The Kansas City HIV scientist whose friends were found dead in his backyard is not a “drug-dealing chemist” like Breaking Bad’s Walter White, according to a source close to him.
Jordan Willis, 38, reportedly entered rebab after the suspicious deaths of his friends Clayton McGeeney, 36, Ricky Johnson, 38, and David Harrington, 37, who were found days after his death in his Kansas City backyard on January 9.
Officials have not revealed the trio’s cause of death, but toxicology reports indicated they had lethal levels of fentanyl and cocaine in their systems.
As DailyMail.com previously reported, a source previously claimed that Willis was nicknamed ‘The Chemist’ in high school because he would prepare drugs to get his friends high.
But a different source who spoke to Fox News has now claimed that the narrative is far from true, and that Willis was never known by that nickname and is now “a chemist by trade.”
Jordan Willis, the Kansas City HIV scientist whose friends were found dead in his backyard, is not a “drug-dealing chemist” like Breaking Bad’s Walter White, a source close to him claims.
Willis, 38, allegedly entered Rebab after the suspicious deaths of his friends Clayton McGeeney, 36, Ricky Johnson, 38, and David Harrington, 37.
Families of the dead have revealed that police have told them that all three dead had high levels of illicit drugs, including three times the lethal level of fentanyl.
‘He is a computational data scientist for HIV vaccine research. He works solely on computers and works from home,” the source said. “It’s incredibly disappointing that his work is being used against him to promote the real-life Walter White type narrative that people are trying to create.” .
The source was referring to Bryan Cranston’s character in the series Breaking Bad, who used his knowledge as a chemistry teacher to manufacture and sell methamphetamine.
“Ruining Jordan’s reputation and his life in a smear campaign as some kind of revenge will not bring peace to these families, especially without any evidence from the police department to back up what they are saying,” the source told Fox News.
Families of the dead have revealed that police have told them that all three dead had high levels of illicit drugs, including three times the lethal level of fentanyl, as well as THC and cocaine in their systems. The final results of the toxicology tests have not been released.
The source was referring to Bryan Cranston’s character in the series Breaking Bad, who used his knowledge as a chemistry teacher to manufacture and sell methamphetamine.
Willis’ lawyer said: “He had absolutely nothing to do with their deaths.”
While it was initially believed that his three friends froze to death after partying to watch their team narrowly beat the LA Chargers on Jan. 7, the consensus among family and friends is that drugs may have been responsible.
Still, some of the deceased friends’ relatives have continued to point suspicion toward Willis, and Harrington’s parents, Jon and Theresa, said last week that “someone gave them something that would kill them.”
“What matters is that he didn’t take that to die… It just means there’s more to the story, there’s more than just that,” the grieving mother told Chris Cuomo when asked about the report. ‘He didn’t take that to die. If he took the drugs at his expense, he took them to get high.’
David Harrington’s parents, Jon and Theresa Harrington, said they are not satisfied with the explanation for his death and believe there is more to the story.
A source told DailyMail.com that Willis, an HIV scientist, was known as ‘The Chemist’ in high school because he prepared drug concoctions for his fellow students. DailyMail.com obtained a photo of Willis, then 17, wearing glasses in a high school laboratory.
Clayton McGeeney’s cousin, Caleb, told News Nation that Willis had a long history of making drugs for his friends.
“Jordan is the chemist,” he said. “Jordan is someone known since high school for creating drugs for people, to make them feel better in certain situations.
“Everyone knew him like that.”
Willis moved out of his home 48 hours after police knocked on his door to question him the night of Jan. 9 about his three friends who had been lying dead in his backyard for two days.
Experts’ theories include that the men took enough fentanyl, combined with alcohol, that they passed out after leaving the house and froze to death.
Willis claimed not to have left his house for two days and to have slept with noise-cancelling headphones that blocked out the sound of his friends’ family’s frantic knocking.
He took the events of that night and the days that followed as a “huge, 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 an addiction problem,” that friend told Fox News.
Willis maintained through his lawyer that he dismissed the three friends at 2 a.m. after the game ended, before sleeping on the couch and spending the next two days inside the house, not thinking about the fact that the cars of his friends were still outside.
McGeeney’s desperate fiancée, April Mahoney, 34, raised the alarm after she broke into the property just before 10 p.m. on January 9 and found the 300-pound Harrington dead on the porch.
She called the police and officers discovered Johnson and April’s partner of 12 years dead in the backyard.
Police still insist the deaths are not homicides, but have not ruled out reinterviewing Willis, who was led out of the home in handcuffs after the discoveries.
Detectives are reviewing the victims’ phones to reveal possible crucial clues from photographs and exactly who each of them called in their final hours.