Three Kansas City Chiefs fans found frozen in their friend’s backyard died of fentanyl and cocaine toxicity, police confirmed Wednesday – as one victim’s heartbroken mother broke her silence.

David Harrington, 37, was found dead in the backyard of his friend – scientist Jordan Willis – alongside pals Clayton McGeeney, 36, and Ricky Johnson, 38, on January 9, 2024.

The three fans had gone to Willis’ house to watch the final Kansas City Chiefs game of the regular season – and weren’t discovered until two days later.

The circumstances surrounding their deaths left friends and family searching for answers over more than a year as Willis denied any responsibility.

Willis, an HIV researcher, claimed he did not see text messages on his phone or hear his friends’ relatives banging at the door because he had headphones on.

But authorities have now announced Willis, 39, and another man, Ivory J. Carson, 42, have been charged in connection with the three deaths.

A toxicology report ultimately determined that the three men had cocaine, THC and fentanyl in their systems and on Wednesday night, police declared that they died of ‘fentanyl and cocaine toxicity’.

Willis and Carson are facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and delivery of a controlled substance except 25 grams or less or marijuana or synthetic cannabinoid and could spend 10 years behind bars if they were to be sentenced.

Harrington’s mother Theresa has been demanding answers from the Kansas City Police Department ever since her son’s lifeless body was discovered – and was shocked to learn of the arrests as she thought the investigation had long been over.

Theresa told DailyMail.com she was ‘surprised’ at the development, adding: ‘I was thinking the investigation had ended.’

‘They wouldn’t tell me anything,’ she said of the Kansas City police.

‘The police always said they weren’t investigating it as a homicide.’

Theresa said the police statements made it ‘easy to think they had already made up their mind and there wouldn’t be any further investigation.’

‘You know, this won’t go to trial for a year-and-a-half,’ she lamented.

Despite finally getting some form of justice they have long yearned for, Theresa says the arrests still don’t fill all the gaps.

‘[I] still don’t know anything about how my son died or his last moments,’ she explained.

Theresa had previously claimed that her son must have been plied with the drugs that took his life as she pressed for an investigation.

Speaking to News Nation’s Chris Cuomo last year, Theresa and her husband Jon insisted ‘somebody gave them something that would kill them.’

‘What matters is that he didn’t take that to die… It just means that there’s more to the story, there’s more to it than just that,’ she said at the time. ‘He didn’t take that to die. if he took the drugs on his own, he took them to get high.’

Willis had said he went to bed in the early morning hours of January 8 and did not know his friends were still in the backyard.

The HIV researcher claimed he did not see any of the numerous messages from his friends’ loved ones until police showed up at his house the next day because he was sleeping with headphones on.

Jon previously told DailyMail.com that he did not believe Willis’ claims that he was not able to hear the relatives banging on his door.

‘I’m not buying all that c**p about the headphones,’ he said.

‘There were four in the house just before 2am. Three are dead, he isn’t. And to me, that’s suspicious,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Rick Johnson, the father of Ricky Johnson, told Fox 4 KC that he is ‘happy with the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office and the Kansas City Missouri Police Department for filing charges.

‘It’s been a long time,’ he noted as he vowed, ‘I’ll be at every court date.’

Prosecutors claim Carson – who went by the nickname ‘Blade Brown’ – supplied and sold cocaine to Willis and the victims, noting that his DNA was later found on a bag of fentanyl inside Willis’ home.

Officers also spoke to a witness who told investigators he had been at Harrington’s home earlier in the night, and saw a ‘plate of cocaine allegedly supplied by Willis that everyone was using,’ Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Another witness reportedly told police he was with Willis, McGeeney, Harrington and Johnson at Willis’ home following the Chiefs game ‘where they drank, smoked marijuana and used cocaine.’

That witness said Harrington, McGeeney and Jonson were still alive as of 1.30am, while Willis had gone to bed, according to KSN.

But for nearly two days afterward, friends and family members said they did not hear from Harrington, Johnson and McGeeney as they repeatedly messaged Willis on social media begging for answers.

By January 9, McGeeney’s fiancée decided to break into Willis’ basement when the scientist did not answer the front door.

She called police when she noticed Harrington’s body on Willis’ back porch. Officers then found the other two corpses.

 Jonathan Price, Johnson’s brother, later said the case did not add up.

He said that he heard the owner of the home had animals that would need to go outside, and claimed the city didn’t get enough snow to submerge the men for them to be hidden for days.

‘There’s many different things that don’t add up, we just don’t understand how somebody would at least be investigated in any way,’ Price said.

Amid the suspicion, Willis moved out of his Kansas City home and enrolled in a rehabilitation program – which only led to further speculation that he may have been hiding something.

‘We’re meant to think that poor guy lost his friends,’ Clayton’s uncle Jim previously told DailyMail.com. ‘Well that poor guy should be fighting tooth and nail to find some answers rather than moving out of his house two days after the bodies were found.

‘It’s just a cover up to make people feel bad for him and get people off his case,’ he claimed.

Court documents now say Willis told police the men had been drinking and smoking marijuana at his house, and at one point he thought they may have obtained some fentanyl as well.

Police then found text messages on Harrington’s phone between the suspects, McGeeney, Johnson and others that they said proved that Carson supplied them with cocaine.

Those messages also allegedly confirmed one witness’s account that when the group was low on cash, McGeeney, Harrington and Johnson would supply them with cocaine, according to court documents obtained by the Kansas City Star.

Carson ultimately admitted to selling cocaine by the gram to the trio in police interviews in July 2024 and just last month, court documents say.

‘This case is a tragic reminder of the dangers of street drugs,’ Zahnd said at the news conference.

‘But make no mistake, the people that supply those drugs can and will be held accountable when people overdose.’

Carson is now being held in jail on a $100,000 cash bond, while police say Willis will surrender himself to authorities and post his $100,000 cash bond, according to KSN.

Willis’ Kansas City-based lawyer John Picerno stressed his client was innocent Wednesday night.

‘Jordan maintains that he is not responsible for purchasing or supplying the drugs that led to led to the deaths of his three friends,’ Picerno said.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Willis’ attorney and the Kansas City Missouri Police Department for additional information. It is unclear whether Carson has retained an attorney who could speak on his behalf.