The Prevailing Theory #014: The Lost Girls of Panama [~6.5 MIN READ]

In 2014, two Dutch women, Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon, mysteriously disappeared while hiking in the mountains of Panama.

Hello, everyone!

This week’s issue of The Prevailing Theory takes us to the South American country of Panama, where we are going to take a closer look at the tragic disappearance of two friends while hiking. We’ll be using our patented FIT method, and if this is your first issue with us, FIT stands for Facts, Investigation, and Theories!

Let’s dig in.

FACTS

Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon were two friends from Utrecht, Netherlands. Both had graduated recently from school and were living as roommates while working at a local restaurant. While working, they managed to save up enough money to travel to Panama for a six week vacation, where they planned on learning and practicing their Spanish, and helping the local community by caring for children while they visited.

Kremers (left) and Froon (right) out for a hike.

The two women arrived in Panama on March 15th, 2014 and spent two weeks just hanging out in the countryside. They hiked, read, and would report back home about their days.

On March 29th, they moved in with a local family in Boquete where they planned to stay while volunteering with a nearby group of children. On April 1st, they both went for a hike and never returned.

The Dutch police and the women’s families arrived on April 6th, but were unable to find anything that pointed to the women’s fate.

INVESTIGATION

In mid June, Kremers’ backpack was discovered by a local woman along a river in the next province, Bocas del Toro, where it contained hers and Lisanne’s phones, $83 USD, Froon’s passport, two pairs of sunglasses, Froon’s camera, and a water bottle.

When I ran the distance between Boquete in the Chiriqui Province and Alto Romero in the Bocas del Toro province, there is no direct road to get there (Google could not calculate a way to get between the two) and they are about 12 miles apart (19.2km).

Authorities discovered that both women’s phones had been powered on a number of times between April 1 and April 11. Several attempts to call 112 (the Dutch emergency number) and 911 (Panamanian emergency number) were made, but none were successfully connected due to lack of phone signal. The first call was made to 112 on April 1 at 4:39 PST (Panamanian Standard Time) from Kremers iPhone, and the next one to 112 just a few minutes later at 4:51 PST from Froon’s Galaxy. In fact, every day between April 1st and April 6th saw Kremers’ iPhone 4 powered on at least once to check signal. Froon’s Galaxy phone died on April 4th, but had been powered on every day between April 1 and April 4. Then there is this four day gap where Kremers’ phone is not powered on at all between April 7 and April 10, before being powered on and back off on the 11th. It had 22% battery at that point.

The final curious point about the phones is that after April 5, Kris Kremers’ phone never had the PIN entered correctly again. Either the phone was powered on to check for signal with no PIN entered at all, or the PIN was entered incorrectly.

The next most curious part about the contents of the backpack was Lisanne Froon’s camera. Authorities discovered a series of ninety flash photos taken the night of April 8 between 1 and 4 AM showing that the women were deep in the jungle at this point. One of the photos shows the back of Kremers’ head (more to the point, her hair laying at length), and still other photos led authorities to think they may have been near a river or ravine.

Because the backpack was discovered near the river in Alto Romero, the local authorities began searching around there for additional clues and discovered Kremers’s shorts a few kilometers from where her backpack was found. If you decide to investigate this case yourself, you may see a report that the shorts were folded and zipped on the rocks. While compelling, it’s incorrect.

Authorities also discovered remains belonging to the two women, and while I’ll spare you the gory details, there is something of note. The bones of both women were found scattered along the river bank two months after the discovery of Kremers’ shorts, notably missing most signs of decomposition or marks from scavengers. In fact, some of the bones had been bleached and were missing joint tissue that remains naturally intact for years when naturally decomposing.

Now that we’ve covered our Facts and dug for more information in the Investigation, we should begin with our theories.

THEORIES

Theory #1: The women got lost while hiking and they both met with unfortunate fatal accidents.

Photos of Froon and Kremers, respectively.

This seems unlikely, as both women would’ve had to have been extremely unlucky for this to occur. One person falling and hurting themselves while hiking alone is an accident, two people doing it in the span of a few days seems like no coincidence. Still, let’s play this one out.

On April 1, the first call to 112 is made. This is the Dutch version of 911. It’s made from Kris’ phone, but it doesn’t go through because of poor signal. In this theory, this call is placed because the women know they are now lost, and are trying to contact the authorities for help.

When the call doesn’t go through, Kremers has Froon use her phone to try and call, but it doesn’t get through either.

As the days carry on, the two women still have no luck finding help, despite the Panamanian authorities sending out search parties as early as April 2nd.

Kris Kremers, in this theory, is severely hurt on April 5th, which explains why her phone PIN was never put in correctly again. Froon, a collegiate volleyball player standing six feet tall, decides to simply try her best to carry the injured Kremers around while they search for help.

At this point, Froon’s unfamiliar with the terrain, area, and local flora/fauna. She could have been attacked by an animal (not likely, due to the condition of her bones), herself fallen while trying to refill her water or even simply passed away of extreme dehydration. This also explains why Kremers’ backpack was found so far from where the women set out originally. Froon simply kept walking looking for any way to get help.

Froon carrying Kremers also explains the April 8 picture of Kremers’ hair among the many pictures of their nearly pitch black surroundings. Froon would be carrying her friend’s unconscious body while looking for help.

Exhausted, dehydrated, and malnourished, Froon would simply succumb to exposure and pass away shortly after Kremers did from her injuries.

Theory #2: The two women met with foul play while they were lost.

There is little evidence this occurred, beyond the manner in which the women’s remains were discovered.

Their remains were found scattered along a river bank, some of them bleached, and with no markings on them. This simply wouldn’t occur in a normal decomposition. There would be scavenger marks, or something, but they wouldn’t be completely unmarked.

Furthermore, the backpack, while discovered on a river bank, was completely dry. All of the contents found were in good condition.

This one is difficult to prove or disprove.

The biggest piece of evidence lay in the phone powering on and off. Remember, it was powered on every day from April 1 to April 6, then wasn’t powered on again until April 11. Why the five day gap? Especially if it had 20% battery left on April 11, when it was powered on for the last time.

CONCLUSION

I honestly don’t have a good feeling about either theory. I could support Theory #1 one day, or Theory #2 the next day.

There is just so much that doesn’t add up in this case that it makes it hard to give my sign off on anything. I think, for the sake of having an answer, that I’ll support Theory #1. It may not have happened exactly as I laid out, but I just don’t see the two of them meeting foul play in such a remote part of the world. It is also fairly well known that April is a season of torrential rain in that part of the world, so that may have contributed to some extent to mud slides, falls, and the like.

Let me know what you think! Leave a comment below or reply to this email with your thoughts!

REFERENCES

Wikipedia Page on the subject
Google Maps
Daily Beast Article (supplemental reading)