Mystery Swirls 1 Year After 3 Chiefs Fans Were Found Dead Outside: Why Friend Is Still Fighting to Be Publicly Cleared

Mar. 15, 2025

John Picerno has been an attorney for more than 31 years — and he says he’s rarely, if ever,seen a case like the oneinvolving his client Jordan Willis.

It’s been one year since three of Willis’ friends, Clayton McGeeney, David Harrington and Ricky Johnson, were found dead outside Willis’ rental home two days after the group gathered in Kansas City, Mo., to watch a Chiefs game.

The case madenear-instant headlines, as much for the unusual nature of the deaths as for the many key questionsthat have not yet been publicly resolved.

Initial toxicology results showed the menconsumed cocaine and fentanylbefore they died. But the final autopsy reports and official causes of death have not been released, and authorities say the case is very much active.

From left: David Harrington, Clayton McGeeney and Ricky Johnson.Ricky Johnson/Facebook

Ricky Johnson/Facebook

Picerno has maintained Willis has no knowledge of his friends' deaths, and Kansas City police have said “no foul play" was “observed or suspected.” Willis has never been accused of a crime, and Picerno has saidhe believes charges could be broughtagainst whoever supplied drugs that night.

Nonetheless “the investigation remains ongoing,” a police spokesman tells PEOPLE on the one-year anniversary.

David Harrington.David Harrington/Facebook

David Harrington/Facebook

“There has not been any new information released,” the spokesman says, adding, “Investigators and prosecutors remain in touch and investigators have continued to communicate their investigative findings. This remains a death investigation.”

The Platte County district attorney, Eric Zahnd,echoed that toUSA Today, saying: “This case … has been a long and complex investigation, but we will not give up on trying to determine who is responsible for the deaths of these young men."

A spokeswoman for Zahnd told PEOPLE earlier this month that “nothing has been filed as of this date.”

Autopsies have been completed on the three friends and reports have been prepared, according toUSA Today, but those records are under seal. (A representative with the company that, according toUSA Today, performed the postmortems tells PEOPLE they cannot discuss the case.)

The bodies of McGeeney, Harrington and Johnson were found on Jan. 9, 2024, outside the home where Willis was staying.

Picerno previously said that Willis, who worked as a scientist, went to bed after spending time with his friends and last saw them on Jan. 7 of last year when they were leaving his residence. A fifth person, who has not been publicly identified, was also in attendance for some time but left earlier.

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Other details about the timeline remain unclear, and some accounts have shifted and conflicted — making the truth of that night harder to confirm. Willis, Picerno has said, is “unaware of how his friends died” and did not realize their bodies were just outside for two days.

Picerno says now that he feels it’s time for authorities to publicly clear Willis, whom he says can’t get a job.

“They refuse to comment still. And so that’s kind of where we’re at,” Picerno says.

“Obviously, the public still thinks he’s somehow involved in the deaths of these guys. If you [the authorities] know that he didn’t have anything to do with it, why don’t you come out publicly and clear him?” he says.

Clayton McGeeney.Clayton McGeeney/Facebook

Clayton McGeeney/Facebook

The men’s bodies were found on the home’s back porch and in the backyard after McGeeney’s fiancée went looking for him.

“Just the thought of him dying and … him sitting outside in the cold for two days, it’s extremely devastating,” McGeeney’s cousin Caleb previouslytold Fox affiliate WDAF. “The whole family is messed up. He was such a good person.”

Harrington’s dad, Jon, has told PEOPLE that he “loved life. I am incredibly sure that the outcome of this was not intended."

He also said he had concerns about the indications that drugs were involved: “I’m not buying that. I’m not arguing that that was what they found in his system, but how it got into the system, we still don’t know.” (Jon declined to comment further for this story.)

The families of the three men have grappled with the uncertain nature of their deaths and the online speculation and theories that have swirled since.

“I look at everything, no matter how ridiculous it seems,” Johnson’s brother, Jonathan Price, previously told PEOPLE.

But, he said, “I only deal with facts, and I don’t have any of those.”

“If I were to give a hypothesis … for the three men to die in the way that they did, something had to have been in their system,” Price told PEOPLE. “Whether or not it was taken knowingly, I wouldn’t answer that.”

As an attorney for McGeeney’s mother and fiancéesaid to Fox Newslast February, “A lot of these questions may never be answered in a way that makes people satisfied.”

source: people.com