Author Topic: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon  (Read 1436 times)

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Offline Steve_uk

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The mystery of how two young Dutch girls met their deaths navigating the Pianista Trail of Boquete, Panama in 2014. https://youtu.be/3OPhUt_XJ6Q
« Last Edit: January 19, 2021, 12:13:PM by Steve_uk »

Offline handyman

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2021, 07:41:AM »
Looks to me as though it was the Tour Guide.

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2021, 08:41:PM »
Looks to me as though it was the Tour Guide.
Here is another reportage: https://youtu.be/jQM-TqIO33E
« Last Edit: January 20, 2021, 09:00:PM by Steve_uk »

Offline David1819

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2021, 07:45:PM »
They got lost and fell down a slope. They starved and succumbed to the elements days later. The data on their phones proves this.



« Last Edit: July 11, 2021, 02:36:PM by David1819 »

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2021, 09:29:PM »
The got lost and fell down a slope. They starved and succumbed to the elements days later. The data on their phones proves this.
Yes that's certainly a possibility David. There do remain questions however. Why when they were not dressed for such a long walk did they leave the Pianista trail? Why did they not leave messages on their phones for loved ones (I don't have a smartphone so I don't know what exactly they could have done), what is the significance of the photograph of the back of the girl's head, why was one of the photos deleted, why was the backpack found dry, why were there not more bodyparts discovered, and is there a link between the two girls and this man: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/alex-humphrey-stockport-missing-panama-7342930

Offline David1819

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2021, 02:30:PM »
Yes that's certainly a possibility David. There do remain questions however. Why when they were not dressed for such a long walk did they leave the Pianista trail? Why did they not leave messages on their phones for loved ones (I don't have a smartphone so I don't know what exactly they could have done), what is the significance of the photograph of the back of the girl's head, why was one of the photos deleted, why was the backpack found dry, why were there not more bodyparts discovered, and is there a link between the two girls and this man: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/alex-humphrey-stockport-missing-panama-7342930

They did not deliberately leave the trail, they went in a wrong direction.

The phones had made many attempted emergency calls however there was no signal. The photos taken of the night sky show there were trying to use to camera flash to alert the search helicopters.

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2021, 01:49:AM »
They did not deliberately leave the trail, they went in a wrong direction.

The phones had made many attempted emergency calls however there was no signal. The photos taken of the night sky show there were trying to use to camera flash to alert the search helicopters.
Kathy Reichs, forensic anthropologist, rejects your theory on the photographs though does conclude that foul play was unlikely.

There are more unexplained questions in this article: https://koudekaas.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-disappearance-of-kris-kremers-and.html
« Last Edit: January 23, 2021, 01:49:AM by Steve_uk »

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2021, 12:49:AM »
From the Daily Beast:

END OF TRAIL, NO RETURN PASSAGE

Posted high in the cloud forests that surround the still-active Baru volcano, the marker is hard to miss. But the sign also lists sharply to one side—as if this remote warning had been slapped together in a rush.

Back in early April of 2014, when Kris Kremers, 21, and Lisanne Froon, 22, disappeared near the top of the Divide, there was no sign here at all.

For weeks there was no sign of the women either. Investigators know they started the hike in good weather, at mid-morning, and should have summited by about 1:00 p.m. That would have given them plenty of time to return to Boquete before nightfall, but for some reason they never made it back to town.

After a slow start, authorities eventually put dog teams on the ground and rescue choppers in the air—but initial search efforts proved useless.

A few months later some scattered remains were found in the rugged country on the far side of the Divide, on the banks of a river that locals call the Culebra, or Serpent. DNA tests confirmed a match, but the actual cause of death for the holandesas—as they came to be known throughout Panama—remains unsolved.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2021, 12:50:AM by Steve_uk »

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2021, 12:50:AM »
The local authorities’ version of events is that Froon and Kremers died in some kind of hiking accident, but few specifics have been offered to back this hypothesis.

Some close to the case doubt the “hiking accident” scenario. They suggest a darker version of events, including a possible sex crime and murder—which the government either ignored or covered up. According to this theory, the remains and belongings were either thrown in the river to get rid of them, or deliberately planted by the perpetrators.

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2021, 12:51:AM »
Which brings us back to the crooked sign atop the Continental Divide, in the rainforests of Panama’s highest cordillera.

The sign reads “End of Trail” because that’s where the official tourist footpath from Boquete up to the Divide ends. That trail—called La Pianista due to its keyboard-like ups and downs—is maintained by rangers from the nearby Baru National Park.

But the galvanized sign marking the terminus of the Pianista isn’t really the “end of the trail.” In fact, there’s a very obvious, albeit mud-choked, passage that goes down the other side of the crest—only to intersect with an entire web of paths constructed and used primarily by members of the indigenous Ngobe tribe.

These nameless trails aren’t monitored or maintained by park rangers. They’re also exceptionally rugged and dangerous, especially during the April-to-October wet season. Even the Ngobe only use them when absolutely necessary after the big rains come.

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #10 on: January 24, 2021, 12:51:AM »
A key tenet of the foul-play hypothesis is that Kris and Lisanne, who had come to Boquete to study Spanish and volunteer to work with children in the community, wouldn’t have wandered off onto the daunting and mud-choked indigenous trails.

Or at least not of their free will. The women had only light clothing, and no food, camping, or survival gear, indicating they almost certainly had not planned for more than a few hours’ hike in the forest.

Proponents of an abduction theory claim that Kris and Lisanne were either forced down into the web of native trails by a third party, or abducted after returning from their hike up to the Divide—possibly while walking the two-lane highway back into the small tourist town of Boquete in the valley below. (Robberies have occurred on the trail before, and travel guides like Lonely Planet have warned about crime on the Pianista.)

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2021, 12:52:AM »
“I hiked it myself—the whole trail. I saw it with my own eyes,” said Enrique Arrocha, the lawyer who represented the Kremers family in the investigation, when I met with him in Boquete. “Once you start to go down the other side everything changes. The country is very wild. The mud comes up to here,” he slapped his leg at the knee.

“The trail is like a river! It’s almost impossible to walk it,” said Arrocha, who strongly advocates for a criminal investigation due to unanswered questions about the case.

“I saw what conditions were like,” and he slapped his knee again, harder this time.

“The holandesas would never have wanted to go on down into that hell.”

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #12 on: January 24, 2021, 12:53:AM »
Up at the Continental Divide, on a recent rain-soaked afternoon, I can see that the lawyer isn’t lying about the harsh conditions.

The off-limits pathway on the other side of the signpost is so steep that sometimes you have to scoot down backwards on all fours. The main trace is also crisscrossed by a baffling network of game trails and creek beds.

Too steep even for mules, the trail eventually runs out of the state called Chiriquí, and into the province called Bocas del Toro. On the way it crosses several steep river gorges. These same ravines, which can be up to 70 feet deep, must be traversed using notoriously unsteady cable bridges. (Those same cables also made the trail off-limits for search dogs.)

As the trail appears now, in the midst of northern Panama’s six-month rainy season, it’s hard to imagine the women would attempt it. Lisanne was an accomplished athlete, with an Alpine hiking background; Kris had less outdoors experience, but she was also young and healthy. Even so, they would have been out of their league after crossing the Divide.

Extreme hikers who pay guides to take them into the river canyons of Bocas typically tackle the canyons with full-frame packs and supplies to last for days. They also come equipped with ponchos, weather-proof tents, and other gear to protect against the constant, chill-inducing rains.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2021, 12:54:AM by Steve_uk »

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #13 on: January 24, 2021, 12:55:AM »
But it doesn’t always rain in Bocas. In fact, when Kris and Lisanne reached the clearing at the top of the Continental Divide on April 1—dry season weather patterns were still in effect.

The holandesas’s own recovered photographs show the day they disappeared was bright and sunny, as was the rest of that week. Trails would have been considerably easier to hike at that time, as river levels much lower—at least for the first few days after they went missing.

Once the rains start, though, conditions can change overnight. The same heavy rains and thick mists that make this cloud forest such a unique ecosystem can also limit visibility to almost nothing within seconds. Most of the time, navigating in the forest by the sun or stars just isn’t possible.

“Sometimes even we get lost over there,” says Plinio Montenegro, a senior tour guide in Boquete, when I ask him about the maze of trails on the other side of the Divide.

Offline Steve_uk

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Re: Death in Panama: the mystery of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
« Reply #14 on: January 24, 2021, 12:55:AM »
Back in January, Plinio tells me, a party of eight guides on a training mission got disoriented and lost on the Bocas side, in the same area where Kris and Lisanne went missing.

“First they got lost, then they started fighting about which route to take, until finally the group split up over it,” says Plinio, who volunteered to lead several searches for Kremers and Froon after the initial alert went out. He was also tapped to find the eight stranded apprentice guides—and brought them all back home again.

Plinio is still in top shape at 35, and like all the government-licensed guides in Boquete, speaks fluent English. As we talk in the lobby of my hotel, he describes the feeling that comes over those lost in the jungle as “a kind of forest madness.”

“Once you get lost up there you change. You’re not the same person you are down below,” he says. “Some people go crazy and start to sprint down the trail,” he says. “It’s like a nightmare to be lost in the selva.”