Digital that he never said the case “wasn’t a homicide.”

“We said it was not being investigated as a homicide,” he said Thursday. “Some media outlets were calling it at the time a ‘homicide investigation,’ so that statement was made to ensure that media outlets categorized it as what it was correctly.

“It was and remains a death investigation. That does not mean that if new or different evidence comes forward that the course of the investigation cannot change.
Investigations change course all the time.”

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“I’m sorry for Mr. Kagay’s disappointment,” he added. “We aim to provide the most factual and transparent information to the public in any investigation. This case is no different.”

Christina Coulter is a U.S. and World reporter for Fox News Digital. Email story tips to christina.coulter@fox.com.