On a celebratory trip to Panama, Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon left their host family’s home to take the dog for a walk through the jungle. It was the last time they were seen alive—but the bizarre clues they left behind could solve the mystery surrounding their disappearance.
Traveling Roommates
On April 1, 2014, two Dutch students went hiking in Panama with their host family’s dog. The dog returned, but the young women were nowhere to be found. Kris Kremers and Lisa Froon had traveled there from the Netherlands two weeks earlier; they intended to learn Spanish and volunteer with children in local communities. The trip was meant to be a reward to Froon for graduating.
A Real Disappointment
The pair arrived in Boquete a few days early for their program. In Kris’ diary, she noted the locals were rude to her: “Tomorrow they will try and get ahold of the [head teacher]... This was a real disappointment,” she wrote. The date of the entry was April 1. That was the last day either of them were seen alive.
Easy Trail
Around 11 a.m. on April 1, Kremers and Froon set off to explore the area surrounding the active Baru Volcano toward the Continental Divide. According to experts, the three-mile stretch is relatively simple to navigate, and most tourists who get lost return unharmed. The women took their host family’s dog, Blue, along with them.
Last Known Whereabouts
Before they embarked on the hike, the women posted on Facebook, announcing their plans to tour the local village. They also stated that they had eaten brunch with two fellow Dutch men. Kremers and Froon asked a local innkeeper for directions. That evening, Blue returned from the hike—alone.
They Never Made It Back
The host family searched the premises, but decided to wait until morning to see if the women would return. The next day, missed an appointment with a local tour guide, prompting the host family to contact the authorities. Kremers and Froon had failed to call their families back in the Netherlands, prompting further concern.
Fearing the Worst
The following day, an aerial search of the forests was conducted, as well as a search of Boquete on foot. By April 6, there was still no sign of the women. Their families flew to Panama along with Dutch detectives, fearing the worst. The forest was scoured for ten days by dog units and local police alike.
The Backpack
Days became weeks, and the hunt scaled down considerably. After ten weeks, the women were nowhere to be found. The authorities were growing desperate. Then, a blue backpack was turned in by a woman from the local Ngäbe Tribe, which she claimed to have found in a rice paddy along the riverbank.
Unsettling Evidence
The backpack contained two pairs of sunglasses, $83 in cash, two bras, Froon’s passport, and a water bottle—and, most importantly, Froon’s camera, as well as the girls’ cell phones. Immediately, police inspected the phones and camera, which led them to find some disturbing evidence…
77 Emergency Calls
Police examined the call logs to come up with a timeline of what had happened to the girls in the forest. For almost ten full days after the women disappeared, their cell phones remained in service. Over the first four days, there had been 77 attempts to contact the police via 112, the Dutch emergency number, and 911, the emergency number in Panama.
No Service in the Jungle
Just hours after Kremers and Froon had begun their hike, the first two emergency calls to 112 were made, but the calls never made it through. Shockingly, out of all 77 calls, only one managed to connect—but it was dropped after only two seconds.
Suspicious Activity
On April 6, a number of unsuccessful attempts were made to unlock Kremers’ phone with an incorrect PIN never. After that date, the correct pin number was never input again. By April 11, both Kremers’ and Froon’s phones were dead.
Two Sets of Photos
There were over 100 photos on Froon’s camera. The first few pictures were snapped on the morning of their hike; the girls can be seen on a trail near the Continental Divide, smiling together. Nothing about the photos seemed suspicious. The second set of photos, however, was much more concerning.
What Happened to Them?
Between the hours of 1 and 4 a.m. on April 8, a series of photographs were taken in the dead of night, depicting the girls’ possessions spread out on rocks, plastic bags and candy wrappers, strange piles of dirt, a mirror, and a photo of the back of Kremers’ head. Blood can be seen coming from her temple.
Folded Shorts
When police investigated the area where the backpack had been found, police uncovered Kremers’ clothing, folded neatly along the banks of the Rio Culebra. This wasn’t far from where the women had originally been planning to hike, which means they might have gotten lost or changed their itinerary. Curiously enough, the shorts appeared a half-mile upstream from where the backpack had been found, but Froon’s photos depict the women on the opposite side of the river.
Sinister Discovery
Two months later, in the exact same area, Froon’s pelvic bone was found, along with one of her boots. Froon’s foot was still inside. Not long afterward, several bone fragments from both women were discovered—which only led to more questions.
Bleached Bones
Froon’s bones appeared to have decomposed naturally, with bits of flesh still attached. Kremers’ bones, however, were stark white. It appeared as though someone had bleached them. No markings on any of the bones indicated that they had been damaged or injured aside from the foot bones in Froon’s boot.
How Did They Die?
While both Kremers and Froon were determined to have died at some point during their expedition, none of the evidence explained how they met their fate.The bodies were in fragments, allegedly scattered by the river over time.
Interrogating Suspects
Authorities attempted to look for persons of interest in an attempt to figure out if the women had been accompanied by anyone other than Blue, the host family’s dog. They spoke to the innkeeper from whom Froon and Kremers had asked for directions, but he said the two women were alone. He also advised them to take a taxi back to town.
Allegedly Accidental
Almost a year after Kremers and Froon traveled to Panama, investigators came to a conclusion. Their research apparently suggested that the women had most likely been involved in some sort of accident along the trail and became lost in the forest. Froon was said to have fallen and died either in or near the river.
It Didn’t Add Up
It seemed like Froon’s foot would support that theory, but experts said the breaks in her foot and ankle could only have occurred if she had fallen from a tremendous height. The photographs on Froon’s camera shared a timeframe with the emergency calls, which investigators posit were made after Froon sustained the injury. Their deaths were ruled an accident—but there were holes in the case.
Botched Investigation
The Panamanian authorities went under fire for the way they handled the investigation. Adela Coriat reported for La Estrella that the police had never established a chain of custody for the recovered evidence or the women’s remains. Coriat also noted that 30 unidentified prints had been lifted from the backpack—and none of the indigenous peoples in the area had their prints in the system.
Undamaged Electronics
Coriat expressed her concern that the electronics had not been thoroughly scrutinized. The condition of the women’s equipment was inconsistent with the riverbank where it had casually turned up months later. Despite the suspicious lack of water damage to the camera and cell phones, the police never bothered to follow up on the matter. They also failed to investigate a critical element: a photo had somehow been deleted off Froon’s memory card.
The Missing Picture
The memory card recovered from Froon’s camera contains the last pictures on the day of their disappearance, numbered 0507 and 0508, respectively. These images depict Kremers’ legs and shorts already dirtied with mud, as if she’s fallen. The next image on the camera is taken over one week later on April 8, numbered 0510. What happened to the missing picture? Photo 0509 was the only photo that would have fallen between the daytime and nighttime photos, ostensibly affording some kind of insight as to why the women continued hiking—not to mention what they encountered in the wilderness.
Where Was 0509?
Certified forensic photographer Keith Rosenthal stated it would have been unusual for the women to have deleted that specific photo because they didn’t like it. There were plenty of other bizarre, unidentifiable pictures on the camera. What was different about 0509? Besides, Rosenthal added that even if the girls had deleted the image off the camera, it would likely still be on the memory card. The missing photo led to claims that it wasn’t deleted by accident, but its content somehow jeopardized the “accident” theory supported by the Panamanian government.
Their Murders Would Have Impacted Tourism
Kremers’ family hired a lawyer, Enrique Arrocha, who vocalized his serious doubts about how evidence had been collected. Arrocha claimed law enforcement had not conducted a thorough forensic investigation at the scene of the crime for fear of hurting Panama’s tourism. Additionally, the women’s skulls and other major bones were never recovered, which could have revealed a more definitive cause of death.
Inconsistencies in the Evidence
Due to the mishandling of the evidence, accusations of a cover-up came to the surface. A member of Panama’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Science (IMELCF) stated that “total fragmentation of two human bodies is unlikely within such a short time frame, especially in the cool, high-elevation environment where the bone fragments were found.” Another forensic science expert confirmed that the bones couldn’t have been naturally bleached.
Dark Theories
Some believe the indigenous people who reside in the area may have killed the girls and eaten them. Other theories suggest the deaths could be related to drug cartels or organ traffickers, which would offer an explanation as to why Froon and Kremers’ bodies were discovered in pieces. Despite the circulation of conspiracies, the most common theme holds Panamanian government and law enforcement responsible: were they intentionally doing everything in their power to keep this case off the radar?
Serial Killer
Between 2009 and 2017, over 24 tourists have gone missing in the same area as Kremers and Froon—and, in many of those cases, turned up dead. In 2017, the case was revisited, unearthing enough evidence to link the disappearances, including those of Kremers and Froon, to the possibility of a serial killer. Law enforcement leaked reports concluding someone might have dismembered the young women and purposely spread out their remains.
Do You Agree?
Although authorities previously claimed the river had scattered the women’s remains, the state judicial report indicated that after an 18-month-long investigation, the evidence in the Kremers-Froon case pointed to homicide. Despite this, Panamanian law enforcement has not shifted from their official ruling: according to them, the deaths of Kris Kremer and Lisanne Froon were accidental.
Unanswered Questions
In the end, the cause of Kris Kremer and Lisanne Froon’s deaths is ultimately up for debate. Did they plummet to their deaths, their bodies swept away in the Rio Culebra? Or were their fates much more gruesome? Where is the missing image on Froon’s camera? Who folded Kremers’ shorts, and how did the backpack mysteriously turn up on the riverbank across from where their photos were taken? For now, it all remains a harrowing mystery.