Grim Ending Stirs Quest For Answers

Md. Teens Found Dead Eluded Searchers; Motivations Unclear

They were found side by side, two teenage girls in a Subaru station wagon parked on a remote trail near the West Virginia border. The ground was frozen when police arrived. It was starting to snow.

A search that had gone on for almost two weeks to find the two Montgomery County girls ended Friday.

It had been an anxious time for their parents, their neighbors, their friends at Wootton High School -- even for people who had never met them and who, through e-mails and Web sites, had worried and prayed and called for them to come home.

"These people just wanted desperately to help," said Cathy Hodin, who organized search and assistance efforts from her North Potomac home.

It remains a mystery how Rachel Samantha Smith, 16, of North Potomac and Rachel Lacy Crites, 18, of Gaithersburg disappeared in plain view. They died less than 60 miles from home.

The young women's identities were confirmed late Friday, and officials called the deaths apparent suicides. They noted no signs of trauma. More will be known after autopsies are performed tomorrow; tests for drug and alcohol use will take several weeks.

Officers say they are investigating why the teenagers went missing Jan. 19, how long they had been dead and where they had gone.

Both women were found seated in the front of the car, said Kraig Troxell, of the Loudoun County sheriff's department.

It appeared that they did not want to be found.

The isolated area where the car was discovered was off a dirt road, then a utility trail, then up a rugged plateau, against a steep incline. The heavily wooded area, off Route 9, is sparsely settled with homes spaced far apart.

The car was reported to police by people driving four-wheelers who thought it looked out of place, given the rough terrain.

"This can't be happening," a Wootton student posted on a FaceBook.com message board called "Come Home Rachel Crites. "I'm so shocked. May both girls rest in peace."