Jordan Willis, the Kansas City Chiefs watch party host whose friends were found mysteriously dead in his snowy backyard, is considering a defamation lawsuit against the men's families after they publicly aired their theories that he was involved in his friends' deaths, a source close to him said.
Meanwhile, as the men's families await answers about their loved ones' deaths, the father of David Harrington said his family intends to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
"There will be a wrongful death lawsuit and a private investigator will more than likely be part of that," Harrington's father, Jon Harrington, told People.
Harrington, 37, Clayton McGeeney, 36, and Ricky Johnson, 38, were discovered frozen and dead behind Willis' home on Jan. 9, two days after they were all last seen alive inside the house watching the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers.
David Harrington, Clayton McGeeney and Ricky Johnson were found dead outside their friend's Kansas City home on Jan. 9, 2024. (Ricky Johnson/Facebook)
The elder Harrington told the outlet that the Kansas City Police Department read him the results of his son's preliminary toxicology report saying that fentanyl and cocaine were found in his son's body. Those results have not yet been made public.
Harrington told People that he did not disagree with the test's findings, but was "not buying" that his son took those substances of his own volition:
"He loved life," the elder Harrington said of his son. "I am incredibly sure that the outcome of this was not intended."
"I believe he intended to get drunk," he says. "And particularly at his age, I couldn’t blame him. Couldn’t stop him. There’s none of that. But the [drugs] – 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."
The police department has said there is no foul play suspected in their deaths, telling Fox News Digital that they are "100 percent not being investigated as homicide[s]."
Jon Harrington, left, and his son David. (Provided by Jon Harrington)
However, the men's loved ones have come forward with theories that Willis played
HIV scientist Jordan Willis, 38, checked himself into a rehab center after his three friends were found dead in his backyard Jan. 9, 2024. (GitHub)
Johnson's mother previously told Fox News Digital that she feared Willis had "concocted something and gave it to all three men," while the 38-year-old's father said he "[believed Willis] drugged them, dragged them outside and waited two days to call police."
Willis' attorney, John Picerno, has said that his client was unaware that his friends needed help in his backyard, and he had no idea that they were dead in his backyard until police arrived there on the evening of Jan. 9.
An exterior view of the backyard and porch of Jordan Willis’s home in Kansas City, Missouri, on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. The bodies of Willis’ three friends – Ricky Johnson, Clayton McGeeney, and David Harrington – were found in Willis’ backyard, with one body found on the porch, on Jan. 9, 2024, two days after attending a Kansas City Chiefs watch party at the home. (DWS for Fox News Digital)
McGeeney's fiancée called authorities to the scene after she broke onto Willis' property after unanswered attempts to reach Willis and unanswered knocks on his door. She found one of the men's bodies outside.
A source close to Willis told Fox News Digital on Monday that the HIV scientist, who has since moved out of his Kansas City home and spent a stint in a rehab facility, "has been left with no choice but to consider slander and defamation suits against these families, friends and significant others who have baselessly accused him in a smear campaign on every public forum willing to give them a platform to blame and point fingers."
Family and friends of Clayton McGeeney, left, David Harrington, center, and Ricky Johnson are clamoring for answers after the three men inexplicably died in freezing temperatures outside their friend's Kansas City, Missouri, home. (Facebook)
"The latest news story regarding a wrongful death lawsuit is a completely shameless attempt to get more attention when nothing else has even been released yet by the police department," the source said.
"I recognize these families are grief stricken, but grief is not an open-ended excuse to say whatever you want publicly without repercussion, and they've completely crossed the line," they said on Willis' behalf. "Not only have their wild accusations changed as more details were released by the police department, from the beginning, they've allowed themselves to get caught up in the TikTok theories and internet conspiracists trying to turn this into a TV drama."
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The families "refusing to accept that their sons could have possibly done drugs willingly" are "completely reckless," the source said. "It's not OK for them to try to ruin Jordan's life and reputation forever simply because they aren't able to accept the possibility that their loved ones voluntarily partook in behavior that cost them their lives."
The source said Willis "looks forward to having the opportunity to be able to clear his name."
