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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.

KC triple death investigation timeline:Here's what's happened
since 3 football fans were found dead outside a Missouri home

What's new in the Kansas City three death investigation?
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 fiance´e 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.

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.

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.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/07/dead- kansas-city-chiefs-fans-autopsy-pending/72868061007/

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