Timeline: Death of 3 Kansas City Chiefs fans raises questions
- Three men were found dead outside of a Kansas City home
- Homeowner says they froze to death — family has doubts
- Police say no foul play involved, not investigating as homicide
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(NewsNation) — Families and friends of three men found dead outside of a home in January in Northland, Kansas want answers from police.
All three men, fans of the Kansas City Chiefs, had gathered to watch a football game at their friend’s house. Just days later, though, their bodies were located in the residence’s backyard.
The homeowner, who has not been charged and has been cooperating with police, says the men froze to death — but family and friends told NewsNation affiliate WDAF that this is one of many details that doesn’t add up for them.
Police confirmed to NewsNation in January that they were not investigating this case as a homicide. Family sources told WDAF in February that police received the men’s toxicology report and that the men had drugs in their systems including cocaine and fentanyl.
Here’s a timeline of what we have learned since their deaths:
Initial gathering
Jan. 7, 2024
David Harrington, 37, 38-year-old Ricky Johnson and 36-year-old Clayton McGeeney went to a friend’s house to watch the Kansas City Chiefs game. The game kicked off at 3:25 p.m. CT and ended almost exactly three hours later, according to a post on the team’s social media pages. For the next fifty hours or so, loved ones heard nothing from the three men.
Victims Found
Jan. 9, 2024
McGeeny’s fiancée showed up at the home and started banging on the door but no one answered. She broke through the basement, found one man dead on the back porch and called the police, who found the two other men also deceased in the backyard.
Police issued a statement the next morning saying they found no obvious signs of foul play. A search warrant wasn’t required to enter the residence because of the homeowner’s cooperation, the statement said.
Jan. 12, 2024
The three victims’ bodies are identified.
Ongoing investigation
Jan. 18, 2024
Jacob Becchina, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department, sent NewsNation a statement saying the next phase in the investigation would be to receive the medical examiners’ determination of a cause of death.
“That would be the thing that would drive any additional investigative steps,” Becchina said. “There is no change in the preliminary investigative findings. There have not been any indications of foul play.”
Autopsies were conducted on all three men Tuesday and their results are pending, a medical examiner spokesperson told USA TODAY.
WDAF tried multiple times to reach out to the homeowner to no avail.
Jan. 19, 2024
The homeowner’s attorney told NewsNation his client had “no idea” his friends’ bodies were in his backyard. He added there was nothing his client would do to harm them.
“He doesn’t use that particular door. He goes out in the front,” attorney John Picerno told NewsNation host Dan Abrams. “He had absolutely no knowledge they were out there. They were his friends. They were at his house socializing. If he had found them there, or if they were in danger, he would have called the police and tried to help them.”
Jan. 29, 2024
A police spokesperson reiterated to PEOPLE magazine in a statement that the case “remains a death investigation and nothing more.”
“We still have no evidence or indication of foul play, no one is in police custody,” she said.”
Video footage recorded by a neighbor to the Kansas City house was obtained by NewsNation. It shows the moment investigators showed up at the residence, ten minutes after McGeeny’s fiancée discovered the three men’s bodies.
Feb. 1, 2024
Kansas City authorities receive the toxicology report in the deaths of Harrington, McGeeney and Johnson, according to family sources. The report revealed the men had drugs in their systems including cocaine and fentanyl.
The victims’ family members told NewsNation affiliate WDAF that they learned that police received the report, and Kansas City police confirmed they have been in contact with the families.
“There have been no additional details of this case revealed to any media, nor are there any plans to at this time. The case remains an ongoing death investigation,” a Kansas City Police Department spokesperson said.
Tony Kagay, the attorney for the family of McGeeney, says the report is “just the first step” in finding out what happened to the three men. Kagay prefaced his comments by saying he has not personally seen the report, which has not yet been officially released by police.
Autopsies are still pending to determine the cause of death. That could take several more weeks, according to the medical examiner.
Unanswered questions
Key issues that people want clarity on include: Did these three men actually freeze to death? Why was the homeowner allegedly ignoring someone banging on his door? And what evidence did police have to almost immediately rule out a homicide investigation?
Johnson’s mother, Norma Chester, said the man who lived in the house should at the very least be investigated but told NewsNation she feels the police aren’t doing anything to advance the case.
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 on “CUOMO”. “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.’”
His brother, Jonathan Price, said there are “many things that don’t add up.”
Although Johnson, Harrington and McGeeney had been inseparable, Price said he did not know the person whose house they were found at.
“I don’t like to speculate very much,” Price said. “But my brother was a smart man, and there’s no way that he would just freeze to death. Freezing to death is not a cause of death that I would accept.”
Harrington’s mother Jennifer Marquez said she’s furious.
“Nobody believes this story. None of his friends, none of the families, none of us believe it,” Marquez said.
Family Reactions
“I would like to know that someone is really working on this case,” Harrington’s grandmother Marilyn Wingate told NewsNation. “I don’t see how it could have been an accident. There are too many holes that are not filled in, too many questions.”
Marquez said in an interview with WDAF that losing her son was the “most devastating moment” of her life.
“I was at work, and I just never thought I’d be one of those people that would respond the way I did,” she said. “I collapsed, I think. I don’t remember.”
Her son, Marquez recalled, was the “funniest guy ever.”
“He would tell a joke or just he’d act silly, and he’d have the whole room laughing and everybody missing that,” she said.
Alan McGeeney, Clayton McGeeney’s cousin, said in the Kansas City Star that his relative had worked to better himself for the last decade. As an adult, Clayton McGeeney was into motorcycles and traveled the country, and would take trips to the West Coast, carrying with him only a backpack.
“He was on a good path,” Alan McGeeney said to the newspaper. “He cared about that.”
Chester said Johnson had been a loving son, father, brother and uncle.