"Please, help us get answers. The police aren't doing their jobs and we don't know what to do," says the father of Ricky Johnson. "We are heartbroken and only want answers that we aren't getting."
Family members of one of the three men found dead in a classmate's backyard in Kansas City are looking to start their own investigation into the mysterious deaths.
Friends and family of Ricky Johnson, 38, have started a GoFundMe to raise funds to hire a private investigator and lawyers so that they can look into how he and his friends, David Harrington, 37, and Clayton McGeeney, 36, died last month.
The family says the money will also go towards funeral costs and to help out Johnson's three young children.
"We are asking for donations to help us cover the costs of Ricky's unexpected funeral and burial costs, help hiring a private investigator as well as a lawyer and any court costs we may run into along the way," writes Johnson's father Rick. "We also still want to be able to support our grandchildren who are now without their dad."
The three men had been at a classmate’s house after watching the Kansas City Chiefs football game on Jan. 7 when they went missing.
The classmate renting the house, Jordan Willis, claims through his lawyer John Picerno that he last saw the men shortly after midnight on Jan. 8 when he went to bed while the three men were still at his home.
Their bodies were discovered two days later by the fiancée of McGeeney, who had to break into the house after no one answered the door, according to a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department.
"Our son spent 2 days and nights frozen dead out in sub zero temperatures. The homeowner's story is 'he had no idea his friends were dead in his backyard for 2 whole days in his own backyard, one of them being found right outside the back door ... and ignoring texts calls and knocks at his door,'" writes Rick.
"The police are adamant that there is no foul play involved. They refuse to do any further investigation, and worse, they consistently ignore the phone calls from my family with questions surrounding my son's death," continues Rick.
That is not so, according to a KCPD spokesperson, who says that police have been in contact with the families.
Rick writes that he is also concerned about that fact that Willis "hired a lawyer" and moved out of the home. "A few days ago, a U-Haul moving truck was spotted at the house," writes Rick. "[Willis] appears to have relocated and nobody knows where he is."
Rick goes on to say that the family wants "more investigation into Ricky's death," but fears that might never happen if they do not conduction an independent investigation.
"However, with the police ruling no foul play, Jordan up and moving away, the fact he ignored everybody, the fact the police are even ignoring us and not returning our calls makes us believe we need to hire our own lawyer and private investigator to look further into this since the police seem to be done investigating," writes Rick. "This is not right and makes no sense. We want answers"
It has now been a month since the three men were last alive and there are still few details about the case.
Family members of the three men did meet with the district attorney last week, one day before the KCPD received toxicology reports for the three men.
Those reports are not being released publicly, but the KCPD said they had been in contact with the families of the three men after receiving the results.
It could still be weeks however until the autopsy reports are in for the men.
Police continue to treat the matter as a death investigation and not a homicide because they found no signs of foul play at the scene where they discovered the bodies.
The KCPD also stressed that there is no suspect or persons of interest at the time, and says Willis cooperated with authorities at the scene and allowed officers to search his home.
Johnson's family cannot wait that long however, according to Rick.
"Please, help us get answers. The police aren't doing their jobs and we don't know what to do," he says. "We are heartbroken and only want answers that we aren't getting."
