Experts warn Jordan Willis' rehab check-in could be part of elaborate legal strategy as report says

Jordan Willis’ checking himself into a rehab facility could be part of a wider legal strategy to garner ‘sympathy in the court of the public opinion’, say experts after three of his friends were found dead in his back garden. 

Ricky Johnson, 38, Clayton McGeeney, 36, and David Harrington, 37, were all found dead at his house in Kansas City, Missouri on January 9 and it has now been reported by TMZ that early toxicology reports show that fentantyl and cocaine have been found in their systems.

Willis checked into rehab earlier this week, while a friend claimed it was the ‘enormous, heartbreaking wake-up call’ he needed to seek professional help.

However attorney and retired NYPD inspector Paul Mauro said: ‘I think they’re trying to play on people’s sympathies that he had a drug problem. It verifies what a lot of us speculated on: maybe a drug they didn’t know was in there.’

An anonymous source close to the 38-year-old HIV scientist, Jordan Willis’s family has now revealed that he is ‘devastated’ that he did not get to say goodbye or go his friend’s funerals 

David Harrington was found dead on his friend’s property on January 9 

Clayton McGeeney, 36, (left) and Ricky Johnson (right) were also found dead in the backyard 

One of the bodies was found on the back porch of the property by the fiancée of one of the men, who broke in after receiving no answer from Willis 

TIMELINE OF EVENTS 

January 7: The three men go to Jordan Willis’ home to watch the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Los Angeles Chargers, which starts at 3:25pm CT. 

At some point during the night, Willis goes upstairs to sleep, leaving the three men and another unnamed man to hang out in his house.

January 8: Jordan Willis claims he did not leave his home this day, so he didn’t realize the victims’ cars were outside. 

Loved ones of the missing men start trying to contact Willis, who doesn’t respond. 

January 9: Clayton McGeeney’s fiancée breaks into the home and scream Willis’ name after two days of no communication with her partner.

She finds one of the bodies on the back porch. 

At 9:51pm, three bodies are found at the property after police perform a welfare check.

He told Fox News that the announcement could even be a preemptive move to get a shorter sentence if he is charged with a crime.

Detectives are combing through the phones of the three men who were found dead nearly 48 hours after the football watch party on January 7.

Willis, a HIV scientist, moved out of his home within days of police knocking on his door to question him about the bodies, fearing retaliation, and hasn’t been seen since.

For two days, the families of the victims say they visited Willis’ home, called him and sent him Facebook messages asking where they were. He did not respond.

Eventually, the fiancée of one of the men broke into the house through the basement and found the first body in the backyard. She then called police, who arrived to find Willis in his underwear, holding a wine glass.

Families spoken to by DailyMail.com said they could not dismiss drugs as a possible cause of death of all three men.

Theories by experts include the men taking enough fentanyl, combined with alcohol, to pass out after leaving the house and freeze to death.

Willis claimed to not have left his home for two days and slept with noise-cancelling headphones that blocked the sound of his friends’ family frantic knocking.

He took the events of that night and the days after as an ‘enormous, heartbreaking wake-up call’, a friend said.

‘After the shocking loss of three of his close friends under extremely tragic circumstances, Jordan recognized that he had a problem with addiction,’ they told Fox News.

‘He immediately checked himself into rehab after vacating his home and putting his things into storage.’

Willis is said to be devastated he did not get to say goodbye or go his friend’s funerals – and is concerned about suspicions he caused their deaths.

Alex Weamer-Lee, who shortens his name to Lee, is the fan on the far left of the photo previously published by DailyMail.com, showing the three dead men smiling broadly in their Kansas City Chiefs jerseys 

Loved ones of the dead men have raised questions over the lack of reporting of their bodies, and the snow that they say was not deep enough to submerge them  

Lee (front right) with McGeeney (left) and Harrington (center back) are photographed with an unidentified friend (front center) 

‘Not only is the whole country accusing him of murdering his friends without factual details, evidence or any charges at this time, but he also lost three close friends,’ the same source said earlier.

‘He didn’t get to say goodbye or go to their funerals due to the circumstances of these wild speculations and accusations.

‘No one seems to be willing to wait for the results of the toxicology report or wait for any other facts from the police department from a case that is still under investigation to make these speculations.’

They further claimed that Willis’ family came to know of what had happened only after local news media contacted them.

The family didn’t know if Willis was among the fatalities.

They also disputed claims that the scientist had told people his friends froze to death in his yard after police arrived at his home.

‘What was missing from that story was context. He never once said that his friends froze to death to anyone,’ they added.

This revelation comes two days after Willis’s father issued statements on his behalf on January 26.

‘He would never in a million years do anything. These were all good friends of his, these were all people he went to school with and he took them to a football game the day before for the Chiefs,’ he said.

Speaking to The New York Post, Willis’ father said he would ‘never in a million years’ hurt his friends.

When pressed on inconsistencies in Willis’ story, notably the fact that one of the bodies did not have a jacket on when apparently leaving his home, despite the icy cold January weather on the night, he said:

‘They could’ve [gone] out there, it was icy and cold that night. I don’t know how many cars they came in; there were three of them, and there were only two cars left on the street.

‘They could’ve decided they wanted to go back inside his house for some reason, people leave the house all the time without coats, it doesn’t matter how cold it is, so I can’t answer to that statement.

‘[Jordan] doesn’t know what happened to them, and he never saw them again at the point that they were walking towards the front door and leaving his house.’

DailyMail.com has also been able to reveal the ‘fifth man’ in the group photograph as Alex Weamer-Lee.

He is a high school pal of the victims whose bodies were discovered two days after the celebratory gathering on January 7 – but says he left at midnight after the football finished and when everyone was alive.

Weamer-Lee, who shortens his name to Lee, says he waved them off at 2am before sleeping on the couch and spending the next two days inside the house, not thinking anything of the fact their cars were still outside.

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