Parents ask for Md. governor's help to reopen investigation in daughter's death nearly 10 years ago

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - It has been nearly a decade since 16-year-old Annie McCann ran away from her home in Alexandria, Virginia, and later found dead in Baltimore.

Her parents believe she was brutally murdered and that the Baltimore Police Department botched the case. Now, they are asking Maryland's governor for help to reopen the case.

"They decided from the beginning it was easier to treat this case as a simple suicide than a complex homicide," said Dan McCann. "If they spent as much time investigating as they have spent stonewalling, they probably would have solved it in two weeks."

Instead, it has been almost 10 years without Annie for Dan and Mary Jane McCann. Annie left this world a vibrant teenage girl who loved her family. But she ran away from home and took the family's white Volvo on Halloween in 2008.

Several days later, her body was found behind a dumpster in Baltimore. Her parents say all signs point to murder. The McCanns said this has been a "terrible hell."

"The autopsy, it documents tree after tree after tree without saying, 'Wow, there is a whole forest here. It documents in writing more than 20 wounds to Annie's body, including in very clinical terms clear signs of blunt force trauma," said Dan. "It captured DNA under her fingernails. They never tested the DNA."

But Baltimore police ruled her death a suicide. The cause of death was lidocaine poisoning, a numbing agent. They concluded she drank a bottle of Bactine found near her body. However, her parents believe she was forced to drink it and was then beaten and raped.

"A young girl is found stuffed behind a dumpster apparently poisoned to death with blunt force trauma and the police conclude suicide," said Annie's father.

The McCanns said from the beginning there have been red flags. Baltimore police have not followed up on leads. An officer assigned to the case recently resigned amid an alleged controversy. Now they say the department is in shambles.

"For us, it's hard to tell where incompetence stops and corruption and cowardice and cover-up kick in," said Dan. "When you don't have accountability from the police department, writ large, you have a community that explodes."

They are asking for Gov. Larry Hogan to step in.

"The people of Baltimore are crying out for accountability and when you don't have accountability for the police, writs small, what you have is us. The unexamined death of Annie McCann," the father said.

The McCanns have sent a letter to Gov. Hogan's office asking him to let the Maryland State Police take over the case.

FOX 5 has reached out to the Baltimore Police Department, but we have not heard back as of Wednesday night.