Football has become the sport of the century. Fans all over the world gather to watch their favorite team play, and as everyone approaches the end of the season, the Super Bowl is next week, tension has grown tighter as fans hope their teams win the last games of the regular season. Now, imagine staying at a house with your closest friends to watch the Kansas City Chiefs vs the LA Chargers game. This seems like innocent fun, right? You could not imagine anything catastrophic taking place during this getaway, but tragedy struck this group of friends.
As the game came to an end, and the chiefs claimed their victory, three out of the five men staying at the house took their festivities outside. The temperatures in Kansas City dropped to below 30 degrees.
None of those three men made it home. Two nights after the game, Clayton McGeeney’s (one on the victims) fiancée went to the rented house looking for him.
“When there was no answer at the door, she broke into the basement of the residence and located an unknown dead body on the back porch. Officers responded to the back porch and confirmed there was a dead body. Upon further investigation, officers located two other dead bodies in the back yard,” an initial police report on the incident indicated.
“There were no obvious signs of foul play observed at or near the crime scene” (cbsnews.com).
Two days after the game on Jan. 9, the bodies of three men, Ricky Johnson, 38; Clayton McGeeney, 36; and David Harrington, 37, were found frozen in the backyard. (cbsnews.com)
Police later arrived at the home and were greeted by the unfazed Jordan Willis, the man who was renting the home. A friend of the victims’ families, Kaylee La Tier, said in an interview with the New York Times, “My friend banged on his door and then busted a window and yelled and announced her presence while she’s inside and still nothing from him? Then the cops come 10 [minutes] later and he comes out nonchalant in his boxers with an empty wine glass in hand??! Nothing is adding up. Dave, Clay and Ricky need and deserve justice.”
Jordan Willis claims he had no knowledge that his friends were freezing to death on his property after they had watched Kansas City take on the LA Chargers in the last game of NFL regular season play on Jan. 7, police said. (cbsnews).
Johnson’s brother, Jonathan Price, told CBS News’ Michael George that his family “deserves answers.”
“The only thing I know for a fact is that I don’t accept that my brother just froze to death,” Price said. “There has to be something else involved. Whether it’s drugs or something else, I have no idea.” (cbsnews)
For a situation so unusual, many wish it was all just their imagination. But for the families of the victims, this situation has become a tragic reality.
As the mystery unravels, the families continue to wish for answers and for some sort of explanation on how three fully grown and capable men, could freeze to death.
Speculations continue to grow, but as of now the Kansas City Police dDepartment has not charged anyone for homicide, and no foul play is believed to be involved.
Just this week, Jordan Willis, the man who emerged from the home stating he had no idea of his friends’ whereabouts checked himself into a drug rehabilitation facility.
If this situation can teach anything, it is the importance of looking out for yourself and knowing your limits.
As Miami residents, we have little to no experience with freezing temperatures. But, many of us will begin new chapters of our lives when we leave for college. If a student is planning on attending college at a location with frigid climates, these are important things to note:
1. Controlled substances and freezing temperatures are not a positive mix: when under the influence of any substance, people do not not act as they typically would. Those under the influence can make rash and impulsive decisions that they would not typically make in their sober mental state.
2. Your body is not as adjusted to harsh temperatures compared to those who have lived in these states: “People living in freezing cold places have adapted biologically to their environment,” according to an experiment published by “The Conversation.” Coming from Miami, for instance, to a place with negative temperatures, our bodies have not yet adapted to the weather in the same way that those who live there have. Keeping yourself warm and covered will become a necessity and will help maintain your body’s temperature.
Overall, we can learn a great deal from this calamity. The importance of weather awareness and safety has become a prominent topic and it is necessary to educate others and ourselves. All we are able to do for the families involved in this situation is pray and hope the root cause of the men’s deaths is brought to light soon.
