Drugs a possibility in grisly Kansas City Chiefs fan freeze deaths outside home, doctor says

A doctor has speculated that opioids may have played a role in the death of three football fans who froze to death in their mate’s back yard.

David Harrington (second left), Clayton McGeeney (second right) and Ricky Johnson (right) are pictured with two unidentified fellow Chiefs fans. Ricky Johnson / Facebook

A doctor says it’s “plausible” the three Chiefs fans who tragically died in their friend’s backyard on a freezing Kansas City night had been exposed to some kind of drug, contributing to their bizarre demise.

“It’s one thing for a person to tragically end up in a snowdrift after leaving a bar. But it’s a completely different story for three people to end up dead sitting on somebody’s back porch after a party,” Dr. Caleb Alexander, an epidemiologist with Johns Hopkins University, told The Post.

“The fact that there’s three individuals really heightens the curiosity and the tragedy of this case and, I think, increases the likelihood that something more than moderate amounts of alcohol were at play here,” he added.

David Harrington (second left), Clayton McGeeney (second right) and Ricky Johnson (right) are pictured with two unidentified fellow Chiefs fans. Ricky Johnson / Facebook

In the baffling case, Clayton McGeeney, 36, David Harrington, 37, and Ricky Johnson, 38, were found dead and frozen solid in the backyard of their friend Jordan Willis’ house on January 9 — two days after the group had supposedly left after watching a Kansas City Chiefs game on January 7.

Police found the bodies after McGeeny’s fiancé requested a welfare check when he never returned home that Sunday, and Willis failed to respond to inquiries and people calling at his door.

When police arrived, Willis reportedly answered with a wine glass in his hand, and claimed he had no idea his friends were dead in his backyard.

Willis’ attorney, John Picerno, said his client had been sleeping near a loud fan and wearing noise-cancelling headphones for two days as his friends’ families frantically tried to reach him and locate them.

Dr. Caleb Alexander said it was “plausible” the Chiefs fans were exposed to some kind of drug. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Jordan Willis’ house in Kansas City. fox4kc

Willis co-operated with police from the moment they became involved and they have said he is not under any suspicion, the deaths are not suspicious and no foul play is suspected.

Dr. Alexander, who specialises in drug use and safety, said the circumstances looked like the result of a dangerous combination of opioid-like drugs and alcohol they could have been “either intentionally or unintentionally” exposed to.

“It certainly could be consistent with opioids, benzodiazepines, antihistamines, barbiturates, muscle relaxants,” he said, noting all he could do was speculate until toxicology reports came back.

Willis is the owner of the home where three of his friends were found dead after he went to sleep. github

“There are dozens of potential prescription drugs that when combined with alcohol could could cause a level of sedation that would lead to ultimately freezing to death,” Alexander said, listing common drugs like Xanax and Ativan, Valium, and carisoprodol as possible culprits.

“Any of these with alcohol acts synergistically with many prescription drugs to increase their potency, and their potential to cause sedation and other adverse effects,” he added.

“One of the many tragedies of the opioid epidemic is that all too often people overdose and it can happen easily in groups as well as when people are solo,” Alexander said pointing out tragedy as recent as last week where musician Jose Vasquez died of a fentanyl overdose alongside his wife and a friend in their Los Angeles home.

Illicit opioids, like fentanyl, could also be on the table in the Kansas City case.

“That could account for three individuals rapidly losing consciousness and ultimately succumbing from the weather,” the doctor said, calling it “a very plausible scenario.”

However, he also aded “they didn’t necessarily have to die from the drugs … they could have just frozen frozen to death.”

Temperatures were below -1C on January 7 and 8. If the three men were outdoors in that weather, unmoving for an extended period of time, Alexander said they would be in serious danger of death.

“When you’re just sitting there, you are not generating any body heat… That’s darn cold. Plenty cold enough to die in, let’s put it that way,” he said.

Investigators have said they are “100%” not looking into the deaths as a homicide, even though the family of one the dead have made accusations that Willis — a HIV scientist with a background working in laboratories, according to a professional profile — poisoned his friends and left them to die.

Willis’ attorney called those claims “ridiculous,” and pointed out there has never been allegations of animosity between the friends.

Asked whether drugs might have been involved in the deaths, the attorney told the Post on Tuesday, “There’s a chance for everything.”

The Kansas City Police Department is awaiting the results of autopsies and toxicology reports, which Dr. Alexander said will be key to unravelling the mystery.“The toxicology here is mission critical,” he said.

This story was first published by the New York Post and has been reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Drugs a possibility in grisly Kansas City Chiefs fan freeze deaths outside home, doctor says