SAD ANSWERS EMERGE IN CHELMSFORD

REMAINS ARE THOSE OF MISSING MD. TEEN

Author: By Judith Gaines, Globe Staff and Caroline Louise Cole

Globe Correspondent

Date: SATURDAY, February 27, 1999

Page: B3

Section: Metro

Some time that fall, authorities say, she found her mother in North Billerica, and moved in with her. They hadn't seen each other in 14 years.

But just a few months later, something went terribly wrong.

Yesterday, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley announced that human bones discovered last October in a shallow grave in a vacant lot next to the Chelmsford Car Wash were Nancy Ann's remains. She had been missing since late 1989 or early 1990.

Coakley said authorities do not yet know how Nancy Ann was killed, and have no suspects in the case. But they say that she was found unclothed, wearing a silver herringbone necklace around her throat.

The teen's body was buried in an unmarked grave, ``an intentionally scooped out area'' about 10 inches deep, said Chelmsford police chief Armand Caron.

Coakley said authorities know ``there had been some conflicts'' between Nancy Ann and her biological mother, Leona Marie Lackey, shortly before her death. They also know that Nancy Ann's paternal uncle, Richard Lackey, formerly was manager of the Chelmsford Car Wash where her remains were found. One of her brothers, Paul Lackey, also was an employee at the car wash.

Lackey did not report her daughter's disappearance when she vanished. After the remains were found, Leona Lackey told investigators she never filed a missing person's report because relations between the pair had become strained and she assumed she had returned to her adoptive parents in Maryland.

Members of the Lackey family could not be reached for comment yesterday. Nor could the Launts, the Maryland family who adopted Nancy Ann in 1979. But yesterday, investigators tried to piece together the story of Nancy Ann's life.

Born in North Billerica, she was one of Leona Lackey's four children. When Nancy Ann was 4 years old, she and two of her siblings were taken from their mother by the forerunner of the Department of Social Services, then called the Division of Child Guardianship, and placed in state custody. A fourth sibling, her brother Paul, continued to live with his mother.

Eventually, Nancy Ann was adopted by Donna Launt and her husband, who left Massachusetts and lived out West before settling in Fort Washington, Md.

Authorities would not say whether the adoption was happy for the child. She had not previously tried to run away from her adoptive home, Coakley said.

But in 1989, she dropped out of high school and -- without telling her adoptive parents -- went off searching for her biological mother. Her adoptive parents reported her missing to Maryland authorities in June 1989.

Nancy Ann found her biological mother on Wilson Road, in a six-unit, wood-framed apartment building in an old industrial neighborhood near the North Billerica train station. Nancy Ann and her mother lived together for a few months before Nancy Ann's death, which is believed to be in December 1989 or early January 1990.

A neighbor said she was not surprised when Nancy Ann disappeared, recalling an unfriendly atmosphere in the Lackey household. ``The Lackeys were not very nice people,'' said Gleora Atkinson, 25, who lived next door.

Nancy Ann's remains were discovered October 24, 1998, when an employee of the car wash found her jawbone in an adjacent lot.

The employee ``was playing ball against the side of the building,'' said Ronald Hutchinson, manager of Chelmsford Car Wash. ``He threw it too hard and it went over the building and into the lot. That's when he found the bone.''

For the next three days, State and local police searched the lot, where they uncovered additional skeletal remains. Police then queried law enforcement agencies around the country about a teenager, approximately 5 feet 5 inches tall, who had been missing for more than five and less than 20 years.

The break came when they got a call from the police department in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

Using dental records and DNA testing, investigators identified the remains as those of Nancy Ann Lackey Launt. The positive DNA match was reported to police Thursday evening.

The Lackeys currently live in Hopkinsville, Ky., investigators said. A neighbor who did not know the family described their home as a new house in a rural area about 6 miles from the town center.

``It's on a road leading to the city dump,'' said Hazel Ray. She called the neighborhood ``a nice quiet place, with lots of farms.''

Massachusetts authorities are hoping that locals who knew Nancy Ann, the Lackeys, or others who may have been involved with the case will come forward with pertinent clues.