Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon left their host family’s home on April 1, 2014, to walk the family’s dog through the Panamanian jungle. It would be the last time anyone would see them.
Disappearance Circumstances
Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon left their host family’s home on April 1, 2014, to walk the family’s dog through the scenic forests surrounding the Baru volcano in Boquete, Panama.
Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon left their host family’s home in Boquete, Panama, on April 1, 2014, to walk the family’s dog through the scenic forests surrounding the Baru volcano.
Kremers and Froon were Amersfoort, Netherlands, students. They had spent six months planning their trip to Panama, which was supposed to be a combination of vacation and service. They intended to spend time hiking and touring, as well as volunteering with local children, teaching arts and crafts, and learning Spanish.
The two women had been backpacking through the Panamanian jungle for the past two weeks and planned to stay with their host family for the next four weeks to volunteer at a local school.
They were never seen again after saying goodbye to their family at 11:00 a.m. on April 1st.
The women had written a Facebook post announcing their plans to tour the nearby village. They also stated that they had brunch with two other Dutchmen before beginning their hike.
The host family noticed something was wrong on the night of April 1. Their dog had returned, safe and sound, but alone — the girls had vanished. The host family searched the area around their home but decided to notify authorities in the morning.
On April 2, Kremers and Froon failed to show up for a private walking tour of Boquete with a local tour guide, prompting the host family to notify authorities. Locals conducted an aerial search of the forest the next morning, as well as a foot search of the village and lightly wooded areas.
The two women were still missing as of April 6. Fearing the worst, the Kremers and Froon families flew to Panama, accompanied by Dutch detectives. They searched the forests for ten days with local police and dog units.
Days turned into weeks, and ten weeks had passed with no sign of Kremers or Froon.
Then, as police were winding down their search, a local woman turned in a blue backpack, claiming to have found it in a rice paddy along the river’s banks. There were two pairs of sunglasses, $83 in cash, Froon’s passport, a water bottle, and two bras in the backpack.
Also inside, most importantly, was Froon’s camera and both of the women’s cell phones.
Police investigated the camera and phones right away and discovered disturbing evidence.
The phones had remained operational for nearly ten days after the women had vanished. Over the course of four days, 77 attempts were made to contact the police, using both 112, the emergency number in the Netherlands, and 911, the emergency number in Panama. Using the call logs, police were able to piece together the time the girls were missing in the woods.
The first two emergency calls came just hours after Kremers and Froon started hiking to the 112 emergency number. Due to the dense jungle, neither attempt was successful.
In fact, only one of the 77 calls made it through but was cut off after only two seconds.
On April 6, police discovered several unsuccessful attempts to unlock Kremers’ phone using an incorrect PIN number. It was never given the correct number again. Both phones had died by April 11.
The call log was disturbing, but it paled in comparison to the camera.
The first photos on the camera were taken on April 1st, before the women left for their hike. The photos showed them on a trail near the Continental Divide, but nothing about them tipped off police.
The second set of photos, on the other hand, was concerning. Photos taken between 1 and 4 a.m. on April 8 showed the girls belongings spread out on rocks, plastic bags and candy wrappers, oddly piled mounds of dirt, a mirror, and — most concerning — the back of Kremers’ head with blood leaking from her temple.
After searching the area where the backpack was discovered, police discovered Kremers’ clothing neatly folded along the river’s edge. A pelvic bone and a foot, still inside a boot, were discovered two months later in the same area.
Soon after, both women’s bones were discovered. The bones of Lisanne Froon appeared to have decomposed naturally, as there were still bits of flesh attached to them.
Kremers’ bones were stark white and appeared to have been bleached.
Police questioned locals, tour guides, and other hikers who were in the area at the time, but nothing other than photos and call logs provided any evidence of what had occurred. There was insufficient evidence to determine the cause of death.
Kris Kremers’ and Lisanne Froon’s disappearance and deaths remain a harrowing mystery to this day.