A Girl Is Dead, But How? Why?
On Oct. 31, Annie McCann left her Fairfax County home. Her body was found two days later.

By Jonathan Mummolo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 8, 2008

The two portraits seem almost irreconcilable. A smiling, artistic Fairfax County high school student who loved her family and her beagle, Breezy Max. A troubled 16-year-old girl, bent on finding personal freedom, who ran away from home on Halloween and was found dead two days later next to a dumpster at a seedy Baltimore housing complex.

Annie McCann's family and friends are struggling with the conflicting images as they prepare for her funeral service today. More than a week after she left home, they are still wondering what happened.

"None of it makes sense," said Daniel McCann, Annie's father, who said he has no idea why his daughter left a note on her bed saying she had to leave and apparently drove from her Alexandria area home to Baltimore last Friday instead of to West Potomac High School, where she was an honor student.

"I am completely baffled," McCann said. "I have no idea how my beautiful daughter got there."

Baltimore police said Annie's body was found in the 200 block of South Spring Court in southeast Baltimore on Sunday after a man taking out trash at 3 a.m. near the Perkins Homes housing complex saw her body and flagged down a firetruck. There were no signs of trauma on her body except for a "superficial abrasion" on her head. The medical examiner has not yet determined how she died, Baltimore police said yesterday. Her family's white Volvo S60 was found five blocks from her body, Fairfax County police said.

"Her death is being listed right now as questionable," said Detective Nicole Monroe, a Baltimore police spokeswoman. "It is suspicious because she's 16, and we don't know why she's dead. . . . She doesn't appear to have been murdered, so her death is questionable."

The Volvo was unlocked, and the driver's seat was in the correct position for someone of Annie's height, according to a source familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing. The day Annie disappeared, her stay-at-home mother, Mary Jane Malinchak-McCann, was on the road to Ithaca, N.Y., to visit Annie's brother at college for family weekend.

About 5:30 a.m., her father said, he stuck his head in her bedroom where she was still asleep and said, "Goodbye, Annie. I love you." A little later, before Annie would have left for school, he called the house to tell her that the Killers, one of her favorite bands, would be playing nearby in January. He got no answer but said he figured she was in the bathroom or walking her beloved 12-year-old dog.

Annie's mother called the house about 3 p.m. to check in. Still no answer.

"Annie is usually there by 2:30," said Annie's brother, Sam McCann, 18, who planned to have Annie stay at his dorm last Saturday night when she joined them for the weekend. "My mom, she thought something was wrong right away."

When Annie's father got home, the family's Volvo was missing, and there was no sign of Annie. Panic set in when he received an automated call about 6:30 p.m. from Annie's school stating that she had not attended that day.

"My heart stopped," Daniel McCann said. His mind darted to the worst possible scenarios. Could someone have broken in, stolen the car, hurt his daughter? Frantically, he called 911 and began searching every room and closet in the house, fearing he would find her injured, or worse. When police arrived, they found the note on Annie's bed.

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.