Although the family members of three Kansas City men who were found dead in their friend’s snowy backyard are still awaiting toxicology results to determine what killed them, “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh told “Fox & Friends” that party drugs laced with fentanyl likely played a role.
The bodies of Ricky Johnson, 38, Clayton McGeeney, 36, and David Harrington, 37, were discovered on Jan. 9, two days after they had gathered at friend Jordan Willis’ home to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers.
A source close to Willis’ family told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that Willis checked himself into rehab in the days after the tragedy unfolded to “face his addiction head-on,” saying that their deaths were an “enormous wake-up call” for the 38-year-old HIV scientist.
However, the parents of Johnson and Harrington have both insisted that their sons did not partake in drugs and have voiced theories that Willis may have played an active role in their deaths.
VIDEO SHOWS KANSAS CITY CHIEFS WATCH PARTY HOST HANDCUFFED AFTER FRIENDS’ BODIES FOUND
From left to right, David Harrington, Clayton McGeeney and Ricky Johnson were found dead outside their friend’s Kansas City home on Jan. 9, 2024. (Ricky Johnson/Facebook)
“I would say fentanyl was involved,” Walsh said of the case on Thursday. “We had 107,000 people overdose and die on fentanyl last year and 300,000… permanently crippled or [had] something happen to them – terrible.”
Walsh, the Emmy-award winning host of true crime classic “America’s Most Wanted,” returned to the show this month to analyze some of the nation’s most gripping criminal cases for the first time since the original series’ cancelation in 2011.
“I did a case last week on ‘America’s Most Wanted’: a 17-year-old girl who went on Snapchat, and they have drug dealers on Snapchat, and they have menus,” Walsh said. “She ordered one Adderall – she read somewhere that college kids study all night.”
Walsh said the high school student died within an hour of taking the pill to study for her college entrance exams.
HIV scientist Jordan Willis, 38, checked himself into a rehab facility after his three friends were found dead in his backyard on Jan. 9. It is unclear whether drugs played a role in their death, as their toxicology results are still pending. (GitHub)
“People don’t know what they’re buying, don’t know how much to take,” Walsh said. “Adderall is in everything – they put it in cocaine to methamphetamine to pharmaceuticals, [and] opioids.”
He recalled another case with recent West Point graduates who were not regular users but who used cocaine that turned out to be laced with fentanyl.
“The cartels bring the drugs across, but the gangs here that mix the drugs and the dealers, they don’t know what they’re doing, sometimes they mix too much fentanyl in,” Walsh said. “[The West Point graduates] decided to buy some cocaine not knowing that drug dealers are putting fentanyl in everything… these are not drug users, they just took what they thought was a little party drug to have some fun.”
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS FANS DEATHS: JORDAN WILLIS CHECKS INTO REHAB AS FAMILIES AWAIT TOXICOLOGY RESULTS
Original “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh, left, is pictured with his son Callahan Walsh, right. The pair will co-host the reboot of the true crime mainstay for the first time since the original show was canceled in 2011 after a historic 24-season run. (Fox News)
Likewise, McGeeney, Johnson and Harrington are likely “just an example of going to have a party drug or something [that] killed them,” Walsh said.
Willis is not considered a suspect in the men’s deaths and has not been charged with a crime. The Kansas City Police Department said last week that “this case is 100% not being investigated as a homicide” and added on Friday that they “do not anticipate any additional information released prior to the findings of the medical examiner.”
“It is still the case that the ruling on the cause of death is the next piece to determine any needed additional investigative tasks,” Kansas City Police Captain Jacob Becchina previously told Fox News Digital.
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)
A spokesperson for Frontier Forensics Midwest, the private company contracted by Platte County to carry out autopsies, told Fox News that the results of the men’s toxicology reports will take six to eight weeks to process, while their full autopsy reports will not be released for another 10 to 12 weeks.
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Walsh said that there is no set timeline for when police release more information on the case, saying that the department was “working to get the story straight [and] find out what killed these guys,” not to “please the press.”
“I’m on the side of law enforcement. So as much as we want to know in the media… they have to hold it until they’re sure,” Walsh said. “Then they’ll get with the district attorney and decide what happened, who’s at fault, are we going to charge somebody.”
“I think there’s more to it than what we’re seeing, but they’ve got to make sure they’ve got the case right,” he said.
