The homeowner whose three friends were found dead in his backyard in Kansas City says he didn’t know their bodies were behind his house.
Ricky Johnson, 38, David Harrington, 37, and Clayton McGeeney, 36, were found dead on Jan. 9 outside the home of Jordan Willis. The fiancee of one of the dead men broke into the home and made the discovery, the Kansas City Police Department told the Kansas City Star.
The trio visited the home on Jan. 7 to watch a Kansas City Chiefs game.
Mr. Willis has not been charged with any crimes and police said there were no obvious signs of foul play, with a medical examination pending to determine the causes of death.
“Jordan is unaware of how his friends died,” Mr. Willis’ attorney, John Picerno, told the Kansas City Star in a statement. “Like the rest of us, Jordan is anxiously awaiting the results of the autopsy and toxicology report.”
Mr. Picerno said that Mr. Willis last saw the dead men when they left his house following the game, and that he did not hear people come to his house looking for the victims because he sleeps underneath a fan with noise-canceling headphones on, according to the Kansas City Star.
“He was asleep. He was asleep on the couch. The last memory he has is of them leaving [through] the front door, he doesn’t know what happened with them, until you know, when the police came Tuesday night to his house,” Mr. Picerno told The New York Post.
Mr. Picerno also said that Mr. Willis did not see a Facebook message from the wife of one of the deceased until after police contacted him, and that he had not received texts or calls in the days prior to the discovery, according to the Kansas City Star.
A fifth person at the house that night told WDAF-TV that he left the residence at around midnight. Mr. Willis and the victims were still awake at that point, watching “Jeopardy!,” the man’s attorney Andrew Talge told WDAF-TV.
Mr. Talge also disputed the claims made about what messages Mr. Willis received.
McGeeney’s fiancee and Johnson’s mother contacted the unnamed man Tuesday asking about their loved ones, and the man then contacted Mr. Willis and Johnson without receiving a response. Mr. Talge told WDAF-TV.
Two cars owned by the victims also remained parked outside Mr. Willis’ house in the two days between the game and discovery of their bodies. Mr. Willis did not notice the cars because it is typical for his friends’ vehicles to remain parked there overnight, Mr. Picerno told USA Today.
The victims’ families contend that Mr. Willis had ignored emails, calls, texts, Facebook messages and knocks at the door, and further claimed that he had opened the door to police in his boxers holding an empty wine glass, according to Fox News.
Johnson’s mother Norma Chester told Fox News, “My thoughts are that he concocted something and gave it to all three men.” His father Ricky Johnson Sr. told the outlet that he believes Mr. Willis “drugged them, dragged them outside and waited two days to call police.”
Mr. Willis is a data scientist at IAVI, a nonprofit that works on vaccines for infectious diseases. His attorney denounced the claims by the victim’s families as baseless, and said the wine glass was filled with water when police arrived.
“The No. 1 thing that people need to remember from our point of view is that these were his three buddies. If they were in danger, he would’ve helped them. … He’s a scientist, and somehow he’s to blame? That’s an opinion not based in fact,” Mr. Picerno told Fox News.
Other loved ones of the dead just want answers.
“I’m not looking for anyone’s head or anything, but my cousin was frozen to the dirt for two days … it just seems strange,” McGeeney’s cousin Alan McGeeney told KCTV-TV.