The Death of Annie McCann

Annie was a 16 year old from Fairfax County, VA. On October 31st 2008, Annie failed to make contact with her parents at the end of the school day. Upon returning home, Annie's father received an automated telephone message from the school saying that Annie had never arrived at school that morning. Two days later on November 2, a person discovered Annie's lifeless body behind a dumpster, in the housing projects of Perkins Homes which is a high-crime Baltimore neighborhood over 50 miles away from Annie's hometown. At that point the investigation became the responsibility of the Baltimore Police Department, who were certain they were dealing with a homicide despite reporting "no signs of physical trauma" on the body. Among the garbage detectives located another item: an empty bottle of Bactine spray, with the lid removed. Another piece of evidence surfaced a few days later. Annie's white Volvo was found abandoned at a nearby gas station with no immediate signs of a struggle. Police were able to lift a single smeared print from the car, which they quickly matched to a known offender in their database: a local teenager named Darnell Kinlaw. During his interrogation, Darnell claimed that he and a few of his friends had found the Volvo with Annie inside by chance, and decided to take it for a joyride after depositing her body behind the dumpster where she was later found. He insisted that Annie was already deceased by the time they came across the vehicle and has consistently maintains to this day that neither he, nor his friends, had any involvement in her disappearance or death. Police carefully scrutinized the empty Bactine bottle that was found alongside her body. Even more significantly, Annie's DNA was found on the open rim, yet her fingerprints were nowhere to be found anywhere on the bottle. The manner of death was ruled a suicide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices