In 2008, 16-year-old Annie McCann disappeared from her home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Two days later, her body was found next to a dumpster in Baltimore.
Baltimore police detectives closed the case, ultimately deciding that Annie McCann likely killed herself. But her parents have never accepted that conclusion. In a scathing and lengthy account Dan McCann, Annie’s father, lays out all the ways the family feels as though the Baltimore Police Department failed them–including everything from not following up on leads to losing their daughter’s heart and brain (!!!) during the autopsy:
[Baltimore’s criminal justice system is] a very dark place. Behind the Inner Harbor — the theme park that is Baltimore’s cash cow — lurks a brooding, purple monster, the Baltimore of Edgar Allen Poe. It’s uglier than a Ray Rice shiner.
Both the police and the parents accuse the other side of living in denial and refusing to accept reality. I have no idea who’s right, but in any case, Dan McCann’s story is a harrowing account and well worth your time.
