Grim Ending Stirs Quest For Answers

Troy Crites, who described the teenagers as "peas in a pod," later called it "a goodbye note."

It was impossible for many to understand what the teenagers had in mind -- a temporary escape from Montgomery or something far more grim.

Early on, police traced a cellphone call made on one of the girls' phones to West Virginia, and investigators focused strongly on that area.

As law enforcement officials issued bulletins and stories appeared in the media, there were other leads. On the fourth day, Montgomery police officers said they were encouraged by the many reported sightings.

Tips were coming in that the girls had been seen at a racetrack, a bar, a coffee shop. There was a tip from Florida and one from California.

Still, they were not found.

The families held a news conference Jan. 26 at Montgomery police headquarters.

"Girls, we just want to know you are safe and okay," said Daniel Alexander, an uncle of Rachel Smith. "Your friends and family are terribly worried."

The mother of Rachel Crites, who had traveled to Montgomery from her home in Italy, offered a plea: "Sweetie, I'm here if you need me or if I can do anything to help you."

Baur, with the Montgomery police, said yesterday that she was not aware of any reported sightings that had been verified. Cathy Hodin, a neighbor of the Smith family, organized perhaps 100 volunteers from school, work, the synagogue and the neighborhood -- putting up posters, blitzing with e-mails and making phone calls -- as they tried to help find the girls.

They tried to think of tactics. "Anything we could think of to get in their minds," Hodin said.

Last weekend, family members joined volunteers to search an area of West Virginia that was two to three miles from where the girls were found -- on the other side of the state line.