Contrary to a host of e-mails circulating around the D.C. area Tuesday, authorities said the two Montgomery County females who went missing four days ago have not been the subject of an Amber Alert.

But police have extended their search for 16-year-old Rachel Smith of Potomac and 18-year-old Rachel Crites of Gaithersburg.

Montgomery Police spokesman Lt. Eric Burnett said his agency has placed the teens’ information on a national database for law enforcement so that if they have left or do leave the state, finding them is more manageable.

“We enter them into the [National Crime Information Center],” he said. “It’s similar to putting in data about a stolen car.”

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The pair of friends reportedly were last seen in Montgomery County on Friday night. Police said they had stayed the night at Crites’ home Thursday night and planned to go to a movie in Georgetown on Friday evening. It’s unclear whether they made it there.

Lt. Burnett said since their disappearances, a large number of tips have come in to Montgomery County Police, who have spent the weekend and the beginning part of this week tracking them down.

The circumstances of the case prohibit officials from pushing for an Amber Alert, which is designed for a tool of finding missing children.

Lt. Burnett added that there is no evidence to suggest they were abducted.

“They left voluntarily in their own car,” he said.

Rachel Smith, a student at Wootton High School in Rockville, is 5 feet 1 inch and 118 pounds with green eyes and brown medium-length hair. Rachel Crites is described as 5 feet 4 inches and 110 pounds with brown eyes and brown medium-length hair.

Anyone with information about the teens’ whereabouts is asked to call 301-279-8000.

According to Burnett, Montgomery County Police investigated 1,650 cases of runaways in 2006. Of those, 811 still remain open.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com