Fact Check

Rachel Smith & Rachel Crites

Missing Maryland teenagers: Rachel Smith and Rachel Crites.

Published Jan. 24, 2007

Claim:

Claim:   Teenagers Rachel Smith and Rachel Crites are missing from their Maryland homes.


Status:   No longer true.  

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, 2007]




Rachel Smith, from North Potomac, along with her friend Rachel Crites, have been missing since Friday, January 19th. They were going to a movie in Georgetown on Friday afternoon and haven't been seen since. Rachel Smith, who is currently a junior at Wooten High School, also ran track last year. Rachel Smith is 16 and is too old for an "Amber Alert". Rachel's mom is a preschool teacher at B'nai Tzedek. The synagogue has already sent out an email.

They were in a dark blue Subaru Outback Station Wagon with a black cargo box on the roof. The license plate number is MD: MBJ 485. Anyone who has any knowledge of where these girls might be or has seen the vehicle, please call Montgomery County Police ASAP at 301/279-8000 or 240-773-5400 or call 911.




Origins:   Two teenage Maryland girls with the same first name, 18-year-old Rachel Crites of Gaithersburg and 16-year-old Rachel Smith of North Potomac, were last seen by acquaintances on 19 January 2007. Both girls called their parents that day to say they were in Georgetown and were

planning to see a movie, but cell phone traces indicated the calls were actually placed from Charles Town, West Virginia. For two weeks police engaged in nationwide search for any sign of the teens or Rachel Crites' dark blue 1997 Subaru Outback station wagon.

On 2 February 2007 sheriff's deputies followed up a report that Rachel Crites' car had been spotted on Route 9 near the West Virginia border and discovered the automobile with the bodies of two girls in the front seat. The following day police confirmed that the bodies were those of the missing Montgomery County teenagers. An official cause of death has not yet been determined, but news reports have indicated the girls committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

The 16-year-old Rachel Smith should not be confused with another girl of similar name who has been missing since May 2006, 3-year-old Reachelle Smith of Minot, North Dakota.

Last updated:   3 February 2007





  Sources Sources:

    Boin, Sonia.   "Police Confirm Identity of Girls' Bodies."

    The [Frederick] News-Post.   3 February 2007.

    Ford, C. Benjamin.   "Nationwide Search Launched for Missing Teens."

    The [Maryland] Gazette.   24 January 2007.

    Vogel, Steve.   "Police Reaching Out to Two Missing Teenagers."

    The Washington Post.   23 January 2007   (p. B2).

    Vogel, Steve and Candace Rondeaux.   "Missing Md. Teens' Car Found with 2 Bodies."

    The Washington Post.   3 February 2007   (p. A1).

    WTOP Radio [Washington].   "Sources: Teens Likely Died from Exhaust Fumes."

    3 February 2007.


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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