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Despite claims to the contrary, Kansas City Chiefs fan Jordan Willis was not nicknamed “the chemist” for manufacturing drugs in high school, a source close to him told Fox News Digital, shooting back at theories implicating the career scientist in his three friends’ deaths.
Clayton McGeeney, 36, Ricky Johnson, 38, and David Harrington, 37, were discovered frozen and dead in his Kansas City backyard on Jan. 9, two days after they were all last seen alive inside Willis’ house for an NFL watch party.
The men’s loved ones have come forward with theories that Willis played an active role in their demise, with McGeeney’s cousin Caleb McGeeney telling NewsNation that “all [Willis’] friends knew him” as “the chemist.”
“Jordan’s ‘the chemist,’ bro. Jordan’s ‘the chemist,'” Caleb McGeeney said. “It was easy for them to go have fun, but he f—ed up, he made a mistake.”
But the source close to Willis insisted that he had never been referred to by that name, and that the career scientist is “not a chemist by trade.”
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)
While many Chiefs fans spent Sunday evening celebrating their team’s Super Bowl win with a beer in hand, Willis was at an inpatient rehab facility, a source close to his family previously told Fox News Digital. He allegedly checked into the program soon after his friends’ deaths, but continues to cooperate with police, the source said.
“Jordan went to rehab because he wanted to save his own life. This was not a legal strategy – it was a wake-up call,” the source said on Monday. “Having three close friends pass away outside his house without his knowledge was a true rock-bottom moment and something he’ll be working through for the rest of his life.”
The source said Willis has struggled with alcoholism and depression throughout his adult life. His bad habits lessened when he lived around “like-minded scientists” in San Diego while completing his post-doctorate, the source said. But the 38-year-old allegedly backslid when he moved back to Kansas City to care for his father, who has a mid-stage Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
“Moving back to Kansas City hasn’t been good for his mental and physical health, and he’d slipped back into old habits after feeling more isolated working from home,” the source said. “He started spending more time with his high school friends when he moved back, after being gone for over 10 years.”
“Grief is not an open-ended excuse to say whatever you want in a public forum without consequences.”
Findings of a preliminary toxicology report shared with the men’s family members indicate that THC, cocaine and lethal levels of fentanyl were found in their systems. But Harrington’s stepmother told NewsNation that these findings didn’t bring their family closure:
“What matters is that he didn’t take that to die,” his stepmother Theresa Harrington told NewsNation. “He didn’t take that to die – if he took the drugs on his own, he took them to get high.”
But on Monday, the source close to Willis insisted that “these men all made poor decisions that evening.”
“I’m angry that this happened and I’m really sorry that these men lost their lives,” the source said. “But as a friend wanting to protect him and help him back to the right path, no one deserves this kind of viciousness in a case that is still under investigation for all the world to see.”
“There’s a plausible, extremely likely explanation for why he never knew they were out there that people don’t seem to get,” the source continued.
When full autopsy and toxicology reports are available and police complete their forensic investigation of electronic devices — at least two of the men’s families have been asked for their son’s phone passwords — the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office will decide whether criminal charges should be filed against Willis or Alex Weamer-Lee, a fifth party guest who left Willis’ house alive on the night of Jan. 7.
