Dan and Mary Jane McCann, the parents of Annie McCann, gave me the letter the city sent to them after complaints that police mishandled and then closed the investigation into the death of their daughter about one year ago.

City officials had refused to give me their response, even after I posted the letter the McCanns sent to them (see earlier posts here). The McCanns are still fighting to get answers to how and why their daughter apparently ran away from home and was found dead near a trash bin in the Perkins Homes public housing complex in Southeast Baltimore.

Police have concluded that Annie killed herself by drinking a 5-ounce bottle of Bactine, which contains Lidocaine, though the McCanns dispute this and have a letter from the manufacturer and an outside forensics expert saying there is no way Annie could've died only from drinking Bactine. Police never took Annie's fingerprints but did take her DNA, which they say they found on the bottle. The Medical Examiner has ruled her death undetermined.

Annie's parents are convinced their daughter was lured to Baltimore and was either killed or helped in taking her life. They've put up billboards, held news conferences, hired private investigators, hunted down people who may have seen Annie in Baltimore and pressed to file charges against youths who admitted to finding Annie's body in her car, and moving the body to the parking lot.

Police have now charged two youths as juveniles in connection with stealing Annie's car and leaving it several blocks away. Police say they've invested more than enough time in the case and point to a note Annie left behind on her bed. They say it's a clear suicide note. The family notes that Annie wrote she wanted to take her own life but changed her mind and decided to run away instead.

It's a difficult case. The Baltimore Sun published a two-part series (Part I and Part II) on the case last year. And here's the letter the city's deputy mayor sent to the McCanns: