What most likely happened to Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon
Among the clouds: The disappearance of Lisanne Froon and Kris Kremes It is said that in the “Pianista” trail, near the town of Boquete in Panama, one can walk among the clouds. The trail is located at the Continental Divide that traverses all of the landmass of the American continent, dividing it into two hydrological systems, draining to either the Pacific or the Atlantic oceans.
The extreme humidity and altitude make it a relatively challenging trail, with lots of lush vegetation and animal life. Some parts of it are also affected by yearly flash floods. At the summit of the trail, the “Mirador”, there is a small sign warning about going further down the trail, towards the opposite site of where it being next to the “ll Pianista” restaurant.
It advises tourists to not continue without a guide or a local companion. Before 2014, there was no sign at the summit. Another newer addition to the trail is a small memorial, a red cross with two names written on it: Lisanne Froon and Kris Kremers. These young dutch women disappeared on the “Pianista” trail while on a holiday in Panama in 2014.
The case made international headlines, and shook both the Netherlands and Panama to their core. But what do we know about what happened to Lisanne and Kris? Only parts of their bodies and some of their supplies were recovered. Could there have been some foul play involved? Or were they unfortunate victims of nature? Lisanne and Kris Lisanne Froon and Kris Kremers both grew up in Amersfoort, a picturesque medieval town in Central Netherlands.
Lisanne was 22, she had studied Applied Psychology, and is described by The Foundation set up by her and Kris’s loved ones as adaptable, inquisitive and thoughtful, as well as sporty and a fan of volleyball. Kris was slightly younger than Lisanne, at 21, and had studied Cultural Social Education, specializing in Art Education at the University of Utrecht. The Foundation describes Kris as creative, aspiring and really passionate about art and education. On March 15, 2014, both women boarded a plane in Amsterdam, headed towards Panama.
They had saved for six months to travel to the Central American country, where they hoped to get to know the natural landscape and the local people, and had arranged to volunteer at a local rural school. They also wanted to learn Spanish. A week before their trip they had become roommates, while also working at the same Café. The trip was also a celebration for Froon’s graduation.
After some sightseeing and traveling around the country for a couple of weeks, they arrived in Boquete, a small town in the Panamanian green highlands, near the Baru Volcano. In recent years, the town has become a prominent sightseeing spot, and a popular retirement place for older people from Europe and North America because of its cool climate and beautiful natural surroundings and hiking trails. One of such trails is called “El Pianista”, spanish for “The Pianist”.
Once Lisanne and Kris arrived in Boquete to their host family’s house, they headed towards the school where they had volunteered to help the local children. There, they found out that the school didn’t want any volunteers that didn’t speak fluent Spanish, in spite of the fact that they had received confirmation from the school some days prior about the volunteer program. They were supposed to stay there for the better part of a month.
Throughout their first weeks in Panama, the pair kept a diary and also wrote continuously to their parents and family, and in the case of Lisanne to her boyfriend back in the Netherlands. Kris and Lisanne expressed their disappointment about the volunteer work to their loved ones, but also quickly started searching for other places where they could volunteer in and around town, finding a couple of possibilities.
They also both mentioned they were going hiking to “El Pianista”. From several eyewitness accounts, it seems the young women started their hike around 2pm on April 1st, 2014. The same accounts claim they took a local dog with them, named “Azul”, which is the Spanish word for blue. Azul was the pet of the owners of “Il Pianista”, a restaurant near the beginning of the trail specialized in Italian cuisine.
Some witnesses claimed that they had warned Lisanne and Kris about hiking the trail alone, but it seems the trail wasn’t particularly known as a dangerous hike. The disappearance and its aftermath Whatever shape these warnings about the trail took place, the women apparently waved them aside and went on with their hike.
Many hours later, Azul would come back from the cloudy paths of “El Pianista” alone. On April the 2nd, alarms would start to go off from the locals who had met the women, including their host family, a guide they had scheduled to meet the next day, and the owners of Il Pianista. Some days later, the women’s parents would arrive in Panama, with Dutch investigators coming along with them, and a massive search would start to fruitlessly try to find Lisanne and Kriss.
The investigation would continue, but their families, heartbroken, would head back home without finding answers, at least for a while. A couple of months later, on June 11th, a blue lycra backpack was found at the edge of the Culebra River in the Changuinola Province, more than 15km from where the young women were last seen.
Inside, two mobile phones, undergarments, two pairs of sunglasses, a key and 88 dollars in cash were found. Also in the backpack: an international insurance license for Lisanne. The finding of the backpack sent the investigation teams into full gear around the area where it was found. Much has been speculated about the possible mishandling of the investigation regarding the backpack and further findings, especially in terms of forensics.
13 DNA samples were taken from the backpack by the Panamanian police. From this, DNA was found in 3 of them, and identified as belonging to two different women and a man. None of these were matched with a person, not even with Kris or Lisanne. A further Dutch forensic team analyzed the backpack and its items, but no DNA evidence was reported.
Although many fingerprints were apparently found, none of them could be matched, and it was reported that some of the evidence was accidentally contaminated by the local police who handled the items originally. It was reported at one point that one fingerprint had matched a Panamanian database, but the information was not confirmed. Throughout the trail, both Panamanian and international newspapers grasped at straws to keep the case in the news, so a lot of conflicting reports exist from contemporary sources.
After the backpack, suddenly some bones started to appear most of them in the same general area as the bag, down near the Culebra river, at least a 15 hour walk from where the women were last spotted. The Panamanian authorities speculated that the remains had floated downriver after the women had an unfortunate accident. But not everything seems to add up.
Most of the bones found were completely dry, without tissues or fat. Some of them did have some tissue remaining, pointing to an extremely different timeline of decomposition, and according to some reports not really matching with bones being a lot of time surrounded by water in any case.
Decomposition rates can vary according to a lot of factors, so the authorities theory couldn’t be completely discarded. One finding that baffled most of the investigation team was the condition of one of Kris’s bones. It had white discoloration, seemed almost bleached. Several theories were advanced to how this could’ve happened naturally.
Some experts at the time claimed that maybe the bones were “exposed to the sun for a long time or that the burial site corresponded to an area of very basic chemical elements, affecting the phosphates and calcium carbonates from each of the bone components, causing the whitish coloration.” No cause of death could be concluded from the bones.
Even later apparently some skin tissue was found unattached to anything, muddying every theory yet again. The remain barely had animal markings, and some bones had root markings, which occur when rootlets invade the bones after death, complicating the possible timeline yet again. The investigation and the known facts Several possible avenues were followed by the authorities concerning the possibility of foul play. One of the possible clues found at the time was a photograph taken from the phone of a local,
which, though in a really low resolution, shows two young men and women, with the women fitting roughly the profiles of Lisanne and Kris. According to the metadata of the photo, it was taken the day of the women’s dissapearence. The Panamanian investigators later concluded that the women in the picture were neither Lisanne nor Kris, but never publicly said how they came to this conclusion, neither identified who these women were instead.
A lot of the speculation and investigation after the finding of the belonging and remains was related to the women’ phones and camera, to try to reconstruct a timeline of what happened once they were in the Pianista trail, and possibly what went wrong. These are the generally agreed upon known facts of what happened to them from the evidence found on the phones and camera: Lisanne and Kris embarked on El Pianista on the 1st of April around lunchtime.
Subsequent photos found on the camera match images from the summit of the trail, so we know they reached the summit and appeared to be mostly in good spirits. Further photos from camera taken on the same first day appear to be from further down the trail, after the continental divide, but haven’t been matched 100% to the area.
The phone’s records show the women tried to contact an emergency number from the first day afternoon, way before dark, according to their phone logs. From then on their phones were barely used for days, maybe to save battery power. The girl’s camera was used again on April 8th to take pictures in the dark for a few hours during the early morning.
It is not clear where these photos were taken, but a lot of them capture really similar angles of the same places. One of the photos shows apparently blonde/reddish hair from an unknown angle. After one of the phones ran out of battery, another was turned on and off several times and after a few times the PIN either wasn’t entered correctly or wasn’t entered at all.
The whole Pianista area and the surroundings were sweeped some days after the women disappeared. If the timeline with the camera stands then they were alive up to the 8th of April but weren’s found by the rescue teams. Their remains started to appear more than two months after the women disappeared, some up to five months later.
Mostly fragments of bones and skin were recovered, a lot of them suspiciously well preserved or in the case of Kris’s bones, in an otherwise unusual condition. The handling of the case by Bethsaida Pitti and the Panamanian authorities has been criticized both in Panama and the Netherlands, and in several publications across the globe.
Some of the main issues are related to poor handling of evidence, and rushing to conclusions without fully looking into all possibilities. The photos found in the SD card were edited to try to make them “more visible”. One photo was missing from the camera roll, as the camera count skipped one number, which usually indicated an image was eliminated when more photos were taken after it.
After some further investigation and under pressure to come up with answers, the Panamanian authorities concluded the women likely died in an accident near some well known “monkey bridges”, that are known to be dangerous. Although no foul play was concluded to have happened by the authorities, dozens of both professional and amateur sleuths, journalists and otherwise interested parties have kept the case alive for almost a decade.
Occam’s Razor We will now analyze some of the main theories regarding what could have happened to Lisanne And Kris, and apply the principle of Occam’s Razor to it. We will try to find the explanation that required the smallest amount of assumptions or of unknown information, as Occam’s Razor posits that this is the most likely outcome.
The Accident theory: They fell down from the monkey bridges and into the river: This theory checks out with where the bones were found, downriver, and with some but not all of the conditions of the bones. Some individual bones found exactly next to each other, 14 hours down stream from where the accident could have happened.
It is really unlikely the bones would be found like this, but still possible. Other bones and remains were found in places further away. The belonging and clothes were found in relatively good condition, with low to no water damage. This also seems relatively unlikely, but the phones, for example, were found inside a sealed ziplock, which explains their status.
The phones and camera records would seem indicate that they were active several days after they left, lost, but the searches that took place for weeks did not find them. It is possible they were still walking for days without running into anyone from the search, but unlikely. There are some assumptions we need to make, but some of the evidence does seem to point towards this theory as a solution.
The Foul Play Theory: Someone found them on the trail, kidnapped and murdered them. One of the strongest arguments for the Foul Play theory is the weird behavior and patterns with the phones and cameras, along with their mysterious appearance months later. It is plausible that the women continued to use their phones sporadically, but it seems strange that they mostly didn’t unlock them nor attempt constant emergency calls.
The photos with the camera are completely unexplained, though some have speculated that if it was really them, they could’ve been trying to keep an animal away with the flash photos. Another argument for the foul play theory is that a full sweep of the area after they went missing found no trace of them, but some photos are of days later.
Again, is it possible they were simply not found, but the searches were really extensive through several weeks. There is apparently one missing photo number in the camera, according to the automatic numeration of the photos. This would seem to indicate that a photo was eliminated after further photos were taken.
This numbered photo would be exactly between the last photos from the day the women went missing, and the first photos taken at night on April 8th. Though we can’t know conclusively who deleted the photo or why, it is suspicious that exactly that photo is missing. Amongst the remains, there were no signs of foul play, like the use of firearms or sharp objects, found.
Although this complicates coming to any conclusion regarding foul play, it is difficult also to confirm the alternative, the accident, since so little of the bodies was recovered. Both the Accident and the Foul Play theory require us to assume several things we don’t know about the timelines of the events and the evidence found and missing. The main thing that would lead us to believe the Accident Theory more easily is that we don’t have to assume the involvement of a third party, and we haven’t been able to conclusively identify a third party for the Foul Play Theory.
However, there is some speculation about a potential third party involved, which could blow the case wide open again and lead the investigators towards the Foul Play theory, and the most recent developments revealed in November of 2022. The newest findings In a recent podcast by Mariana Atencio and Jeremy Kryt about the disappearance, they go through the whole case, analyzing it from every angle, even traveling to Boquete and traversing the Pianista Trail. On the sixth and final episode of the podcast,
they interview Margarita, the mother of one of the the young men that appeared in a photo with a pair of women that some speculated were Lisanne and Kris. The owner of the phone that took the photo, Osman, died under mysterious circumstances some days after the women disappeared.
Although the death was initially ruled an accidental drowning, further testimonies, including by Margarita in the podcast, seem to agree that there was foul play involved. Details like the types of injuries Osman had and the fact that some members of a local gang disrupted the youth’s funeral seem to support the idea that this was no simple drowning. While being interviewed by Mariana and Jeremy, Margarita claims that her son was killed because he knew what had happened to the “Holandesas”, Spanish for Dutch women.
She goes on to describe the specific scenario she claims led to the death of the women, which was relayed to her by a former member of the local gang involved. This former member, Jose Manuel, was also reported as having died under mysterious circumstances, like Osman, but a year after the events occurred.
Margarita claims he was killed because his fellow gang members thought he was close to revealing the fate of the Dutch women. According to Margarita, a local gang known as the “Bandida”, who had met and partied with the girls before and who were apparently friendly with her son, intercepted the women while they were on the trail and then took them partying.
During the party, one of the women rejected advances from one of the men, and then the whole group, drug fueled and in a rage, abused and killed the women. According to Margarita, every finding after the first picture from the first day, was planned by the gang as a way to hide what they did. It if were possible to verify this, it could help track with the weird phone usage patterns, the later photos, and even the potential deleted photos.
It could also explain why the belonging and remains started appearing suddenly after several months, in weird patterns and under suspicious circumstances. The testimony of Margarita is paired in the podcast with the finding of independent detective Martin O’Donnell, who has investigated the case of Lisanne and Kris thoroughly and reached a conclusion that was similar to what was claimed by Margarita.
The Panamanian authorities officially closed the case years ago, deciding that the explanation of an accident causing the disappearance was what made the most sense. Years of sleuthing by many independent parties had slowly uncovered a lot of issues with the investigation, and even though nothing is certain, it seems likelier with each new revelation that some foul play might have been involved.
Since the disappearance of Lisanne and Kris, several other people have disappeared at or near the trail, with some of the disappearances being investigated as murders. If indeed a third party was involved in the disappearance, it would be paramount to bring them to justice so they can’t do that to anyone else. But the truth of the matter is that we don’t really know what happened.
Their families have suffered through years of scrutiny and conflicting narratives, through countless blog posts, forum threads and anonymous sources. Hopefully their quest for closure will be eventually fulfilled. All we know is that Lisanne and Kris wanted to walk among the clouds that day in April, and that the best way to honor them is to remember them as they were, two aspiring, intelligent and vibrant young women whose lives were tragically cut short. May they rest in peace.
