Our crime story today may not even be a crime so this makes it different from any other case covered to date. Conspiracy theories galore resonate with this case, and technically the case categorizes as an unexplained death. I do not remember when I first came across this case but it has always intrigued me because evidence exists with absolutely zero answers. Episode 18 covers the disappearances and subsequent deaths of two Dutch girls Lisanne Froon and Kris Kremers who both died while touring in Panama in 2014. This is their crime story.
Before we start, we need to cover some different legal aspects here. The judicial system in Panama, Dutch-Panama relations, as well as what happens when a foreign national goes missing aboard. We will start with the latter: Most embassies around the world have an emergency number that should be called if a foreign national goes missing, is dead, arrested and/ or kidnapped aboard. As an American living abroad in France, I have the number to the American Embassy on speed dial if god-forbid any of these emergencies happen. I can call them or my friends or family here in France or back home in the US can call to report an incident. Essentially my hypothetical situation or another foreign nationals’ situation in a foreign country becomes subject to international law. Now without going into the complex, theoretical aspects of international law just know if “something” happens to you overseas you should immediately call your embassy in that country.
In 2014, two Dutch girls disappeared while in Panama. Specifically in this type of situation. happens one should contact the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Dutch embassy In Panama and the person reporting should give as many details about the person, travel plans, and situation that they can. While the Netherlands has no investigative authority in the county of travel, they can provide aid such as communication, monetary cost of the search, contact with the media, and victim support. Now we have seen in previous cases on this podcast that when a crime takes place aboard the foreign national’s federal government can provide aid to the investigate but only at the discretion and permission on the country that the crime or circumstance occurred. For example, if I go missing here and France, the American FBI can offer aid to the French authorities in the investigation but only if the French authorities allow this to occur. As you can see, it can get really tricky here with politics, foreign relations and even just if the two countries are getting along at the time of the incident. As far as relationships between the Dutch and Panama the two countries have a close (at least geographically) relationship because the Netherlands holds three islands near Panama: Aruba, Curaçao, and Saint Maarten. In 2013, the Netherlands opened a Dutch embassy in Panama to further bond the two nations relations and in the last decade Dutch interests have increased financial investments in Panama.
The Republic of Panama is a transcontinental country located in Central America with the Caribbean Sea to the North, the Pacific Ocean to the south and Costa Rica to the East and Colombia to the west. Panama is most famous for, you guessed it…the Panama Canal. In fact, the Panama Canal generates fully one-third of Panama’s entire economy. With an estimated population of just over 4 million, Panama has one of the smallest populations in Central America. Panama runs on the civil law system with Spanish traditions with a centralized, republican, democratic and representative government composed by a President, two Vice presidents. I found two Vice Presidents to be an interesting factoid! Without further ado, let’s hop into today’s Crime Story.
First and foremost, this case has a bunch of sources in English, Dutch and Spanish, making it somewhat difficult for me to sort through. But I did find this one amazing blog by Dutch Blogger, Koude Kaas, who did extensive research on this case in the Netherlands and wrote it all in English. Most of the following information comes from this blog in addition to traditional news sources.
HERE: https://koudekaas.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-disappearance-of-kris-kremers-and_11.html
In 2014, 22 year old Lisanne Froom and her university roommate and friend 21 year old Kris Kremers had worked at the same restaurant together and hailed from the same hometown of Amersfoort. Friends described Kris as having an open personality, and she loved spoken word and going to museums. She had recently graduated with a degree in Cultural Social Education specializing in Art Education and planned to further her studies in Art History in Amsterdam. Lisanne’s friends described her as shy but optimistic, intelligent, smart and as a great volleyball player. She had just graduated with a degree in Applied Sciences. It seems to me that Kris was the artsy one and Lisanne was the science-y type, Kris an extroverted and Lisanne more introverted, both described as very responsible. The two roommates also shared a love for traveling and planned a special trip together. Beyond just a vacation the two planned to learn another language, Spanish, and use their skills to volunteer with locals, especially children. Somehow the two girls decided that Panama would be the perfect place to do just that and they both saved money for six months to have a spectacular six-week trip in Panama.
On March 15th, 2014, the two girls boarded a plane from Amsterdam bound for Bocas del Toro, Panama. During their two weeks in Bocas del Tora the girls had a great time! They learned Spanish in classes and met two young Dutch travelers while there and spent deal time with them. On March 29th, Kris and Lisanne travelled to Boquete, Panama where they planned to volunteer at a Dutch- Spanish language school there, but this plan hit a setback. The woman who ran the school told them that they could not work there the week they arrived as planned. The school had no place for them and told the girls to come back a week later. Bummed out by this turn of events. Lianne even texted her mom, “We have been sent away, I am really very disappointed.” Luckily, they were able to arrange a homestay with some locals for the remainder of their stay in Panama not far from the language school. The girls told their host family through their broken Spanish that they didn’t know what to do with their week off in Panama. The host family noted that Lisanne had a nasty cough, probably due to Asthma. That weekend and Monday they explored the surrounding area and decided on Tuesday, April, 1st, 2014 they would hike the Pianista Trail, a beautiful 8km trail that passes jungles and waterfalls near Boquete. The girls posted on Facebook their plans to hike around Boquete. Both wore light clothing for their hike, shorts and tank tops. They did not bring much else with them other than a light backpack, one passport, some money, their mobile phones, a separate digital camera, a water bottle, and most likely some food or snacks. No wrappers of anything but small sweets were ever found, Lisanne’s brother later stated that he didn't think they brought any food at all for their planned short hike.
From here the story gets confusing and unmatching stories emerge making the timeline a mess. Before I go into the timeline, note that the girls had cell phones as well as one digital camera that would time stamp a photo. A taxi driver declared that he dropped them off in the afternoon at 1:40 pm, but the clock on their digital camera suggests they started around 11:00 in the morning on their hike at a restaurant called Il Pianista restaurant. The owners and locals at the restaurant warned the girls not to do the hike on their own but they young-being-young they waived off the worries. It’s not very clear from reports but the girls may have actually taken this advice because the owner’s dog, Azul decided to join them for their hike. When Azul returned back to the restaurant later that night, the girls were not with him. The next day Lisanne and Kris had arranged to meet a local guide for a walking tour but they failed to show up. On the afternoon of April 2nd a staff member from the Language School contacted the authorities and the girls' families back in the Netherlands on the fact they had simply not been seen for about 24 hours. On April 2nd authorities conducted an aerial search of the forest and a foot search with the help of local residents. When Kris’ and Lisanne’s parents still hadn’t heard anything by April 6th, one of the girls’ parents boarded a plane along with detectives from the Netherlands. Together, police, dog units and the Dutch detectives searched the forests for a solid ten days. Kris and Lisanne’s parents offered a reward of $30,000 USD, but even this did not bring them any new information for 2.5 months.
Ten weeks later, a local woman found Lisanne’s blue backpack in a rice paddy, stuck between a rock and the river. She found the backpack 8 kilometers away from where the girls were last seen. The interesting thing about the backpack is that this simple, non-waterproof backpack made from a cheap fabric that under normal circumstances would have gotten wet, but she found the backpack dry. The local women believes she saw the backpack in the same location the previous day but couldn’t swear to it. When opened authorities found two pairs of sunglasses, US$83 in cash (some sources say $37), Lisanne’s passport, a water bottle, Lisanne's camera, two bras and the women's phones – all packed, dry, and in good condition. Even more interesting, however, authors found 34 different fingerprints on the backpack and its contents. Investigators determined that two of the fingerprints came from two unknown women and that one DNA sample contained genetic material of two unknown persons, of which one was male.
Phone records showed that some hours after the start of their hike, someone had dialed 112 (the international emergency number) and 911 (the emergency number in Panama). None of the calls went through due to poor reception. Kris had an iPhone 4 and Lisanne has a Galaxy Samsung S III that were found in the backpack. On April 1st at 4:39pm Kris’ phone made a call to 112, at 4:51pm Lisanne’s phone make a call to 112. The next day, Lisanne’s phone made a call to 112 at 6:58am and to 112 and 911 at 10:53am and 1:56pm and Kris’s phone made a call to 112 at 6:41pm that day. The next day on April 3rd the last attempt to contact 911 was made on Kris’ phone at 9:33am. Last operated on April 5 at 5:56 am, Lisanne’s phone managed to make connection with 112 for 1 to 2 seconds. The connection broke off and the phone switched off, as in turned off, deactivated. Unclear as to why the call disconnected perhaps poor connection or perhaps broken off. Therefore we can determine thay Lisanne's Samsung Galaxy battery had died, then suddenly multiple attempts to activate Kris' iPhone. However, the wrong PIN code entered from the afternoon of April 5th, several times. The phone first needed to be unlocked with a special code, which was 0556 for the iPhone, and then the correct PIN code needed to be entered, and this did not happen until April 5th at 13:37 pm. From that time onward, Kris’s iPhone was switched on and off either without entering a PIN code or with a wrong PIN code. Kris’s phone for the next four days made signal checks before it switched off at 1:05am on April 11.
Remember, authorities found the digital camera in the backpack, and WOW the data here provided a treasure trove of information. Obviously from this podcast I cannot show you the pictures but investigators found 133 pictures from the time the girls left the Netherlands. If you look at the podcast’s YouTube page you can see the photos or look at the link posted in the episode notes where the blog I mentioned earlier does a great analysis over each and every photo. But I will try my hardest to explain the camera data, metadata, and photos the best I can.
Lisanne’s camera, a Canon SX270 HS digital camera, had a far better battery life than either girl’s phones. Note: the camera had no GPS tag. The first photos showed the girls in good spirits on April 1st, confirming that the women had taken the Pianista trail and wandered into some wilderness, hours before their first attempt to reach 911, but with no signs of anything unusual. Photos show the girls smiling at a lookout on the trail where they look happy along the trail. The photos have a timestamp of 1 pm while some witnesses stated that the girls left onto the Pianista trail at 2 pm, meaning that they could not have hit the lookout point by 1 pm as the camera states. After the lookout point most hikers just turn around and return back to Boquete making it a 8 kilometer round trip journey. But Lisanne and Kris continued on the trail in the opposite direction of the town, and the last “normal” photo of the girls was on April 1st 1:54pm timestamp but authorities believe it was closer to 7 pm.
The photos eventually become random shots, taken in the dark, with no apparent motive. One showed a twig with plastic bags and candy wrappers on top of a rock, another showed what looks like toilet paper and a mirror on another rock, and another showed the back of Kris' head. The last photo timestamps to April 8 at 10:59 pm. A strange detail notes a missing photo from the roll, which conveniently bridges the gap between the last day-time photo and first night-time photo. The camera skips from photo 508 to 510 and nobody knows why. It could be some kind of camera malfunction, but a camera accidentally skipping a number when shooting a picture seems far-fetched. The other explanation means it was deleted for whatever reason. Attempts to recover the missing photo have been unsuccessful, suggesting manipulation. The families have only released a few of the nighttime photos and they are creepy. The families as well investigators state that the remaining night photos show mostly nothing, or 'nothing but darkness'. The one that interests me the most shows the back of Kris’s head. I think that Lisanne took the photo to assess if Kris had a headwound of sorts. The camera’s flash would provide light for Lisanne to see and Kris had red hair and some says that they see blood among her hair but personally I do not see it. But this photo suggests a potential injury; there exist several analysis’s of the photos and I absolutely encourage you to look at the photos yourself and draw your own conclusion.
After finding the backpack the police searched the area and a few kilometers away found Kris’s denim shorts, zipped and neatly folded atop a rock by a river. Later on witnesses disputed and claimed that the short were not neatly folded and were actually found in the river. A short time later authorities found 33 bone remains and two pairs of shoes along the river. One of the boots had remains of the foot still in it. DNA testing confirmed the bones belonged to the two girls and the shoe with Lisanne’s foot in it was found under a tree, super odd! Forensics stated that the cut of the bone of the foot was surprisingly clean and they found no blood on it but the foot was inflamed mostly due to overuse. The medical examiner found no signs of cutting, hacking, gun shots or teeth or claw markings on the foot, not even when looking for such under the microscope. 28 of 33 bone fragments found were Lisanne’s and the boot was found the most upstream from all the other bones. These fragments consist of only a couple of bones and most of their skeletal bodies remain missing. It only takes one of the bones from a body to show clear impact and violence to change the entire story with a bunch of the girls bones missing we aren’t getting a full picture. One of the more creepy facts that indicate foul play is that Kris’s bones appeared bleached. Due to incomplete skeletons an exact cause and manner of death could not be confirmed.
So, WHAT HAPPENED to Kris and Lisanne?! Let’s discusses some theories. The 1st and most obvious posits that the girls simply got lost while hiking. The trail goes through a cloud forest and experts state that one could easily lose their bearings. But the photos at the lookout point appear to show a clear day. It’s certainly possible and likely probable that the girls did not turn around after warned not to continue on past the lookout without a local guide. They then realized that they were in way over their heads. This would explain the constant calls to 112 and 911. It also provides a rationale reason why many photos just show the night—they used the flash to guide them in the pitch-black forest. As explained before, Kris may have suffered a head wound and the false PIN entries on Kris’ phone could have been Lisanne trying to contact authorities after Kris died or was no longer able to continue walking. They could not find their way through their situation and eventually died of starvation and/or the elements. This theory seems highly circumstantial and relies on drawing several conclusions.
I have already pointed out several problems I have with this theory, the main one being that the missing photo. I have a hard time believing that the camera would just skip a picture and there would be no reason for either one of the girls to erase the picture, especially given the previous theory posits that they were trying to conserve battery life. The dog made it back to town on April 1 so why didn’t the girls simply follow the Azul. Questions emerge on how the bones and belongings were found. The lady who found the backpack wasn’t sure if the backpack was there the day before, but the finding of the backpack suggests that the girls were somewhat close to civilization and should have seen lights at night. The fact they only found bone fragments and not a full skeleton is rare! I also think that evidence of animals scavenging would be present, but the evidence shows the opposite. And how did Lisanne’s foot end up under a tree?
The second theory posits an injury by a fall, which could mean both of them fell or just one, probably Kris. This explains how they lost their bearings so much that logic wasn’t possible. There was no evidence of a shelter being made, no evidence of trying to start a fire, which I think I would do if I were lost to try to live as long as possible. If they had head injuries this would explain why more survival skills were not evidenced. Another theory exists of an attack by an animal could have led to their disappearance. Doing a primary search on Google about animals in the Panama jungle it appear that there isn’t an animal that would stalk them for days, but I am certainly not an animal behaviorist expert! The camera flashes could have been to scare the animals off. At the very least, animals likely had something to do with the scattering of the remains. But whether they can be attributed to their death is still unknown, as are many of the details that still leave more questions than answers.
The final theory and certainly most scary and perhaps least probable is foul play by another tourist and/or a human sacrifice by indigenous groups. Being the Murdernio I am I can never rule out foul play and I think there is at least some circumstantial evidence to suggest it is this case. The main being the missing photo on the camera roll. Web sleuths and criminologists alike have spent countless hours poring over the camera roll thinking that Lisanne and Kris were leaving clues for investigators. Some even say they see other people in the photos besides Kris and Lisanne, which personally I do not but again I encourage you to look for yourself. Other evidence that points to this theory would be the false PIN entries, the other random photos. The Dutch men that Lisanne and Kris vacationed for in their first two weeks in Panama were questioned but their whereabouts place them no where near Lisanne and Kris on the trail. An unconfirmed report says that someone saw the girls having brunch with two young Dutch men before embarking on the trail. Could those men, or someone else who happened by them on the trail, have followed them and forced them deep in the woods? This murder theory definitely explains the unidentified fingerprints, bleached bones, the backpack not by the girls side but why would a murderer A) let Lisanne and Kris take photos then only delete one and B)let them make so many emergency calls. The theory of the indigenous people sacrifice seems a bit farfetched to me with possibly racist bias towards this line of thinking. But people state that several indigenous tribes are known to exist around the region. Other murders have been reported in the area and some have pointed out some suspicious looking details on some of the photos in Lisanne's camera.
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