Parents Criticize City Police

Va. Family Wants More Done In Case Of Their Dead Daughter

With the one-year anniversary of her death nearing, the parents of a runaway Virginia teenager found dead in Southeast Baltimore are stepping up criticism of city homicide investigators who they say have allowed the unusual case to languish.

Daniel McCann, whose 16-year-old daughter Annie was found dead behind a trash bin near Perkins Homes two days after she ran away from home, said police gave empty promises in March that they would aggressively pursue leads in the case, only to suspend the investigation two weeks later. Police said evidence, including drafts of suicide notes the teen left under her bed, suggests Annie took her own life by ingesting a bottle of Bactine, an over-the-counter antiseptic she carried because she had recently had her ears pierced.

The McCanns have challenged that finding, noting that they cannot find a single case of someone committing suicide by ingesting Bactine. The circumstances of how and why she ended up in Baltimore also remain unknown, and private investigators for the McCanns believe they have tracked down a group of juveniles who they say have admitted moving her body to take her vehicle for a joyride.

"What is certain is that there remain simple and sinister circumstances, unexplored, surrounding Annie's disappearance and death," the McCanns wrote in a letter to Mayor Sheila Dixon in August. "Just as certain is the fact that Baltimore police have made a mockery of the investigation into the death of our daughter."

Daniel McCann is now focused on those juveniles. He said police have failed to interrogate the teens.

On Oct. 10, he attempted to press charges against the teens at the District Court Commissioner's office, and said he was talked out of it by Maj. Terrence McLarney, the head of the homicide division. He said McLarney indicated that police and the state's attorney's office would reconsider charging the juveniles, but that no action had been taken.

Anthony Guglielmi, the Police Department's chief spokesman, said those deliberations continue and that police understand the McCanns' grief. But, Guglielmi said, "Our job in this case was to investigate whether someone maliciously took her life, and the evidence just doesn't suggest that."