KC Chiefs fan deaths: Parents question unresponsiveness of friend

View a timeline of the investigation into Kansas City Chiefs fans’ deaths.

(NewsNation) — The parents of Ricky Johnson are questioning how their son could be lying dead in the backyard of a friend’s house for two days without the homeowner knowing.

Rickie Johnson Sr. and Linda Johnson, the younger Johnson’s stepmother, say the tenant of the home, Jordan Willis, was unresponsive to phone calls and messages in the two days Johnson was missing, and they don’t understand why.

Johnson and two other men — David Harrington and Clayton McGeeney — were found dead Jan. 9, two days after they had gathered at the house to watch a Kansas City Chiefs football game. Police said they do not suspect foul play in the deaths, but families are questioning how that could be.

The bodies were found by McGeeney’s fiancée, who went to the home, banged on the door and then broke into the basement after not hearing from McGeeney. She called police, who arrived later and spoke to Willis.

Linda Johnson said Tuesday on “CUOMO” she questions how Willis wouldn’t have heard somebody banging on his door or breaking into his home.

“I don’t know why he would hear the police and not hear the people that had been there just prior,” Johnson said. “It’s like he’s acting, he’s just trying to seem like ‘I didn’t hear anything before this, and now that the police are here, Oh, I suddenly hear everything that’s going on.'”

Police have reiterated multiple times it is not a homicide investigation. Autopsy and toxicology results are pending.

Ashton Brady, a neighbor to a Kansas City crime scene, recorded video the moment investigators arrived at Willis’ home, about 10 minutes after McGeeney’s fiancée discovered three men’s bodies in the backyard and called 911.

“The police searched the house, went to the backyards, everything, and I had no idea what had happened,” Brady said. “The next morning I saw the news. I just was kind of in disbelief. … I watched that happen.” 

Willis’ attorney told NewsNation last week his client “did nothing wrong” and didn’t check his phone in the two days the three men were missing, which is why he didn’t respond to people’s message inquiring where his friends were.

Nonetheless, the Johnsons told NewsNation they have a meeting with officials at the local prosecutor’s office Wednesday. They did not specify what the meeting is about.

They also said some of their son’s personal belongings were left inside Willis’ home and later returned to them by a friend, not police.

“It just means that (police) weren’t thoroughly looking everything over in the house,” Linda Johnson said.