Hey guys!
So today, I’m going to do a true crime post.
I don’t really know how to preface these posts anymore because usually, I’d update you on what has happened through the week but with me doing this every day, I don’t really have a lot to update you on anymore.
If you don’t already follow me on Twitter – @Eerie_Unsolved – you definitely should because that is where I post any updates whether that be for my blog or just for stuff in general.
I am also looking for YOUR stories for a followers story so be sure to send them to me either via the contact page down below, the comments section or send me a DM on Twitter.Â
But without further ado guys,
Let’s jump into this post…
Background
Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon were two Dutch students who died either on or shortly after April 1, 2014, whilst out hiking in Panama.
Lisanne Froon
Born September 24 1991 – Amersfoot, Netherlands
Disappeared April 1 2014 (aged 22) – Boquete, Chiriqui
Status Human Remains Found
Nationality Dutch
Height 184cm (6ft 0in)
Parents Diny Froon; Peter Froon
Froon was described as aspiring, optimistic and intelligent; it was also stated that she was a passionate volleyball player.
Kris Kremers
Born August 9 1992 (Amersfoot, Netherlands)
Disappeared April 1 2014 (aged 21) – Boquete, Chiriqui
Status Human Remains Found
Nationality Dutch
Height 167cm (5ft 6in)
Parents Roelie Grit; Hans Kremers
Kremers was decribed as open, creative and responsible.
Both of the girls had grown up in Amersfoot and Froon had not long graduated with a degree in Applied Sciences from Deventer the previous September. Kremers had also just completed her studies in Cultural Social Education, specialising in Art Education, at the University of Utrecht.
Only a few weeks prior to the girls leaving for Panama, Froon had moved in with Kremers in a dorm room in Amersfoot and they both worked at a cafe/restaurant In den Kleinan Hap.
Both girls had been saving up money for six months prior to their journey and planned to go to Panama on a special trip to learn Spanish. They also planned on volunteering, hoping to work primarily with children.
The journey was also supposed to be a graduation present for Froon.
Kremers and Froon arrived in Panama for a six-week vacation on March 15 2014. The two girls toured Panama for two weeks before arriving in Boquete on March 29 to live with a local family for a month whilst volunteering with children in the village.
On April 1, the women went joking with their hosts’ dog, leaving at around 11.00am near the clouded forests that surrounded the Baru volcano, possibly the trail of Pianista, not far from Boquete.
The two girls wrote on their Facebook that they intended to walk around Boquete and it was reported that they had been seen having lunch with two young Dutch men before embarking on their hike.
The womens’ hosts became worried when their dog returned home later that day when their dog returned home without Kremers and Froon. In addition to this, Froon’s parents stopped receiving texts from their daughter, which they had been receiving daily.
On the morning of April 2, Froon and Kremers missed an appointment with a local guide. On April 3, authorities began aerial searches of the forests and even local residents began searching for the young women.
On April 6, Kremers’ and Froon’s parents arrived in Panama, along with police, dog units, and detectives from the Netherlands, all prepared to conduct a full-scale search of the forest for ten days. They also offered $30,000 reward money for any information on the whereabouts or the fate of their daughters.
The Backpack
Ten weeks later, a local woman turned in a backpack that ended up belonging to Lisanne Froon. She claims that she found the bag in a rice paddy by a riverbank near her village of Alto Romero in the Bocas del Toro region of Panama. She also claimed that it had not been at the paddy the day before.
It was found that the backpack contained two pairs of sunglasses, $38 USD in cash, Froon’s passport, a water bottle, Froon’s camera, two bras, and both of the womens’ phones. All of these items were packed, dry, and in good condition. Research into the womens’ phones showed that for some hours after the start of their hike, someone had dialled 112 (the international emergency number) and 911 (the Panama emergency number).
|
Date of Call
|
iPhone 4 (Kremers)
|
Samsung Galaxy S III (Froon)
|
|
1 April
|
16:39 – attempt 1 (112)
|
16:51 – attempt 1 (112)
|
|
2 April
|
18:14 – attempt 2 (112)
|
06:58 – attempt 2 (112)
10:53 – attempt 3 (112 & 911) |
|
3 April
|
09:33 – attempt 3 (911)
16:00 – check signal 1 |
13:50 – check signal 1
16:19 – check signal 2 |
|
4 April
|
09:33 – check signal 2
13:42 – check signal 3 |
no activity
|
|
5 April
|
10:50 – check signal 4
13:37 – check signal 5 |
04:50 – check signal 3
05:56 – switch on; battery empty; no further activity |
|
6 April
|
10:26 – check signal 6 (no PIN)
13:37 – check signal 7 (no PIN) |
—
|
|
11 April
|
10:51 – check signal 8 (no PIN)
11:56 – switched off after 1:05 h; no further activity |
—
|
Further evidence showed that Froon’s camera contained photos from April 1 suggesting that the two women had taken the trail overlooking the Continental Divide and that they had wandered into the wilderness hours before their first attempt to dial 911; the photos showed nothing abnormal or unusual in their expressions.
April 8, ninety flash photos had been taken on the camera between 1.00 and 4.00 am, seemingly deep in the forest and in near-complete darkness.
Some of the most notable photos on the camera were:
- Some photos with twigs, plastic bags and candy wrappers on top of a rock.
- One shows what looks like toilet paper and a mirror on another rock.
- Another shows the back of Kremers’ head with what looks like blood on her temple.
The discovery of Froon’s backpacks led to new searches along Culebra. For example, Kremers’ jean shorts were found zipped up and neatly folded neatly atop a rock on the opposite band of the tributary a few kilometres away from where the backpack had been found. Despite this, witnesses later claimed that that the jeans were not folded neatly but, in fact, found in the river itself.
Two months after this, close to where the backpack was found, a pelvis and a boot were found with a foot still in it. Soon after this, thirty-three widely scattered bones were discovered along the same stretch of river and DNA testing confirmed that the bones did in fact belong to Kremers and Froon.
Froon’s bones still had some skin attached to them but Kremers’ bones appeared to have been leached. A Panamanian forensic anthropologists later claimed that under magnification, ‘there are no discernible scratches of any kind on the bones, neither of natural or cultural origin – there are no marks on the bones at all’.
Theories
There are two main theories about what happened to the two girls – either murder or accidental deaths. Both seem to have their fair share of ‘evidence’ to support them.
Accidental Death
One theory is that the girls lost their way whilst hiking. Because of this, it is believed that they could not escape the harsh conditions of the wilderness and somehow fell into the river. The river then dragged the girls and they drowned. It is believed that one girl got hurt or died first, and that this was followed by the other. It is possible that one of the girls was already dead when the ninety flash photos were taken and experts believed that these photos may have been way for the surviving girls to document what had happened to them, almost like a record of events.
Murder
The circumstances behind the deaths were rather suspicious  and as well as evaluation, there is a lot of evidence that suggests that the girls were in fact murdered. The local law enforcement did not conduct a serious investigation into the case as they were scared of hurting the tourism.
It was argued that the the bleaching of the bones and the total fragmentation of the bodies did not logically link the case to accidental deaths.
It was noted that the way in which the bodies were treated mirrored how Mexican cartels disposed of their victims’ bodies and experts say that that the girls’ remains have striking similarities.
It is also possible that a serial killer is roaming Boquete are as over two dozens other unsolved killings and disappearances occurred in the same area of Panama over eight years – with more than two thirds of the cases coming since 2014, when Lisanne and Kris went missing.
And that’s all I have for you today folks.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the case either in the comments down below or as a DM on Twitter.
Until next time guys,
Stay Eerie!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_of_Kris_Kremers_and_Lisanne_Froon
https://truecrimediva.com/kris-kremers-lisanne-froon/
