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ASHEBORO - A few weeks ago, Meredith Kandies and Jeremy McMillan were two 16-year-olds just getting to know each other.

Now McMillan is dead, and Kandies is in the Randolph County Jail, charged with involuntary manslaughter.

No one disputes that Kandies shot McMillan on a dark elementary school playground Dec. 12 after he fought over her with another boy. But how and why has become the subject of rumor, innuendo and accusation.

Asheboro police are releasing few details about the ongoing investigation. Teachers and officials at Asheboro High School, where Kandies was once a student, declined to comment.

Friends and others who knew Kandies describe her as a pretty girl who sought attention from boys and got plenty. Many say they weren't surprised two boys were fighting over her, but they never imagined anyone would get killed.

At school there were vague whisperings about her home life and her real father, but few knew anything for sure.

The truth, which many in Asheboro are now remembering, is that Meredith's father is Jeffrey Kandies - the man convicted of raping and murdering his 4-year-old daughter while Meredith was still in the womb.

One of the most sensational murders in the small town's history, it's something her family has worked hard to forget. Jeffrey Kandies has been on death row since 1994 - and according to the family, his daughter has had little contact with him.

"He was just a sperm donor," said Bobby Clackler, the fiance of Meredith's mother, Patricia Craven. "I'm the one who's raising her with her mama, and I'm the one she calls Daddy."

Clackler said Kandies is a good girl who had a rough childhood.

She was born in the wake of her sister's death and in the shadow of her father, whom psychologists described as an alcoholic with a violent personality disorder.

The family had hoped to leave that in the past, Clackler said. But now, 16 years later, Meredith Kandies is in jail.

"She's torn all to pieces over it," Clackler said after a jailhouse phone call with Kandies last week. "This is not something that she wanted to happen. She tried to save Jeremy's life and she ended up watching him die."

Clackler said Kandies told him the gun belonged to McMillan and that she held it to keep one from shooting the other as the boys fought. Police have not released the name of the other boy involved.

When McMillan lost the fistfight, he tried to wrestle the gun from Kandies and it went off, shooting him in the stomach.

Police said forensics confirm the gun, a 9mm Glock pistol recovered near the shooting, discharged in a struggle.

"It was nothing that was intended," Clackler said. "She and Jeremy were happy and she really cared about him."

McMillan's family disputes that account.

"That was not his girlfriend," said Jerry Moran, Jeremy's stepfather. "That girl ... got my son in trouble, got him in with a crowd of trash and had him doing things totally out of his character."

McMillan was seeing Kandies casually, Moran said, but had a real girlfriend near his home in Franklinville - whom Kandies didn't know about.

Moran said Kandies should stand trial for murder. The gun didn't belong to McMillan, he said, and if she really was trying to keep it from him, he wouldn't have been shot.

"The story of what she said happened is ridiculous," Moran said. "If you were trying to keep a gun from someone to protect them, would you point it at them and put your finger on the trigger? Think about that."

Police said they are investigating who owned the gun and how it got to the playground at Guy B. Teachey Elementary School that night.

For now, they've charged Kandies with possession of a handgun by a minor, possession of a weapon on educational property and felony discharge of a weapon on educational property.

Moran said that McMillan, who recently earned his GED at Randolph Community College, was a bright boy who could have done anything with his life. But now he'll never get the chance.

"My son is dead, and she'll probably just get a slap on the wrist for it," Moran said. "She deserves to be punished for what she's done, for what she has taken from our family."

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com