Deaths of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon

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Kris Kremers
Born(1992-08-09)9 August 1992[1]
Amersfoort, Utrecht, Netherlands
Disappeared1 April 2014 (aged 21)
Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama
StatusDeceased (human remains found)
Height167 cm (5 ft 6 in)
Lisanne Froon
Born(1991-09-24)24 September 1991[2]
Amersfoort, Utrecht, Netherlands
Disappeared1 April 2014 (aged 22)
Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama
StatusDeceased (human remains found)
Height184 cm (6 ft 0 in)

Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon were Dutch students who disappeared on 1 April 2014, while hiking the El Pianista trail in Panama. After an extensive search, portions of their bodies were found a few months later. Their cause of death could not be determined definitively; Until June 13, the Panamanian authorities firmly assumed that a crime and a kidnapping had taken place. Only when the women's rucksack was found in the jungle did they drop the criminal investigation. An expert report commissioned by Panama from the Netherland Forensic Institute does not provide an assessment of what could have led to the girls' deaths. The case was eventually closed from the Panamanian side. An appeal by the family lawyer, who was not satisfied with the Panamanian public prosecutor's theory of the accident, was unsuccessful. The judge ruled that there was not enough evidence of a crime. However, the case may be reopened if new evidence emerges.[3]

Dutch forensic scientist Frank van der Goot believes that it is almost impossible that they were lost and that an accident is likely, but does not rule out foul play. Van der Goot considers a fall from the mountain conceivable. Three pairs of journalists had access to the court files and came to completly different views. While the Dutch authors Marja West and Jürgen Snoeren again favor an accident in 2021, the German authors Christian Hardinghaus and Annette Nenner, after six months of on-site research and witness interviews, come in 2024 to the conclusion that the circumstances of the disappearance speak for the involvement of a third party and foul play. However, Hardinghaus and Nenner refute the fears fueled in particular by an American true-crime podcast (2022) by Jeremy Kryt and Mariana Atencio. The suspects named there, a local tour guide and a group of friends described as “Pandilla”, could be exonerated according to the German authors.[4][5][6]

Although many theories have been presented as to what happened to Kremers and Froon, no official cause of death has been ruled. Panamanian authorities came under fire for allegedly mishandling the disappearance and aftermath.[7][8] Further investigation into the case in 2017 raised questions about the initial investigation,[9] as well as a possible link to murders in the area.[10]

Background[edit]

Kris Kremers (age 21) and Lisanne Froon (age 22) both grew up in Amersfoort, Utrecht, in the Netherlands. Kremers was described as an open, creative, and responsible individual, while Froon was described as aspiring, optimistic, intelligent, and a passionate volleyball player. Kremers had just completed her studies in cultural social education, specializing in art education at the University of Utrecht; from Deventer, Froon had graduated with a degree in applied psychology.[11]

Only a few weeks prior to leaving for Panama, Froon had moved in with Kremers in a dorm room in Amersfoort, and they worked together at the café/restaurant called In den Kleinen Hap. They both saved up money for six months and planned to go to Panama together on a special six-week vacation, hoping to learn Spanish and to do something of significance for the locals, particularly volunteering with children. The trip was also supposed to be a graduation present for Froon.[12][13]

Disappearance[edit]

Kremers and Froon arrived in Panama on 15 March 2014. Their journey took them to Isla Colón, the largest Caribbean Island in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago. Here they stayed in a hostel and took two weeks of Spanish lessons at the Spanish by the Sea language school. On March 29 they travelled to Boquete, Chiriquí to live with a local family. In cooperation with the partner school Spanish by the Sea, they had planned to complete a one-month internship at a daycare center. However, for reasons that have not yet been clarified, their placement was canceled on the day they were due to start.[14] plan was to On 1 April around 11:00, they went hiking near the clouded forests that surrounded the Baru volcano, on the El Pianista trail, not far from Boquete. Some sources say they took with them a dog that belonged to the owners of the Il Pianista restaurant;[15] this has not been confirmed. The women wrote on Facebook that they intended to walk around Boquete, and it was reported that they had been seen having brunch with two young Dutch men before embarking on the trail.[16] This later turned out to be a false information, after police had investigated it.[17]

Some sources claim the owners of the restaurant became alarmed when their dog returned home that night without Kremers and Froon. In 2024, however, the owner of the dog told investigative journalists Christian Hardinghaus and Annette Nenner that this was just a rumor. His dog Azul had never accompanied the girls.[18] Their parents stopped receiving text messages, which both women had been sending to their families daily. On the morning of 2 April, the women missed an appointment with a local guide.[19] On 6 April, parents of Kris arrived in Panama for the first time. Between May 29 and June 4, a Dutch dog rescue team with 12 sniffer dogs was allowed to search hiking trails around Boquete. However, they were not allowed to search the area behind the Mirador, the very area where Kris and Lisanne's remains were to be found weeks later.[20] The parents offered a US$30,000 reward for any information leading to the whereabouts of Kremers and Froon.[21]

Discovery of backpack[edit]

All times in this article are Panama Standard Time (UTC–5).

Ten weeks later, on 13 June, an indigenous woman turned in Froon's blue backpack, which she reported finding two days before by a riverbank,[22] near her village of Alto Romero, in the Bocas del Toro Province. The backpack contained two pairs of sunglasses, US$87 in cash, Froon's insurance card, a water bottle, Froon's camera, two bras, a key, a padlock and the women's phones – in good condition.[23]

The women's phones showed that around six hours into their hike someone dialed 112 (international emergency number in use in the European Union) and 9-1-1 (the emergency number in Panama).[21][24] The first distress call attempt was made by Kremers' iPhone 4 at 16:39 (4:39 pm); shortly after that, another attempt was made from Froon's Samsung Galaxy S III Mini at 16:51 (4:51 pm). None of the calls got through due to lack of reception in the area. None of the subsequent call attempts ever managed to go through.[25]

On 4 April, Froon's phone battery became exhausted after 05:00 and the phone was never used again. Kremers' iPhone would not make any more calls either but was intermittently turned on to search for reception. Between 5 and 11 April, the iPhone was turned on multiple times but without ever entering the correct PIN code again. On 11 April, the phone was turned on at 10:51h (10:51 am) and was turned off for the last time at 11:56h (11:56 am).[26]

Date of Call iPhone 4 (Kremers) Samsung Galaxy S III (Froon)
1 April 2014 16:39h – call attempt 1 (112)

17:52 - phone is turned off for the next 14 hours

16:51h – call attempt 1 (112)

17:52 - phone is turned off for the next 13 hours

2 April 08:14h – call attempt 2 (112) 06:58h – call attempt 2 (112)

10:52h – call attempt 3 (112 and 911)

13:50h – check signal 1

(unconfirmed information: call attempt 4 (112 and 911) with short-time connection to GSM)

16:19h – check signal 2; the phone is turned on the whole night.

3 April 09:32h – call attempt 3 (911)

11:47h – check signal 1

15:59h – check signal 2

07:36h – the phone is turned off.
4 April 10:16h – check signal 3

13:42h – check signal 4

04:50h – check signal 3

05:00h – check signal 4; the battery is empty; no further activity.

5 April 10:50h – check signal 5

14:35h – check signal 6 (no PIN)

—
6 April 10:26h – check signal 7 (no PIN)

13:37h – check signal 8 (no PIN)

—
11 April 10:51h – check signal 9 (no PIN)

11:56h – switched off after 1:05 h; no further activity; 22% battery left.

—

Froon's Canon camera contained photos from 1 April suggesting that the women had taken a trail at the overlook of the Continental Divide and wandered into some wilderness hours before their first attempt at making emergency calls but with no signs of anything unusual. On 8 April, 100 flash photos were taken between 01:29 and 04:20, apparently deep in the jungle and in near-complete darkness. A few photos show that they were possibly near a river or a ravine. Some show a twig with plastic bags on top of a rock; another shows what looks like a backpack strap and a mirror on another rock, and another shows the back of Kremers' head.[24][27]

Discovery of remains[edit]

The discovery of the backpack led to new searches along the Culubre River.[28] Kremers' denim shorts were found atop a rock on the opposite bank of the tributary, a few kilometres away from where Froon's backpack had been discovered. A rumour claimed that the shorts were found zipped and neatly folded; pictures of the shorts, published in 2021, disproved this information.[29] Eight days after the backpack was found on June 18, two shoes are found. One contains a skeletonized human foot. Also a pelvis was found. On August 2, indigenous people found a rib of Kris on the banks of the Culebra and on August 28, three more of Lisanne's leg bones are found, as well as rolled-up skin.[30] DNA testing confirmed all bones belonged to Kremers and Froon. Froon's bones still had some skin attached to them, while Kremers' bones appeared to have been bleached.[24][27]

A Panamanian forensic anthropologist later claimed that under magnification "there are no discernible scratches of any kind on the bones, neither of natural nor cultural origin – there are no marks on the bones at all".[31]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 September 2018. Retrieved 16 October 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ "Vermist – Lisanne Froon – 112Regio.nl". www.112regio.nl. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  3. ^ Hardinghaus, Christian; Nenner, Annette (2024). Still Lost in Panama. The Real Tragedy on Pianista Trail. Independently Published. pp. 177–190. ISBN 979-8884161399.
  4. ^ "Kris & Lisanne likely fell off cliff in Panama: investigators". 4 March 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  5. ^ "Kris and Lisanne most likely to have been involved in a fatal accident near the Pianista trail concludes a team of Forensic Specialists". 4 March 2015. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  6. ^ Hardinghaus, Christian; Nenner, Hardinghaus (2024). Still Lost in Panama. The Real Tragedy on Pianista Trail. Independently published. pp. 336–381. ISBN 979-8884161399.
  7. ^ Kryt, Jeremy (24 July 2016). "Death on the Serpent River: How the Lost Girls of Panama Disappeared". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  8. ^ "Cronología de la búsqueda de Kris y Lisanne" [Timeline of the search for Kris and Lisanne]. TVN. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  9. ^ Kryt, Jeremy (21 September 2018). "The Lost Girls of Panama: The Full Story". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  10. ^ Kryt, Jeremy (16 May 2017). "Lisanne, Kris, Catherine—Will the Panama Cases Ever Be Solved?". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  11. ^ "About Lisanne | Foundation to Find Kris & Lisanne". 4 August 2017. Archived from the original on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  12. ^ "About Lisanne". Foundation to Find Kris & Lisanne. 8 May 2014. Archived from the original on 30 November 2017. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  13. ^ "About Kris". Foundation to Find Kris & Lisanne. 8 May 2014. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  14. ^ Hardinghaus, Christian; Nenner, Annette (2024). Still Lost in Panama. The Real Tragedy on Pianista Trail. Independently published. p. 35. ISBN 979-8884161399.
  15. ^ Lee Zeltzer (14 April 2014). "14 days of frustration and now …". Boquete Panama Guide. Archived from the original on 15 April 2014.
  16. ^ "Hunt for girls missing in Panama scaled down, Dutch men being questioned". DutchNews.nl. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  17. ^ Hardinghaus, Christian; Nenner, Annette (2024). Still Lost in Panama. The Real Tragedy on Pianista Trail. Independently published. pp. 205 ff. ISBN 979-8884161399.
  18. ^ Hardinghaus, Christian; Nenner, Annette (2024). Still Lost in Panama. The Real Tragedy on Pianista Trail. Independently published. pp. 211–212. ISBN 979-8884161399.
  19. ^ Klompenhouwer, Laura (22 June 2014). "Panamese autoriteiten organiseren morgen persconferentie" [Panamanian authorities are organizing press conference tomorrow]. NRC. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  20. ^ Hardinghaus, Christian; Nenner, Annette (2024). Still Lost in Panama. The Real Tragedy on Pianista Trail. Independently published. p. 84. ISBN 979-8884161399.
  21. ^ a b Jeremy Kryt; Nadette De Visser (30 July 2016). "The Last Man to See the Lost Girls of Panama Alive". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  22. ^ "Other Images – Lost in the jungle – The book" (in Dutch). Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  23. ^ Hardinghaus, Christian; Nenner, Annette (2024). Still Lost in Panama. The Real Tragedy on Pianista Trail. Independently published. p. 90. ISBN 979-8884161399.
  24. ^ a b c Jeremy Kryt; Nadette De Visser (7 August 2016). "The Lost Girls of Panama: The Camera, the Jungle, and the Bones". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  25. ^ Hardinghaus, Christian; Nenner, Annette (2024). Still Lost in Panama. The Real Tragedy on Pianista Trail. pp. 155–177. ISBN 979-8884161399.
  26. ^ Chris (10 May 2021). "Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon – Forensic Analysis of Phone Data". imperfect Plan. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  27. ^ a b "Dutch girls' camera took 90 photos in 3 hours". La Estrella de Panamá. 7 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  28. ^ Anonymous (19 June 2014). "Indígenas han sido pieza clave en investigaciones" [Indigenous people have been a key piece in investigations]. Panamá oAmérica (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  29. ^ Kryt, Jeremy (15 May 2017). "Deep Inside the Panama 'Paradise' Murder Mysteries". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  30. ^ Hardinghaus, Christian; Nenner, Annette (2024). Still Lost in Panama. The Real Tragedy on Pianista Trail. Independently published. pp. 97–109. ISBN 979-8884161399.
  31. ^ Kryt, Jeremy (16 May 2017). "The Lost Girls, The Bones, and the Man in the Panama Morgue". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 24 May 2018.

External links[edit]

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