Tomorrow will be two weeks since 16-year-old Annie McCann decided to leave her home on Vantage Drive in the Groveton area of southeast Fairfax County and drive to Baltimore, Md. Saturday will be one week since her funeral at Good Shepherd Catholic Church.

"How she died? Where she died? Why she died?" are all unanswered questions being pondered by her family, friends and the Baltimore Police detectives working on her case. "So far we don't have the answers to any of those questions," said Baltimore Police Public Information Officer Troy Harris as late as Tuesday afternoon. "We are still waiting for the official autopsy report results. Even then we are not sure what it will tell us."

That analysis was verified by Annie's father, Daniel McCann. "We've been given a preliminary autopsy report but there is nothing conclusive. And, it's still a mystery as to why she went to Baltimore. We have no connections there at all," he said.

Her father also found it incredible that she was even able to navigate her car to Baltimore since by his own evaluation Annie was a terrible on directions. "She'd go to Costco's on Backlick Road to get yogurt and get lost on the way home," McCann said.

"It used to be a joke in my office. She'd call me on her cell phone and I'd have to guide her home by landmarks. It was like landing a plane by directing the pilot from the ground. She was very smart and a very talented artist but not a good navigator," he said.

As was her custom, Annie was up early the morning of Oct. 31 supposedly preparing to go to West Potomac High School where she was a junior. She was on the honor roll and had been asked to join the National Honor Society as a sophomore, according to her mother Mary J. Malinchak-McCann.

"She was a very confident person and refused the National Honor Society invitation. She didn't see the purpose in belonging," her mother said.

"Neighbors saw the car warming up in the driveway about 6:45 a.m. Sometimes she goes to church before school," her father said.

Annie was a devote Catholic with strong feelings about right and wrong. "She was absolutely against abortion and spoke out on it. She had a great appreciation of life -- for both people and animals," Mary McCann said.



THIS TIME SHE wasn't going to either church or school. She was on her way to Baltimore or somewhere. But, it was in the 200 block of South Spring Court in southeast Baltimore near a housing complex that her body was found next to a dumpster early Sunday morning, Nov. 2.

A man leaving an apartment in the housing complex at 3 a.m. spotted the body and flagged down a passing fire truck, according to Baltimore police. Her car was found parked five blocks away.

Annie McCann had no signs of trauma, police reported. The only mark on her was an insignificant abrasion on her forehead, according to police.

When her parents left the house that Friday morning Annie was going about her regular routine -- with one exception that they were not aware of until they reported her missing that evening. Annie had left a note saying she was running away.

Her father had left for work and her mother was on her way to Ithaca, N.Y., to visit Annie's 18-year-old brother, Sam, who is a freshman at Ithaca College studying journalism on a full scholarship. He graduated from West Potomac High School this past June.

Annie's pattern was also to come straight home after school and do artwork, homework and walk her beloved beagle dog "Breezy." She was normally home from school by 2:30 p.m., according to her father.

"Annie has a quiet but very good personality. Everybody loves Annie. But, Annie didn't hang with any one person or group," McCann said.

"The only time she really went out was occasionally to go to a movie with someone. She was a real family person who loved anything that was art related," he said.

"We are working with the police in every way we can. We had engaged a private detective on Saturday to help in our search but then we got the news on Sunday from the Baltimore police," McCann said.

"The police in Baltimore and Fairfax County have both been very supportive. The police working on the case in Baltimore are such good men. I know they would lay down their lives for me," said Mary McCann.

"She had a great love of animals -- particularly Breezy. She had thousands of pictures of Breezy. I once asked her if she saw a person and a dog in the river drowning who would she try to save. She just looked at me and said "the dog naturally," her mother related.

"Both the students and teachers at West Potomac High have bee phenomenal in their support since this happened. They have come here day and night. Some of Sam's friends at Ithaca even came down for the funeral even though he has only known them since September," Mary McCann said.

"I don't understand how she got herself to Baltimore when she had trouble navigating in this area. And, she ended up in a bad section of town," her father said. "It makes no sense."

That is the one element of the Annie McCann case that seems to have been universally adopted -- it makes no sense. Family, friends, teachers, students, church members, and police are asking the question that only Annie could answer -- so far.



THERE WAS A CANDLELIGHT VIGIL last Thursday night followed by a wake on Friday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and the funeral on Saturday, Nov. 8. "Students were at the viewing the whole time," said West Potomac High School Principal Rima Vesilind.

Yet, when asked for comments about Annie, most students who "knew" her said they "hardly" knew her. As her father emphasized several time throughout the conversation about his daughter's disappearance and death, "She didn't hang with anyone. There was no one close friend or friends."

The response from one student seemed to bear that out.

"Yeah it was a very tragic event, " said Peter Coffey, a student at West Potomac who went to class with Annie "Unfortunately I did not know her that well. She was in three of my classes and had a smile that would light up the room. She was quiet but when she said something it was always something funny. From what I knew about her she was a very talented artist, and I’m not just saying that. All of her drawings were ridiculously good. She also had a dog named Breezy who she loved very much. If I were to say something about Annie, it’s that she impacted everyone’s lives around her including me, someone who really didn’t know her that well."

"Annie was not the type to go to a friend's house after school or come home and call those she had just left at school. She'd walk Breezy and then get into her pajamas and stay in the house," her father said.

That fact is what sent warning signals running through her mother when she didn't get an answer to her 3 p.m. call home Halloween afternoon. "I knew something was wrong. The hair on my neck was standing up," she said in the telephone interview on Tuesday.

"I'm very intuitive," she said. Unfortunately, that proved to be only too true and tragic.

There is a three-ton boulder near the entrance to West Potomac High School. Students have painted on that boulder "Rest in Peace Annie."

That can't happen until the why, where, when and how are answered -- particularly the multiple why.

Cannon Cook contributed to this story.