Fairfax Teen Suicide in Baltimore?
Posted by:
FUNdamental
()
Date: October 22, 2009 09:22AM
Still desperate to find out how his 16-year-old daughter died in Baltimore last year, a Fairfax County man drove to Baltimore this month to press auto theft charges against the young men who allegedly found Annie McCann, dumped her body and took her car. But Baltimore police intervened, no charges were filed, and the McCanns feel as if they still have no answers, the girl's father said.
Annie McCann, a junior at West Potomac High School, was found dead early Nov. 2 behind a dumpster near a Baltimore housing complex. After consulting with the Maryland medical examiner, Baltimore police said the teen's death was a suicide caused by drinking toxic amounts of the disinfectant Bactine, which contains the anesthetic lidocaine. Annie McCann had been carrying Bactine to keep her newly pierced ears from becoming infected, her parents said.
The suicide finding only compounded the McCanns' misery, and their confusion, because their daughter never went to Baltimore and didn't know anyone there.
The case is "still unresolved," Daniel McCann said Monday, releasing copies of a letter he sent to Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon; the auto theft complaint he intended to file against five people who he thinks went joy riding in his car after tossing his daughter's body out of it Nov. 1; and notes from a conversation he had with the head of the Baltimore police homicide unit, who dissuaded him from filing charges.
On Oct. 10, fearful that the statute of limitations would run out on an auto theft charge, McCann went to Baltimore and tried to file charges against the five young men who his investigators think discovered his Volvo sedan with his daughter in the back seat.
He was hopeful that bringing charges might persuade the men to provide more information about her death. While in the Baltimore court commissioner's office with a detailed affidavit, McCann received a call from Maj. Terry McLarney, who urged McCann not to file the charges.
McCann didn't. But he said the police have taken no action since, and his letter to Dixon has not been answered.
Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the Baltimore police, expressed sympathy for the family, but added that "our investigation revealed this is a suicide" and that arresting the alleged auto thieves would not have resolved Annie McCann's death. He said that DNA found on a Bactine bottle at the scene showed that Annie McCann's lips had been on the bottle, her fingerprints were on the bottle, and "that's pretty indicative of an overdose."
Guglielmi said there was no statute of limitations on auto theft, and that McCann was free to file the charges if he wanted. He said police were considering seeking misdemeanor charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle, because there was no proof of whether Annie McCann granted the young men permission to take the Volvo.