Parents of Chiefs fan found frozen to death allege trio was drugged before dying in friend's yard
Two of the victims' parents say they believe host Jordan Willis drugged and dragged the three men outside; police have said the deaths, later ruled fentanyl and cocaine toxicity, show no sign of foul play.
The parents of Ricky Johnson, one of three Kansas City Chiefs fans found frozen to death in a friend's backyard, say they believe the men were drugged and dragged outside, according to a New York Post report. David Harrington, 37, Clayton McGeeney, 36, and Ricky Johnson, 38, had gathered at Jordan Willis' rental home around 7 p.m. on January 7, 2024, to watch the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers. Willis told investigators the group left his home around 4 a.m. on January 8; the men's bodies were discovered in the backyard days later by McGeeney's fiancée, April Mahoney, after he was reported missing.
Forensic examination ultimately determined all three died of combined fentanyl and cocaine toxicity, per the reporting. Kansas City police have said there is no sign of foul play in the deaths, though at the time this story was reported, no cause of death had yet been publicly finalized and the case remained under scrutiny.
The coverage reviewed does not establish what evidence, if any, supports the parents' theory beyond their own stated reasoning; the New York Post report frames the drugging and dragging claim explicitly as the parents' belief, not a finding of investigators.
The parents' account
Ricky Johnson Sr., the victim's father, said: "I believe he drugged them, dragged them outside and waited two days to call police." He argued his son would not have gone outside without a coat to freeze, and questioned why the men did not force their way back inside: "You're talking about three grown men. If he was out there just freezing like they said, he could've kicked out a window to get into the house."
My thoughts are that he concocted something and gave it to all three men.
Norma Chester, Ricky Johnson's mother, offered that theory while also acknowledging its limits: "Seriously, these were responsible men. How do they go in a backyard and freeze to death, all three of them?" Both parents, per the reporting, acknowledged they were speculating rather than citing evidence.
What it signals
The gap between the parents' public suspicion and police's public position — no foul play suspected — is itself the story at this stage: a family publicly building a narrative of deliberate harm around a household chemist nickname ("the scientist"/"the chemist") while investigators had not yet confirmed a cause of death. That gap would only close more than a year later, when Willis and a second man, Ivory Carson, were charged with involuntary manslaughter and drug distribution — charges consistent with toxicity, not the intentional-drugging narrative the parents described here.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by the New York Post (via syndication) and later Fox News reporting on the case's resolution. It restores a story originally published on this site in early 2024; figures are as reported at the time.