4 friends. 3 deaths, 2 months later: What killed Kansas City Chiefs fans remains a mystery
Thursday marks two months since three long-time high school friends gathered to watch football at a friend's Kansas City home on a frigid January Sunday afternoon.
It also marks the last time anyone saw them alive.
Ricky Johnson, 38, David Harrington, 37, and Clayton McGeeney, 36, were found dead outside their friend's suburban Missouri home Jan. 9 − two days after the Kansas City Police Department reported they met to watch the game.
For nearly two months, some − including members of the victims' family − have speculated the trio died because of a drug overdose - potentially one involving fentanyl, a synthetic opioid approved for treating pain often laced into cocaine and other illicit recreational drugs.
Yet despite officials confirming autopsies were conducted in January on all three men, their respective official cause and manner of death remained a mystery Thursday.
According to information gathered by USA TODAY Thursday, it appears those results will not be released anytime soon.
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On the night of the game, temperatures dipped to 29 degrees, the National Weather Service reported.
Some 48 hours later, police reported, officers received a call from McGeeney’s fiancée who said she visited the home after not hearing from him and, when no one answered the door, broke inside and found a dead body out back. When officers arrived, they also found two other men dead in the backyard.
On Thursday, Kansas City police spokesperson Officer Alayna Gonzalez said no new information had been released publicly in the case.
"We are still in contact with the Platte County prosecutor's office and the family members as the death investigation continues," Gonzalez told USA TODAY.
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Why have Johnson, Harrington and McGeeney's autopsy results not been released?
Autopsy and toxicology results typically take six to eight weeks to be officially released to the public.
But Lauren McDaniel, with Forensic Medical in Kansas City where the men had their postmortem exams conducted, confirmed the results remained sealed under Missouri law on Thursday.
"It's a death investigation and, as part of any death investigation, police and prosecutors want to rule out any potential criminal conduct," Platte County District Attorney Eric Zahnd told USA TODAY.
The prosecutor said the autopsy records remained closed as the investigation remains "active and ongoing."
Any release of them would constitute a misdemeanor charge, Missouri state statue shows.
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When will Johnson, Harrington and McGeeney's autopsy results be released?
Both autopsy and toxicology results in the case will remain closed until the case becomes inactive, the head prosecutor said.
Zhand said that will take place as soon as:
He decides not to prosecute the case.
The statute of limitations to file criminal charges expires or 10 years after the offense date (whichever occurs first).
Someone is convicted in connection to "information contained in the investigative records" and the convict's appeal process is exhausted.
"I do not know when my office will make a final decision on whether we can file criminal charges" Zahnd said.
The home where the men were found is rented by a 38-year-old scientist who lives alone and works remotely for a New York hospital, the man's Kansas City-based lawyer, John Picerno previously said.
USA TODAY is not naming the man who lives in the home where the bodies were found because he has not been arrested or charged with a crime.
Parents previously spoke out
According to their obituaries, McGeeney, Johnson and Harrington graduated from Park Hill High School and, according to Picerno, had been friends since a young age.
In an interview with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, posted on Cuomo's Facebook page Feb. 2, Theresa Harrington and her husband, John Harrington, spoke about their son and if they thought drugs including fentanyl played a factor in his death.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration considers a lethal dose of fentanyl to be 2 milligrams.
“David wasn’t a drug addict, or anything like that," she told Cuomo via a virtual video interview. "He didn't take the drugs to (die). If he took the drugs on his own, he took them to get high."
The man's stepmother speculated that her son and his two friends may have taken drugs, went outside and passed out.
When asked by Cuomo whether their son brought drugs to the home, Harrington's father said he did not know, but if he had to guess, he and his friends got drugs at the home.
"My thinking is they got them there," his father said. "Somebody gave him something that would kill him."
The home renter's attorney previously told USA TODAY his client had nothing to do with the deaths.
"He had no knowledge they remained in his backyard or that they needed medical attention. Had he known, he certainly would have called for help," Picerno said in January.
On Feb,. 1, WDAF-TV in Kansas City reported family members said they learned the toxicology results were released to police investigators.
“I think cocaine and fentanyl in the system is what we have suspected,” Picerno told USA TODAY Thursday referencing the leak. “It was either just an accidental overdose or they froze to death."
"We’re all in the same boat waiting on the autopsy results," the attorney said. "I don’t know why the authorities are waiting so long to release the results.”
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cause of Kansas City Chiefs fan deaths remains mystery 2 months later
