Despite claims to the contrary, Kansas City Chiefs fan Jordan Willis was not called a “chemist” for producing drugs in high school, a source close to him told Fox News Digital, hitting back at theories implicating the career scientist in the deaths of three of his friends. .
Clayton McGeeney, 36, Ricky Johnson, 38, and David Harrington, 37, were found frozen to death in their Kansas City backyard on Jan. 9, two days after they were last seen alive inside the Willis home for an NFL viewing party.
The men’s loved ones have theorized that Willis played an active role in their deaths, with McGeeney’s cousin Caleb McGeeney telling NewsNation that “all [Willis’] friends know him” as “the chemist.”
“Jordanian chemist, bro. Jordan ‘the chemist,’” Caleb McGeeney said. “It’s easy for them to have fun, but he realizes, he’s made a mistake.”
But a source close to Willis insisted that he was never referred to by that name, and that the career scientist was “not a chemist by trade.”
David Harrington, Clayton McGeeney and Ricky Johnson were found dead outside their friend’s home in Kansas City on January 9, 2024. Ricky Johnson / Facebook A source close to Willis said he was never referred to by a “chemist,” and that career scientists “not experts chemistry by trade.” Frank Ockenfels/AMC
“He’s a computational data scientist for HIV vaccine research. His job is just using a computer and he works from home,” the source told Fox News Digital on Monday.
“It’s very disappointing that his job is being used against him to continue the real-life Walter White-type narrative that people are trying to create,” the source said, referring to Bryan Cranston’s TV character on the AMC drama Breaking Bad, who is unenthusiastic. a high school science teacher who uses his knowledge of chemistry to become a drug kingpin after a stage three cancer diagnosis.
The source also noted that Willis comes from a military family with loving parents who “most definitely” would have noticed and intervened if he was “doing drugs at home in high school.”
HIV scientist Jordan Willis, 38, checks himself into rehab after three friends were found dead in his backyard on January 9, 2024. GitHub
“Ruining Jordan’s reputation and life in a smear campaign as a form of revenge will not bring peace to this family, especially without any evidence from the police department to back up what they are saying,” the source said.
Additionally, the source accused family members of deflecting their stories, stating that “grief is not an open reason to say whatever you want in a public forum without consequence.”
“At first they said they didn’t know Jordan, that the man wasn’t on drugs, so they must have been killed, or poisoned or dragged out of the house, or they must have seen something they shouldn’t have seen,” a source close to Willis said Monday. “Then when the initial toxicology comes out, it’s that they’re going to get peer pressure.”
An exterior view of the backyard and porch of Jordan Willis’ home in Kansas City, Missouri is seen. LP Media
“Now, out of nowhere, the story is that the man has known him since high school as ‘the chemist’ and Jordan has been supplying or making drugs for them ever since. Which one? It makes no sense at all,” they continued.
The Kansas City Police Department has insisted that no foul play is suspected in their deaths, telling Fox News Digital that they are “100 percent not being investigated as homicides[s].”
But family members of the three dead men have questioned how Willis managed not to notice the three men’s bodies feet from his back porch – Willis’ attorney has claimed that his client was asleep for most of the time between when he allegedly saw the three men leave. her front door and when McGeeney’s fiancee found one of the men’s bodies outside and alerted the police.
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Ricky Johnson’s brother Jonathan Price questioned how a man who was “responsible enough to earn a Ph.D.” in “what seems like a very complicated science” could “sleep all day on Monday” in an interview with Fox & Friends last month.
Willis graduated with a Ph.D. in chemical and physical biology from Vanderbilt University in 2014, his attorney John Picerno confirmed to Fox News Digital.
He previously studied chemistry and molecular biology at Northwest Missouri State University.
Cousin Clayton McGeeney said that “all [Willis’] friends know him” as “the chemist.” Family Circulation
According to an interview Willis gave to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative website in 2022, he is a senior principal scientist at the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center in Kansas City.
But on Monday, a source close to Willis told Fox News Digital that “anyone who can’t imagine how he could really snap out of it and go to sleep and not be aware of his surroundings for two days is, fortunately, unfamiliar with what drugs and alcohol look like. like.”
“He’s lucky to be alive,” the source said of Willis.
Ricky Johnson Jr. was found dead with two of his friends on January 9. Family Distribution
While many Chiefs fans spent Sunday afternoon celebrating their team’s Super Bowl win with beer in hand, Willis was in an inpatient rehabilitation facility, a source close to his family previously told Fox News Digital.
He allegedly checked into the program shortly after his friend’s death, but continued to cooperate with police, the source said.
“Jordan went to rehab because he wanted to save his own life. It’s not a legal strategy – it’s a wake-up call,” the source said on Monday. “Leaving three close friends outside her home without her knowledge is the most amazing moment and something she will have to deal with for the rest of her life.”
The source said Willis had struggled with alcoholism and depression throughout his adult life. His bad habits lessened when he lived around “like-minded scientists” in San Diego while completing his postdoctoral studies, the source said.
But the 38-year-old allegedly took a step back when he returned to Kansas City to care for his father, who has mid-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
“Moving back to Kansas City wasn’t good for her mental and physical health, and she fell back into old habits after feeling more isolated working from home,” the source said. “He started spending more time with his high school friends when he came back, after being gone for over 10 years.”
Sources close to David Harrington said the 38-year-old allegedly returned to his bad ways when he returned to Kansas City. Family Distribution
Preliminary toxicology report findings shared with the men’s family members indicated that THC, cocaine and lethal levels of fentanyl were found in their systems.
But Harrington’s stepmother told NewsNation that the discovery doesn’t bring closure to their family:
“What’s important is that he didn’t take that to die,” his stepmother Theresa Harrington told NewsNation. “He didn’t take it to die – if he took the drug himself, he took it to get high.”
But on Monday, a source close to Willis insisted that “these guys all made bad decisions that evening.”
“I’m angry that this happened and I’m really sorry that these men lost their lives,” the source said. “But as a friend who wanted to protect him and help him get back on the right path, no one deserves this kind of violence in a case that is still under investigation for the whole world to see.”
“There’s a plausible and very likely explanation for why he never knew they were out there that people just don’t seem to understand,” the source continued.
When full autopsy and toxicology reports are available and police complete their forensic investigation of the electronic device — at least two of the men’s families have been asked for their children’s phone passwords — the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office will decide whether criminal charges should be filed against Willis or Alex Weamer-Lee, the fifth party guest to leave the Willis home alive on the night of January 7.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
