How Did Annie McCann Die? 16-Year-Old’s Parents Don’t Believe Suicide Determination

What happened to Annie McCann 18 years ago?

It’s a question her parents, Dan McCann and Mary Jane Malinchak-McCann, have tenaciously pursued since October 31, 2008, when the 16-year-old apparently ran away from their Fairfax County, Va., home. In a note found in her bedroom, Annie said she had contemplated ending her life, but had a change of heart. “I love life, and I’m ready to live,” she wrote.

Instead, police located Annie’s body near a dumpster at a former Baltimore public housing complex on November 2, 2008.

Authorities concluded the high school junior died by suicide after drinking Bactine, an antiseptic containing lidocaine. “She poisoned herself,” Baltimore police Major Terrence McLarney told The Washington Post in 2009.

The McCanns believe their daughter was murdered, telling A&E Crime + Investigation that experts determined the amount of lidocaine in Annie’s system wasn’t enough to be toxic. They also point to facial contusions she suffered and a funeral home’s report indicating the teen was sexually assaulted.

“This case has never been investigated seriously by professional law enforcement,” Dan says.

The situation creates an “ungodly limbo,” he continues. “It’s like being crushed slowly with heavy stones.”

Annie was the sum of many parts, her parents say: A quiet kid who spoke out about discrimination at school. A compassionate girl with an irreverent sense of humor. A three-point shooter and a serious artist. A gifted student who was navigationally challenged when she drove. A devout Catholic—and not someone given to despair.

“She was joyful,” Mary Jane recalls, adding that every morning after getting up, Annie “would put all her weight against my shoulders and just hug me.”

When Annie learned the truth about Santa Claus, Dan remembers his daughter was devastated at first, then looked up and said, “'Daddy, what if you’re wrong?' That still haunts me.”

A poem Annie wrote titled “Where I’m From” describes influences from rock bands to her beloved beagle.

It ends with: “I’m from the one-dimensional blank piece of paper. To the three-dimension skyscrapers of New York. Where I hope to one day be.”

When the McCanns couldn’t reach Annie by phone on October 31, 2008, and learned she wasn’t at school that day, they were frantic.

Dan called police, who found his daughter’s note. Annie had taken $1,000 of her savings and wrote about “buying a plane ticket far away from here.” Despite the McCanns’ pleas, authorities didn’t issue an Amber Alert; police said Annie’s case didn’t meet the threshold for such an alert.

An autopsy by the state medical examiner completed in March 2009 found no significant trauma and listed lidocaine intoxication as the cause of Annie’s death, however, the manner of death was “undetermined.” Police concluded Annie had swallowed a 5-ounce bottle of Bactine she used for her newly pierced ears.

The McCanns contend authorities botched the investigation and dismissed their daughter as just another troubled teen. The Baltimore Police Department deferred A&E Crime + Investigation’s request for comment to the Office of the State Medical Examiner, noting that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determines the cause and manner of death, not the police department. FBI officials provided no comment.

The couple cites irregularities such as the medical examiner’s office losing Annie’s heart and brain, and police misplacing the family computer’s hard drive during the probe.

The McCanns also have repeatedly asked to see the results from a rape kit test done on Annie, with no success, they say.

In late 2008, they hired forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden and retired Baltimore police detective Jim Kontsis to investigate further.

Baden concluded that “in no way, can this case be considered a suicide” because the level of lidocaine found during the autopsy was more “than could possibly be produced by a single container of Bactine.”

Bactine manufacturer Bayer also weighed in, stating the amount of lidocaine in a single bottle “would not be expected to produce death,” while another expert told the McCanns the liquid had a “vile” taste and would be difficult to swallow.

Kontsis tracked down two workers at a pastry shop who remembered Annie having an animated conversation with an older woman on November 1, 2008. The woman, described as heavily made-up, had “tired, listless eyes,” and yellow-brown nail polish, “the color of puke,” the McCanns wrote in an essay they published online.

The witness accounts lent themselves to the McCanns’ theory that Annie might have been the victim of human trafficking.

“I think she was lured,” Mary Jane says.

Adding to the mystery was the fate of the family car that ended up at a Baltimore gas station not far from where Annie’s body was found. Police lifted a fingerprint from the interior and traced it to several Baltimore teenagers.

The youths told police they took the abandoned car for a joy ride and dumped Annie’s body when they discovered it. They denied any connection to her death.

In 2013, Baltimore police and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit revisited Annie’s case and affirmed the lidocaine overdose theory.

The McCanns think those reviews were cursory, citing one person contacted by Baltimore police who claims their interview started with, “The McCanns won’t face facts, so I have to ask you a few questions.”

In April 2015, the McCanns purchased autopsy photos they say confirmed facial injuries like a noticeable “goose egg” bump on Annie’s forehead, and revealed a cigarette burn near her left eyebrow. They also showed a letter “J” on Annie’s left ankle, which the McCanns thought indicated human trafficking; Baden said it could have been an accidental pattern from blood settling.

Maryland’s chief medical examiner said tests done on Annie were thoroughly checked, and toxicologists affirmed there was enough lidocaine in a bottle to be fatal, per The Washington Post.

Later in 2015, the director of the funeral home that handled Annie’s body wrote to U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, saying the embalmer on staff believed that the teen was sodomized. Police dispute the finding.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman sent a letter to the Baltimore Police Department in 2016 asking them to explain discrepancies in the case, such as the lidocaine levels.

Ten years later, the McCanns say those questions remain unanswered. The two are involved with the Parents of Murdered Children organization, which has placed Annie’s name on its Murder Wall.

“I don’t only fight for Annie, I fight for other victims,” Mary Jane says.

A year after Annie died, McLarney told the Washington Post that police had spent over 1,200 hours investigating what happened.

Authorities did not find any wounds or bruising, he noted. As for the Bactine, “it’s just a poison,” he said. “People drink poison. It's true we can't find another one with Bactine. When they decide to kill themselves, they use what is there.”

“There’s so many loose ends,” criminologist Stephen Jones, a Willistown Township Police Department detective lieutenant and adjunct professor at Rosemont College, tells A&E Crime + Investigation.

For starters, opportunistic criminals don’t steal cars with dead bodies in them, Jones says. “To me, that’s the biggest outlier. I don’t know if that was properly followed up on.”

At the same time, he credits Baltimore police for their diligence in finding the fingerprint and tracing it. As for Annie, “I’ve never heard of a lidocaine death,” Jones says, adding that she’d likely be in the driver’s seat, not the back seat, if she died by suicide. “I really think there’s other information out there that the investigators aren’t sharing. And, without all the information, I don’t think anyone can even jump to a valid conclusion.”

The McCanns have spent thousands of dollars on experts trying to unravel what happened 18 years ago.

“You really have to fight through and try to keep your faith,” Mary Jane says. “I would give my life if Annie could be here with Dan now. And he would do the same.”