The best friend of three Kansas City Chiefs fans who were found frozen in a backyard after a watch party has been arrested alongside another man more than a year after the case baffled authorities and family members.
Ricky Johnson, 38, David Harrington, 37, and Clayton McGeeney, 36, were last seen alive watching the final regular season Chiefs game on January 7, 2024 – a full two days before their bodies were discovered.
Jordan Willis, 39, the scientist friend who owned the home, and Ivory J. Carson, 42, have finally been charged in connection with the mysterious deaths, Kansas City police said Wednesday.
They are facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and delivery of a controlled substance except 25 grams or less or marijuana or synthetic cannabinoid, the Kansas City Star reports.
Willis has previously denied any involvement in his friend’s deaths, saying he went to bed in the early morning hours of January 8 and did not know his friends were still in the backyard.
He also claimed he did not see any of the numerous messages from his friends’ loved ones until police showed up at his house two days later because he was sleeping with headphones on.
But for months, friends and family members had suspected Willis knew more about his friend’s deaths than he had let on as they demanded answers from the police department, which kept mum about the case, only saying officers did not believe the men’s deaths were the result of foul play.
They now say Carson – who went by the nickname ‘Blade Brown’ – supplied and sold cocaine to Willis and the victims, noting that his DNA was later found on a bag of fentanyl inside Willis’ home.
Officers also spoke to a witness who told investigators he had been at Harrington’s home earlier in the night, and saw a ‘plate of cocaine allegedly supplied by Willis that everyone was using,’ Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Another witness reportedly told police he was with Willis, McGeeney, Harrington and Johnson at Willis’ home following the Chiefs game ‘where they drank, smoked marijuana and used cocaine.’
That witness said Harrington, McGeeney and Jonson were still alive as of 1.30am, while Willis had gone to bed, according to KSN.
But for nearly two days afterward, friends and family members said they did not hear from Harrington, Johnson and McGeeney as they repeatedly messaged Willis on social media begging for answers.
By January 9, McGeeney’s fiancée decided to break into Willis’ basement when the scientist did not answer the front door.
She called police when she noticed a body on Willis’ back porch. Officers then found the other two corpses.
A toxicology report ultimately determined that the three men had cocaine, THC and fentanyl in their systems, and on Wednesday police declared that they died of ‘fentanyl and cocaine toxicity.’
Yet that news still failed to assuage family members who said the men must have been plied with the drugs.
Harrington’s parents, Jon and Theresa, for example, noted that ‘somebody gave them something that would kill them.’
‘What matters is that he didn’t take that to die… It just means that there’s more to the story, there’s more to it than just that,’ the grieving mother told Chris Cuomo when asked about the report. ‘He didn’t take that to die. if he took the drugs on his own, he took them to get high.’
Johnson’s brother Jonathan Price, also said the case did not add up.
He said that he heard the owner of the home had animals that would need to go outside, and claimed the city didn’t get enough snow to submerge the men for them to be hidden for days.
‘There’s many different things that don’t add up, we just don’t understand how somebody would at least be investigated in any way,’ he said.
‘We’ve heard that he’s moving out as well, so we don’t know if he’ll even be sticking around much longer.’
Amid the suspicion, Willis moved out of his Kansas City home and enrolled in a rehabilitation program.
Court documents now say Willis told police the men had been drinking and smoking marijuana at his house, and at one point he thought they may have obtained some fentanyl as well.
Meanwhile, police found text messages on Harrington’s phone between the suspects, McGeeney, Johnson and others that they said proved that Carson supplied them with cocaine.
Those messages also allegedly confirmed one witness’s account that when the group was low on cash, McGeeney, Harrington and Johnson would supply them with cocaine, according to court documents obtained by the Star.
Carson ultimately admitted to selling cocaine by the gram to the trio in police interviews in July 2024 and just last month, court documents say.
‘This case is a tragic reminder of the dangers of street drugs,’ Zahnd said at the news conference.
‘But make no mistake, the people that supply those drugs can and will be held accountable when people overdose.’
Carson is now being held in jail on a $100,000 cash bond, while police say Willis will surrender himself to authorities and post his $100,000 cash bond, according to KSN.
They both face a maximum of 10 years behind bars for the deaths.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Willis’ attorney for comment. It remains unclear whether Carson has retained an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
