Dad felt daughter led him to accident scene

Melvin Mackey had a sinking sense his missing 22-year-old daughter, Laneeka Varnado, had been found when he saw police cars lining the highway Saturday afternoon.

Mackey was motorcycling down C.H. James Parkway in Austell when he happened upon officers loading a smashed-up car onto a tow truck.

“A calm came over me, and I knew,” Mackey said Sunday. “I thought, ‘That’s my child in there.’ “

Cobb County police spokesman Dana Pierce said Sunday that investigators are “all but certain” the body inside the wrecked car is Varnado, based on the clothes she was wearing and the car she was driving. Police are waiting for the medical examiner’s office to confirm her identity.

Mackey had just left a fund-raiser at a restaurant in College Park aimed at finding his daughter. She disappeared Nov. 24 after attending a function at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta.

Mackey said he grew sleepy Saturday as he drove his motorcycle toward the Powder Springs home he shared with his daughter. He decided to stay on C.H. James Parkway, rather than turning off onto back roads he typically traveled. Mackey reasoned the highway would be safer in his drowsy state,

His daughter, he thinks, had been of the same mindset.

Authorities say they think Varnado traveled that route the night she went missing. Her silver 1999 Mercedes SLK230 veered off the road, slid into a ravine and slammed into a tree. A man who owned property abutting the highway was walking in the area Saturday when he spotted the wrecked car and notified police.

Mackey said his daughter was probably dozing when her car ran off the road.

“She was trying to call me and tell me where she was,” he said. “She sprinkled some dust in my eyes for me to doze off, and she brought me to the same path that she took.”

Nobody saw the wrecked car because it was in a ravine about 200 feet off the highway, easily hidden from passing motorists.

There were no skid marks where the Mercedes left the road, Pierce said. It was unclear why the driver lost control. Investigators do not suspect foul play, Pierce said.

Mackey said he is relieved that his daughter’s death was an accident and that she didn’t suffer. Now, the family can lay her to rest.

“We’re gonna do it New Orleans style,” said Mackey. “We’re going to dance, we’re going to laugh, we’re going to celebrate her life. There is nothing to mourn.”