Relatives of deceased Kansas City Chiefs fans are considering taking legal action against each other, facing significant legal challenges, according to a lawyer’s statement.

As an investigation drags on, families of three dead Kansas City Chiefs fans and the party host whose backyard is where the men were found are threatening lawsuits against each other. But attorneys told Fox News Digital that either case would be difficult to win in court. 

David Harrington, 37, Clayton McGeeney, 36, and Ricky Johnson, 38, were discovered frozen and dead behind friend Jordan Willis’ home Jan. 9, two days after they watched the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers. 

As the men’s families await answers about their loved ones’ deaths, Harrington’s 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,” Jon Harrington told People. 

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, Mo., home. (Facebook)

One of McGeeney’s cousins told the New York Post that Willis was nicknamed “the chemist” in high school for making drug cocktails, a claim that a source close to Willis has told Fox News Digital is entirely false. 

“Every good he’s done in his life has been overshadowed by him becoming the scapegoat for their deaths without any evidence,” the source told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “His livelihood has been affected. … This has been a witch hunt in a series of constantly shifting stories without any proof and none of them are true.”

Willis moved out of his home and spent a stint in rehab soon after the deaths made headlines, and a source close to him told Fox News Digital Willis is deeply “depressed” over the “constant speculation.” 

But, likewise, a defamation lawsuit in this case would be difficult to win, attorneys say. 

“Opinions are free speech, and they are fair game. They are not subject to defamation actions with very few exceptions,” Roswold said. “[These accusations] are stated as opinion[s], which puts any kind of statement on way shakier ground in terms of being actionable.

“[But] if I had a client in this situation and I had an opportunity to advise them before making such a statement, I would be like, ‘You’re starting to tread on thin ice,'” Roswold added. “You don’t have that opportunity oftentimes to counsel people in a highly emotional state.”

A defamation case could also open Willis up to more scrutiny that he may not want to shoulder, Miller said, even if he was found innocent in a criminal case in the men’s deaths.

“He’s going to have to prove that’s false – that he did not give them drugs, and he did not bring them out into the backyard to die,” Miller said. “Does Willis really want to go there? He can open up something he really doesn’t want to open. He does look funny.”

Tecce said that, in the case of either threatened lawsuit, he didn’t see “any assets by any of these people that would warrant the amount of expenditure it would take to bring a lawsuit.”

But in some cases, Roswold pointed out, it’s not about the monetary verdict.

“Bringing a claim against somebody who is responsible for the death of another person … you’re doing something in honor of the person who has lost their life. That’s always a personal consideration,” Roswold said. “If you succeed [in a defamation suit or a wrongful death suit], you’ve proven … something that would be in the court of public opinion, you would see that these people had done wrong.”

Each attorney said it is important for the families and attorneys involved to wait for more facts to emerge in the case. 

“If I were the prosecutor — and I was the prosecutor for 17 years — I would look under every rock and bleed every turnip dry until I was sure that I had nothing to get on Willis or if I found who supplied the drugs,” Miller said. “Whether they did this to themselves or not, it’s terrible that it happened to them.”