Did Media Speculation Keep Girls Away?

It is unknowable why Rachel Crites and Rachel Smith killed themselves by following through on a suicide pact, but there is a new theory in today's Metro Weekly about why they may have stayed away from home after pleas for their return:

''Assumptions are problematic,'' says Lindy Garnette, executive director of Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) of Metropolitan Washington. Garnette says she is frustrated by all the speculations surrounding the case. She says that if the teenagers had been gay, and if that had anything to do with their two-week disappearance, they might have been more reluctant to come home because of all the speculation in the media.