As families await toxicology results in the mysterious deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans, experts tell FOX News Digital that a mix of drugs and frigid weather were fatal to the trio. He said it could have been a serious blow.
The bodies of Ricky Johnson (38), Clayton McGeeney (36), and David Harrington (37) were discovered. on the 9th, two days after we gathered at my friend Jordan Willis' house to watch a game between the Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Kansas City police told FOX News Digital that no criminal activity is suspected and that “this incident is 100% not being investigated as a homicide.”
The man's family has accused Willis of playing an active role in his death, including allegedly being drugged.
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David Harrington, far left. Clayton McGeeney, second from right. and Ricky Johnson (right) were found dead in his friend's backyard two days after they gathered to watch a Kansas City Chiefs game. (Ricky Johnson/Facebook)
Family members say Willis' story about their friends' final hours is changing, that his client slept on the couch for most of the 48 hours his friend died in his backyard, and that his Ph.D. cites Willis' role as an “excellent scientist” who received the D. I work for a nonprofit organization that develops vaccinations.
However, all the experts FOX News Digital spoke to maintained that these deaths were likely accidents, the result of recreational drug use gone horribly wrong.
“Even if everyone ingested alcohol, they wouldn't all collapse at roughly the same time. Everyone reacts differently to large amounts of alcohol and metabolizes it at different rates,” said forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden. “They react to it, but not right away. [and] They are alert and can go indoors if they are about to pass out.
Baden ruled out carbon monoxide because the man's body was found outside, saying, “It would be a type of drug that disorients people.” “Fentanyl drugs can cause disorientation and rapid loss of consciousness, similar to sleep.
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“If these four people had acted together, the man on the sofa had been sleeping for a long time, but the three who went outside might have been confused and not wearing coats. Because of the weather, [could be] A combination of drugs and hypothermia caused their deaths. ”
Baden said death from an overdose of fentanyl or fentanyl analogs (a version of the drug with a similar but slightly different chemical structure) is not immediate and can take about an hour. If a fentanyl overdose occurs, naloxone can prevent the user from falling into a coma after losing consciousness.
“You don't suddenly die in a few minutes,” he said.
The family and friends of Clayton McGeeney, David Harrington and Ricky Johnson (LR) are responding after the three mysteriously died in the frigid temperatures outside a friend's Kansas City home. I'm looking for. (Facebook)
However, hypothermia sets in when the body's internal temperature drops below 95 degrees. Although temperatures in Kansas City on the night of Jan. 7 weren't particularly cold, with a low of about 29 degrees, Baden said that spending too much time in the snow in weather below 32 degrees can be enough to kill someone. “It will be cold,” he said. .
“They probably aren't dead when they fall in the snow, but the cold puts them into a deeper coma and they die from hypothermia,” Baden said. “If they had gotten home safely, they wouldn't have died. But if they were in the snow, they would die in the snow. They don't feel any pain or anything. I can't wake up in time.”
Baden said the theory that the four men ingested drugs laced with fentanyl supports Willis' claim that he slept all or most of the two days after his friends visited his home. did.
“Due to the cold weather, [could be] A combination of drugs and hypothermia caused their deaths. ”
Powdered fentanyl can be mixed with drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine, or compressed into tablets similar to prescription opioids. Police in Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, and New York have reported finding synthetic opioids in marijuana.
Two of the three grieving families told Fox News Digital that detectives asked for the passcodes to their sons' cellphones. Kansas City police are likely trying to establish a chain of possession by investigating whether the drugs were sold or given to any of the men, said Paul Mauro, an attorney and former New York City police officer. This process could further delay the investigation.
Willis has not been criminally charged or accused of wrongdoing by police, but he could be charged with drug-induced murder or manslaughter if he is found to be the supplier of the deadly drug. Experts agree that there is.
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Clayton McGeeney, Rickey Johnson and David Harrington were found dead on Northwest 83rd Terrace, pictured, two days after watching a Kansas City Chiefs game there. (FOX4KC)
“I think now they need to try to jailbreak their phones.” [if they can’t get passwords] “This is very difficult these days,” Mauro said. “Most of these phones have a lot of data stored in the cloud by default. You can get a cloud search warrant. You can't access it using a thumbprint instead of a password.
“That person has to be alive, and if they're not, they don't have the heat or electricity they need. There are some workarounds, but the bottom line is that if you don't have the password, it's very hard to get in there. it's fun.”
While the deaths of McGeeney, Johnson and Harrington have garnered national attention, the phenomenon of mass overdose deaths is more common than you might think, said former DEA Special Agent Derek Maltz. .
“If I had to bet my pension, they drank booze, smoked marijuana, that marijuana was laced with K2, overheated and threw themselves in the snow.”
In a 2023 presentation to the House Homeland Security Committee, Maltz spoke about the deaths of three or more victims, some 2023 news stories in which 10 and even 20 or more victims died at once. I was able to summarize it in 70 pages. From drugs – sometimes it is considered a “safer” substance, and sometimes through harmless items like lollipops.
“This is happening in every state,” Maltz told FOX News Digital. “Everyone's obsessed with 'Three people died, freezing to death in their backyard.' But they don't know that this happens all the time, every day, in multiple states across the country. They're not trying to sum it up. The news is just reacting to things without understanding what's actually going on. That's what's really sad, for me. The more we talk about this, the more we talk about it. , people just keep dying.”
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Ricky Johnson (right) was a “responsible” man who “didn't intend to go out and freeze to death,” his parents told Fox News Digital. (Norma Chester)
Maltz stressed that this is just a theory, but said he believes the Kansas City tragedy was “clearly a case of cocaine laced with fentanyl.”
But he said other drugs, including synthetic opioids such as nitazen and the equine tranquilizer xylazine, are produced in Chinese laboratories and can cause fast-acting disorienting effects.
“This is happening in every state.”
But Baden, Mauro and Maltz all said that if the substance were a fentanyl derivative or synthetic, it could be difficult to detect in autopsy reports in poorly equipped laboratories, and Kansas It said it may need to outsource testing to Citi's Frontier Forensic Midwest LLC and delay results. Even further away.
“They may not have that ability. I hope they have the ability to say, 'We can't do this in our lab,'” Mauro said. “I wish the police would think this way. If you just test for heroin, even if it's synthetic, you won't find out. That the police know how to test for heroin. I hope.”
Mauro also said the culprit could have been K2, or “spice,” a synthetic marijuana that is sometimes disguised as the real thing or used by people who want to avoid a positive marijuana result on a drug test. Theorized.
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K2 often causes hyperthermia, a dramatic increase in body temperature. MDMA, cocaine, and amphetamines can also cause users to overheat.
“If I had to bet my pension, they were drinking. They were smoking marijuana. The marijuana was laced with K2. They overheated and threw themselves in the snow.” Mauro said. “Let's say he goes outside to smoke a cigarette or something. It doesn't matter how drunk you are. In that part, you get attacked.”
