A Girl Is Dead, But How? Why?

The note said that she wanted more freedom, wanted to buy a plane ticket and fly far away and asked that her family not try to find her, Daniel McCann said.

"It was rambling," Sam McCann said.

To those who knew her, the note was puzzling. Why would she say she wanted to fly away and then drive to Baltimore? How did Annie, a relatively new driver, manage to traverse the highways to get there? And why would she have made plans for the weekend if she intended to leave town?

Despite the apparent inconsistencies, the McCanns said the note was in her handwriting, and they are sure Annie wrote it. But it was a stunning revelation to both family and friends that she had been unhappy enough to leave home.

"I don't think anybody saw this coming," said Frankie Gerow, 16, a classmate of Annie's who had known her since elementary school. "She was a fairly quiet person around school, yet very optimistic and still cheery."

Another classmate, Daniel Singer, 16, who lived down the street from Annie all his life, said that he last saw her in school Oct. 30 in his history and psychology classes and that she seemed fine. The two made plans to see a movie the next night.

"She always seemed really happy and always ready with a smile," Singer said. "She never seemed depressed or anything."

People who knew her recalled her passion for pastel drawings -- often of animals -- her devout Catholicism and her ability to make others laugh. Inside her room remain keepsakes and knickknacks: stuffed dogs, New York Yankees pennants fixed to the ceiling, prayer cards and Christian statues on the dresser.

Daniel McCann said he has been theorizing all week, racking his brain as to what Annie had been thinking and doing, but he declined to share his speculations. He has faith, however, that he will one day know the truth.

"I have very few dots," he said. "But I believe they will be connected."

Staff writers Del Quentin Wilber and Tom Jackman and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.