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The head of the school, Maria Elena, also complained later that she could hardly understand Kris and Lisanne, as they spoke no Spanish. Only "the taller one in the flowered blouse" spoke a little Spanish, she says, while the other one didn't. Again, Maria explains that she can't offer her a job. Kris and Lisanne did understand that. Lisanne wrote about this in her diary: "As we arrive at Aura on time, we are not even recognized or given a friendly welcome. The only thing we hear is "no proxima semana"= we are only welcome next week. WHAT?! We returned to the [Spanish] school disappointed and indeed, the daycare only has work for us next week." And Kris wrote in her diary: "When we arrived, we introduced ourselves, expecting the woman to know who we were because she was expecting us, after all. But that was not the case. She showed no sign of recognition and said that it was not possible now [to start volunteer work there] and that we should come back next week. We also did not understand what exactly was going on. Then we went back to the language school to tell our story and to get some answers. It turned out that there was no place/work for us after all this week, so we couldn't start yet. The school also found it very strange, because we had planned things months in advance." So Kris and Lisanne were sent away. All their preparations had been for nothing and all their plans went down the drain at that moment.. Especially Lisanne did not take this setback well, as they planned everything meticulously at home with the help of the travel agency they used, called Het Andere Reizen - roughly translated as A Different type of Travel(ing). Hans Kremers, Kris' father, also stated in a Dutch talk show that staff of the Spanish language school in Boquete - who had helped to organize the volunteer work - had even sent a confirmation email on the Friday, so three days before they were supposed to start their volunteer work. Confirming their start on the Monday. But the reality was that Lisanne texted her parents that day "We have been sent away. I am really very disappointed." A few hours later, Lisanne texted her mother Diny that they were trying to find another spot for them to do volunteer work, and that they would go for that. She started her diary entry for that day with "Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Our first day was a disaster."
Meanwhile the girls stayed with a local host family in Alto Boquete, which is situated south of Boquete, for four weeks; Miriam Guerra often houses international students and had a room for the girls in the main house. Miriam described the girls as smart and shy. In this local newspaper article she also stated that the girls were "restless". She said that on the first evening there, Kris read a book in the girls' bedroom while Lisanne kept Miriam some company in the living room. Despite not speaking very good Spanish, Lisanne managed to explain to Miriam that they didn't yet know what to do with their newfound free time. Miriam suggested the local school Casa Esperanza to them, which requested 'intermediate Spanish language skills'; the same probably applied to the Aura children's school. Casa Esperanza offered similar type of volunteer work, but the girls told her that they had already tried that place in vain. Miriam also recalled to a Dutch newspaper that Lisanne had coughed a lot, as she was "asthmatic". It has not been confirmed as far as I know if Lisanne had actual asthma, or that the journalist just called it asthma but in reality Lisanne had a cold, a sore throat or perhaps even some issues with the higher altitude in Boquete. It seems more likely to have been a cold. Either way, Miriam recalled that Lisanne was not feeling too well and also had a sore throat on Monday evening; Miriam didn't believe they would voluntarily go on a very long hike the next day. But the girls eventually did decide to explore the area the next days. They are claimed to have planned all sorts of sightseeing tours for the next week (starting on Wednesday April 2nd until Saturday), with the help of staff of the local Language school they attended, called Spanish by the River. This Dutch-run Spanish language school has multiple locations, including one in Bocas del Torro, called Spanish by the Sea, and one near Boquete, called Spanish by the River. In fact, this location was situated only a few houses from Miriam's place in Alto Boquete and Kris and Lisanne dropped in there many times, also to check things on the schools computers and to use their Wi-Fi. When replacement volunteer work proved difficult to arrange for the first week of April, the girls showed interest in local day tours, such as climbing the local volcano and visiting a local coffee plantation and a strawberry farm. But for Tuesday they had nothing planned yet. Perhaps to save money, because hiring a guide in Boquete can cost up to $35 or even $45. In this article it is said by a local tour guide that he charged $25 per tourist for a tour on the trails around Boquete.
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The police report also mentions several details from the forensic analysis of the backpack. The attachment of one of the straps had partly come loose. The plastic closures contained deep scratches. The fabric of the bag showed some signs of discoloration in various places, possibly by abrasion. A rectangular piece of the fabric of approximately 30 by 15 mm at the top right corner was missing, showing straight edges at the location of the damage. And close-by there was a straight tear in the fabric of the bag of approximately 10 mm. This big tear was located near and parallel to a seam. It was determined to have been caused by a sharp edge. The precise nature of this edge (whether it was a natural sharp edge or a man-made sharp object) has not been determined. But going by the photo taken of the bag, it does appear to hang upside down on a nail in the wall... Within this tear, the material polyester urethane was found. This material is frequently found as foam or elastomer. But the origin of this specific piece of material remains unknown. Matt had access to the official police files and concluded: "Although the damage of the backpack (scratches and abrasion) is consistent with travelling in a river and rocks, the damage is very light and probably not consistent with a travel of many kilometers in a wild river." An inhabitant of Alto Romero, called Guide Tony, was present when police came to Alto Romero by helicopter and opened the backpack. He told podcast makers that he saw it and says that despite being wet, the backpack was in "pretty decent shape". Having extensively been exposed to the jungle for ten weeks, it had held up. It was damaged, but intact. He also mentioned that he saw how the cellphones and money, all those things "were taken out of the plastic bags". It has not been reported on or cleared up since in what sort of plastic bags the phones and such were found, inside the backpack. Or whether or not Kris and Lisanne ever carried their devices in protective plastic bags.
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It also seems that the girls did not bring some items that could have potentially helped them perhaps, such as a compass, an emergency locator beacon, a solar charger/power-bank, a whistle or a reserve battery for their phones. (Obviously no satellite phone either..). No weapons have been found either; no knife and neither a lighter for instance. And was the key with a blue key chain also the key of their room? Surely they brought it with them. Also, the fact that the backpack seemingly travelled so far up the river raises the question how it could have stayed afloat, as opposed to sink and get saturated with water, in a river that winds for many kilometers and is littered with rocks. This river is said by officials to be able to disintegrate whatever falls into it, when the water is high enough. Yet, the backpack was found with almost no damage and with belongings inside that only endured some water damage. The backpack also seems to have travelled surprisingly far, while items that float in a river are normally more likely wash up on the shore sooner than later. Although the mobile phones and camera suffered some water damage, there was no physical damage to the screens of the mobile phones or the digital camera, such as cracks or dents. The SD card of the digital camera could be read out, and contacts, mobile phone connections and text messages were also extracted from the SIM card of the mobile phones. Hardinghaus and Nenner reported: "We locate these in the file and discover that they all date from before the girls' disappearance." The local cop who first made the inventory of the bag and its content reported one SD card, which was also pictured next to the Canon camera together with its battery, taken out to dry. A strange detail though, described by Hardinghaus and Nenner: "The statement [made on June 12th] by Mayor M., who examined the contents of the rucksack before Pittí arrived at 9:20 a.m., does not quite match this account. He noted that the Samsung phone he examined had neither a SIM card nor a memory card. It is unclear whether this discrepancy, which is certainly significant, was investigated by the authorities." But it most likely was just an error from Mayor M, who may not have noticed the SIM card having been taped to the phone instead.
Regarding these fingerprints it was also reported in the local media that as many as 34 different fingerprints were found; 13 on the backpack, 12 on the (scotch tape on the) phones and 3 the camera, as well as 6 different ones on the bras. A 'complete profile' could be created of at least one person (other than Kris or Lisanne), but Panamanian authorities never tried or managed to trace this person. No fingerprints were properly recorded after all from those helping in the searches and handling evidence that was found on site. Not even the investigators themselves always handled the evidence with protective gloves and masks on; on the scotch tape with which memory cards were attached to the mobile phones/camera, detectives later found several fingerprints, but because the police did not wear gloves it can't even be excluded that officials were to blame for these fingerprints. The report carried out by the Dutch Forensic Institute officially revealed that six fingerprints were found on this self-adhesive tape and that only one of the prints, of which a photograph was sent to the Panamanian prosecutor's office, could have been checked in the Panama database. "This fact seems to have gone unnoticed by the prosecutor Betzaida Pittí, who so far has not checked the fingerprint with the locals who manipulated the objects or other possible suspects. According to the lawyer Enrique Arrocha, defense of the Kremers family, the prosecutor has not taken a statement from the people who handed over the young women's belongings to the prosecution, and neither had she collected the DNA found on the clothing and other belongings of the girls, he confirmed." It was later published in local newspaper La Estrella that one of the fingerprints found on the smartphone matched a Panamanian Database. No updates were ever given on this however. It simply never was cleared up either from whom those fingerprints were. There is also no explanation given as to why the cellphones contained no DNA traces, but at least six (strange) fingerprints. As for the bras: the Dutch forensic report mentioned that five of the fingerprint samples failed to obtain DNA profiles; the sixth came from one of the Institute's employees. There were no forensic results of the water bottle's examination either.
The backpack of the girls was found in good overall condition, but it showed some white discolorations on some places on the fabric (determined to be physical signs of wear) as well as minor botanical traces of leaves and soil material. Kris' dad also shared info early on that there were some minor leaves and sand residue inside the bag. Dutch forensic experts investigated the bag after June 20th and found yellowish-brown clay on the backpack straps, the origin of which they could not determine (it was not determined if the clay came on the backpack on site or after being transported away). Inside the bag were found plant and leaf fragments and loose sand. The Dutch forensic institute failed to determine the source of these plants for lack of reference. The NFI recommended that the specialists in Panama would take soil samples from the locations where the remains were discovered, but prosecutor Betzaida Pittí decided against this and to date, there are no reports of Pittí having compared these botanical results with the vegetation at the site where these belongings from the girls were found or the surrounding area.. The bag strap was also partially detached as the result of a loose seam, which the forensic experts attribute to "normal use." The plastic bag fasteners showed scratches. There was also a rectangular piece of fabric of approximately 30 × 15 millimeters missing from the surface of the bag, with the remaining wire ends looking frayed, seemingly pointing towards damage caused by tearing, a cut, or a stitch with subsequent abrasion. There was also a ten millimeter long cut in the material. The forensic expert in charge suggests that both types of damage were caused by a sharp-edged object. The detection of polyester urethane at the puncture site using infrared micro spectrometry also speaks for this. But Prosecutor Betzaida Pittí stepped to the media with this information and claimed to a local newspaper that the backpack had "signs of dragging". "This suggests - she explained - that the foreigners could have been pushed by one of the tributaries of the river called by the locals as "Culebra", which flows into the Changuinola River, in Bocas del Toro". Talk about trying to steer public opinion.. Both bras were found to contain remnants of sand and plant fragments, with the metal parts showing some slight rust, but no blood traces were found on either the backpack or the bras. In one of the first articles on the matter, the families of Kris and Lisanne expressed their disappointment in the leaking of the footage of Lisanne's backpack. "The family finds it very distressing that these photos appear in the media. They also show bras, which is of course not pleasant."
The data on the mobile phones
showed that within hours after the start of their hike, the girls were in trouble. The Samsung phone could be accessed without problems by investigators, while the iPhone suffered water damage, but its memory card could be accessed in a separate device. This data of the registered mobile phone use was published by forensic reports of the Dutch Forensic Institute and confirmed by the lawyer of the Kremers family; below I write down all the data. (An image of both the phone's permanent memory could be made). The time settings on Kris's phone were still set to the Dutch timezone during her time in Panama (so six hours later), even though the iOS 7.0.6 operating system running on the iPhone usually changes automatically. Notice that Lisanne's Samsung phone was only used at night and in the early morning hours after the first afternoon emergency call on April 1, whereas the iPhone of Kris was only used between 08:00 AM and 14:35 PM, so during the day.
Day one. Around 16:39 PM Panamanian time, when it was still light, a first attempt was made to call emergency services on the day of their disappearance. Around ten minutes later, at 16:51 PM, a second attempt was made. Both times the Dutch emergency number 112 was dialed. 112 is a European emergency number that is also used in some countries outside of the EU. If needed, it automatically switches you through to the emergency number of the country you are in. It also works in Panama. But due to poor reception, these calls didn't go through. Then the phones were powered off, at or just after 17:52 PM for both the iPhone4 and the Samsung phone. It took 14 hours for another attempt to be made to call emergency services. In the days that followed, more attempts to dial emergency services were made. Not only through 112, but also by trying to call 911. That isn't only the American emergency number but also Panama's emergency number for ambulances. Neither of the phones ever made a cell network connection again after April 1st.
April 2nd was also the only day when one of Kris and Lisanne's calls apparently made a short connection at 13:50 PM. *The official police files do not mention this important detail that Lisanne's Samsung phone managed to make a connection with 112 for 1 to 2 seconds, but this leaked phone log from a local Panamanian newspaper (La Estrella de Panamá) does, they say it happened at 13:56.. They also based themselves on police files at the time and have all the other details correct.. I do not know if they are correct or not about this connection however, but I will keep it up here with a source link. Translated: "1:56 PM - The phone turns on. Call to 112 for help in Holland and 911 in Panama. It connects to the GSM and then shuts down." And in this local article that leaked the phone log data, it is stated: "on some occasions the devices managed to connect to the GSM or mobile communications system [..] according to the forensic reports of the Dutch Institute." Then the phone was powered off. If true, it is not clear why exactly the call was disconnected; probably because the connection was too poor, or possibly because the connection was broken off by someone. But then this someone also purposely switched off the phone shortly after. Between the last call of day 2 and the first call of day 3 sit 22 hours.
On day four, Friday, the Samsung phone was powered on and off at 04:50 AM. At 05:00 AM the Samsung phone was again powered on and off. The battery of the Samsung phone from Lisanne was now at 0%. It would be unsuccessfully powered on again on day five at 13:14 PM, and on day ten at 05:15. But the Samsung Galaxy S3 did never properly boot up again. At 10:16 AM the iPhone4 was powered on and off. At 13:42 PM the iPhone4 was again powered on and off.
On day five, Saturday, the iPhone4 was powered on and off at 10:50 AM. This was the last time the SIM pin was entered correctly. From then onward, the wrong PIN code or no PIN code was entered. Until then the phone had successfully received both a SIM pin (0556) and a login PIN to unlock the screen. Apparently this first SIM pin needs to be entered in order to be able to see information such as the phone's signal strength. If entered incorrectly, the phone will be blocked ultimately. This happened correctly until April 5th, 10:50 AM. At 13:37 PM the iPhone4 was powered on and off, but the SIM PIN code was either not entered, or not entered correctly (this cannot be determined). The NFI described it as "the failure to enter the PIN". But whoever entered the SIM pin not/incorrectly must have known the Login pin to unlock the phone. Whomever entered these incorrect PIN codes failed to activate the phone, but in theory phones can still make emergency phone calls then; there is just no access to the phone data itself. At 13:14 PM a log file was created on the Samsung, which is only possible if the phone had power. However, the Samsung did not power up and the battery had probably just enough power to start the phone’s boot process, before it shut down.
On day seven, eight, nine and ten, no activity of either phone could be found. Despite the girls being awake and active seemingly on the night of April 8th, when around 90 nighttime photos were made by someone. So, between day four and six there had been merely a string of attempts to just find a reception signal through a specific pattern of daily times when the phones were switched on and off. Over time they were used less and less to try to call emergency services. They were only powered on and off again now and then. The iPhone from Kris was however switched on and off until day eleven, April 11th, which seems a long time for a smartphone (anno 2014), battery wise. Especially considering Dutch Forensic investigators have confirmed that both the phones had only 51% and 49% battery life on day one, by the time the girls walked up the Pianista Trail at 11:00 AM. Even though the phone was not used on days 7-9, phones even lose a certain amount of battery life when they are switched off.
Then suddenly on day eleven, on Friday April 11th, Kris' iPhone was powered on again at 10:51 AM without a PIN being entered and it stayed on for one hour and four minutes. The phone was then powered off manually at 11:56 AM. The NFI report states that this is a deliberate process and that the phone did not switch itself off, as there should have been a crash report in the system. The iPhone still had some battery remaining, in the range of 22%. But that was the last time it was used. The Dutch forensic scientist commented in the NFI report: "I saw that a total of 11 new log files and system files were created between 10:51 and 11:56 [a.m.]. I also saw that the date and time of the last modification (last written) of 7 other log files and system files were changed. I looked further in these log files and system files for activity between 10:51 and 11:56 [a.m.] that could be related to user actions such as opening applications or system settings. I found no further traces of this." So after a five-day break, someone was busy on April 11 with the phone for 65 minutes. But we don't know what phone services were used. The experts virtually rule out the possibility that the file manipulation could have been caused by an automated process. Someone must have operated the cell phone. Or have the investigators/prosecutor Pittí messed with the log files somehow? The NFI report on the telephone data analysis was unfortunately having some errors (think of the 13:37 time duplication error), but it also "appears incomplete and selective overall" according to authors Hardinghaus and Nenner, who had copies of the files and did a thorough and scientific analysis of them. They also wrote that it is strangely enough not mentioned for this April 11 day whether or not Flight Mode was switched on or off. For all other moments when the cell phone was on long enough, it is recorded however by the NFI that the flight mode was off. But for April 11, the last day the phone was used, it is simply not mentioned in the NFI report. The phone log does not show it either. It is unclear why and has never been covered as a topic by the investigators.
So summarized, the phone logs (which we just have to trust to be correct and complete, although we cannot be 100% sure of that even) show that the phones of Kris and Lisanne only called 112 and 911 during the first three days of their disappearance. No further attempts to call 112 or 911 were made again after day 3. Check part 4 of my blog series for more details about the specific phone use on April 1st, including apps that were used.
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According to some sources, no less than 77 attempts to get into the phone were made between the 7th and 10th of April. Others claim that the wrong PIN code was entered that many times. In this news article, former detective Dick Steffens has been quoted in that there were 80 attempts to log in on the phones of the girls. Wikipedia states [at the moment that I write this] that 77 actual emergency call attempts were made between April 7-10. However, there is controversy about this, and according to others these '77 times' can also refer to the amount of times someone just tried to activate the phone. Matt had access to the police files and revealed in March of 2021 that the info about the 70-something attempts to enter the SIM pin in Kris' iPhone4 was measured over a much longer time period: from March to April. Therefore it is not relevant for the situation after April 1st, he says.
Interesting is also that the time stamp on the phone of the man in the youtube video, once he gets in, is 1:37.. (The equivalent of our European 13:37 PM). The same time that was in Kris' phone for the PIN-less signal check on April 5th. Probably a coincidence though. Initially the Dutch NFI investigators noted down this time of 13:37 for two days in a row in the case files. This caused some interest and suspicion in the online world, because what would be the chances of activating your phone twice at the exact same time, without having a clock or watch to go by? Years later it was clarified by the authorities that it was an error made by the NFI investigators, who inadvertently copied the time of 13:37 and printed it twice; both for April 5th and 6th. In reality the time for April 6th has to be 14:35, the authorities now claim. So that should solve the mystery of the identical phone activation times.. Also interesting is that the guy in that youtube video pressed 112 for help - the Dutch emergency number - and not 911. And he definitely is not Dutch. Meaning that anyone watching this video and not coming from the Netherlands could have known about this number. Another thing is that the Panamanian media had insight in the police report and published this photo. On April 2nd, for 08:14 AM, they registered: "Tomaron una foto de la pantalla del telefono, despues registra apago. Llamada de auxilio al 112". Meaning in English: "They took a picture of the phone screen, then registered the shutdown. Call for help to 112." This is another peculiar thing; the iPhone from Kris took a screenshot picture on day 2 in the morning... (This was confirmed in the official report). It made no sense really why they or someone else would do that. But in the youtube video below, the only way to get access into an iPhone 4 when you don't have the PIN code is to actually make a screenshot, while simultaneously pressing the home button and the power button. Although for several days after that screenshot was taken, the correct PIN code was still being entered in the iPhone from Kris. So the screenshot on day 2 was most likely something insignificant, done accidentally perhaps by one of the girls. By the way, it could also be possible theoretically that these attempts to call emergency services were mostly done by a 3rd party altogether, as a fake trail and by removing the little phone cards that are needed to actually make a connection. More on all that later.
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Gaetan wrote me and stated that if a cell phone connects to the network for 2 seconds [as was claimed by some to have been the case here], the operator automatically knows many things. Because when a mobile phone connects to a network, many data are checked: first, once the pin code is entered, the phone connects to the nearest cell tower. Your phone number is verified by the servers to know which operator you can get access to, then your subscription plan (or prepaid plan) is checked and once deemed valid, you can access the network. All this takes a few seconds. Then you see the network operator’s name on your cellphone. Considering that on April 2nd, Lisanne's Samsung phone had a few seconds of connection that day, this means that the phone was actually connected to a specific cell tower. Meaning that Panamese cell operators should be able to know which cell tower was used when this specific 112 dial was made. Of course, a cell tower doesn’t give you a precise localization like GPS. The accuracy depends on whether or not you are in an urban area (more towers, more accuracy) or in the countryside (less towers, larger radius). In the case of Kris & Lisanne, it would have helped to know if the calls were made from a city or a forest. It would also be good for us to know if a tower near the Pianista Trail pinged, or one near... let's say the Caldera swimming area. However, Panama supposedly found no info on this. Even though cellular tower companies should keep records or logs of established connections. But Betzaida Pitti and her team failed to get this information. The Dutch investigators as a result had nothing to work with. - Gaetan also confirmed that if somebody needed to access the iPhone, a code and pin code were required. At that time, to charge or to connect the iPhone to a computer, you needed its non-standard 30-pin connector to usb-a cable Kris certainly left in her room. Another thing which Gaetan told me, is that in 2014, the iPhone4 (which Kris had) used iOS 7. Even now, people usually leave the tracking location services on by default. It means the iPhone regularly pinpoints your location using either cell or gps. There was even an app showing on a map where you’ve been to. It could be interesting to know where the 112 calls have been made. Unfortunately investigators could not find or extract ANY GPS data from both phones.... Very peculiar and it raises the question whether or no the GPS function was manually disabled. This was not further investigated, so we don't know what happened there.
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which had not the same battery problem as the mobile phones, so could be used for a much longer time. In fact, the battery life of this Canon SX270 HS digital camera is amazing, and if the camera is not used it is known to last for a whole year even. The camera was also reported to have been found in relatively good condition and its SD card was accessible for researchers. The director of the Computer Science Department of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (IMELCF), Humberto Mas, inspected the mobile phones in June of 2014 and assured in the press that despite the conditions in which the devices were found, the information on them could be extracted through a specialized process. Investigators were able to view around 135 consecutive photos (only one was missing, more on that later). The photos that were published look sharp and fine, in the sense that there is no seeming (water) damage to these files. This camera has no GPS location option, so investigators could only establish or guess the location of the photos based on the visible surroundings. A Dutch "highly qualified digital forensics expert" also analyzed the camera and its SD card, and discovered a total of 470 photo files in JPG format and seven video recordings in PMB4 format on the memory card. A total of 134 photos were created after March 31st, numbered from #476 to #609. They fall into two categories: daytime photos from April 1 (33 in total - and possibly a 34th in the form of deleted file #509 - of which 23 have been leaked to the public over time, one way or another), and nighttime photos from April 8, (100 in total, of which we know 50). The NFI only examined image files that were taken after March 31, 2014, i.e. after the girls' disappearance.
The first inspected photos showed the girls in good spirits on April 1st, confirming that the women had taken the Pianista trail and wandered into some wilderness, hours before their first attempt to reach 911, but with no signs of anything unusual. The girls took photos of each other and the weather was good; sunny and no rain. These first sets of photos show them walking up the trail, as well as showing the scenery around the trailhead. As this blogger who took the same route (but on a more cloudy day instead) describes this old cattle trail: "El Pianista Trail is one of the moodiest cloud forests I have ever adventured into. Rain droplets falling to the ground from every leaf and branch while mist floats through dramatically. The early stages of the hike are open fields, with mountains on all sides. You can already see the clouds hugging the summit of the mountain. You know what you are heading into. I enjoyed the early parts of this hike with the beautiful hills on either side and the sounds of the river cascades to the right." And in this blog the Pianista Trail is described as follows: "The trail can be broken into three "sections". In the first 45 minutes, you will walk through open area pasture land with gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains and downtown Boquete. Second you enter a dense jungle* surrounded by lush vegetation, birds and insects. In here you will walk for about 1.5 hours and enter the cloud forest where it is very humid and magical, as you are literally walking in the clouds! Finally after another 30 minutes climbing the mountain, you will reach the top and will be fully enveloped in the cloud forest. It's really an amazing experience!" - *People often call it 'jungle', but Boquete locals tend to correct this notion and describe the nature surrounding the Pianista trail as a highland forest. "Only the highest part is jungle. Like maybe 5% of the presumed "lost" area. The rest is a tropical highland forest with people, large pastures and well hydrated cows. It is not anywhere near as wild as those hyping for click bait and book sales would have you believe. The settlement of Alto Romero where some of the items were found nearby even has cell service."
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Photos #481-486 show the girls just about halfway up the Pianista trail. Photo IMG_483 shows Lisanne and photo IMG_486 shows Kris and Lisanne posing together in a meadow area of the trail. Photo IMG_489 shows Kris on the trail. Photo IMG_491 shows Kris with a stern look on her face, holding two water bottles in front of her. This picture was taken a little bit before the summit, at 12:03 PM. Photo IMG_493 is said to show the trail up the Il Pianista, around 700 meters before the highest point: the (Mirador) summit. It was taken at 12:42 PM. - That is the recalculated time, the official time stamp on that photo was 18:42 PM, but all these times were recalculated by investigators because the girls seemingly never adjusted the time or the correct year, with the camera being set to 2013 instead of 2014.. (You can manually set the time and date on the Canon SX270 HS camera, which had not yet a GPS function). Neither the Canon digital camera nor the iPhone from Kris were set to the correct local time. Although there was a seven hours time difference between the Netherlands and Panama at that time, not six.. But Dutch forensic investigators claimed to have been able to see the time on a wrist watch that was pictured in one photo, and compare it with the camera time for this same photo. [Unfortunately this photo was never made public and in the existing photos of Kris and Lisanne, which can all be seen here, neither of the girls ever wears a wrist watch]. The investigators claim that they discovered that the digital camera was set approximately 6 hours earlier than local Panamanian time. The date and time had to be changed manually and Kris and Lisanne seem to not have done so. They neither adjusted it to summer time on March 30th. - Then the next set of photos on the girls' camera established precisely that they were at El Mirador (a lookout) on the El Pianista Trail, at the summit of the Continental Divide on April 1st, the day they went missing.
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The Continental Divide is a long string of mountain ranges that run all the way from South America to North America. This specific mountain range is called the Cordillera de Talamanca, summarized the CD. At this lookout point you can see both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea on clear days. It is not rarely windy here and the high mountain range catches often clouds and holds on to them as well. But today the girls had clear skies and great vistas. Experts have said that they could determine from the sun’s angle that the photos were taken at approximately 13:00 PM. But there is some controversy about these times, due to multiple important witnesses placing the girls around 14:00 PM at the start of the Pianista trail. More on that later. Then followed a string of selfies on the Pianista summit. Mostly all these selfies have been made public by now, through leaks or through public use of them by family members. Photos IMG_495 (taken at 13:00 PM) until IMG_504 (taken at 13:06 PM) were all taken from the Pianista summit. Photo IMG_499 shows Lisanne smiling on the top of the mountain at 13:01:38 PM. Some people commented on the strange way in which her body seems stretched in this photo. Especially her left breast looks a bit out of proportion suddenly - and only in this photo -, making some people believe this photo could have been photoshopped. Although smartphones also can distort photos around the edges sometimes due to their specific lens. However, this photo was not taken with a smartphone. This Dutch photo specialist has looked into the case and tells you in his video the extent of photoshopping he thinks he detected in the leaked photos of the girls on their trip, which have also been shared in this blog post of mine. Some more about this photo #499; the photo setting is set to landscape, not auto face detect. Yet we see Lisanne's face large and in focus. We can also see clearly in this photo that Lisanne is wearing the same bra that was found in the backpack. This photo with photo number #496 was the second photo the girls took on the summit, at 13:02 PM. The first photo on the summit (#495) has not been shared publicly, but we know from people who have seen all the photos that it is a similar style photo. Just like photo #497 and photo #498, it shows Kris and Lisanne looking proud and elated.
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Both Lisanne and Kris also have their hair tied back in some photos, and loose and windswept in others. They must have rushed around to shoot all these photos on different spots, with different hair styles and all within minutes/seconds. There were also nine photos taken with their smartphones on the summit between 13:14 and 13:15 PM. So again a lot of photos rushed and taken within little over one minute. You can read about them here. At this point they were over 4,5 kilometers away from Boquete. This site tells us that going up the Pianista until the Mirador summit, and then back down to Boquete again, takes the hiker 9,3 kilometers and around 5 hours and 40 minutes on average, depending on your speed and level of fitness. Local tour guides do it a lot faster however and can walk up the mountain in about an hour. Lisanne's brother Martijn retraced his sisters steps later (full TV show on this can be seen here or here) and it took him and a local guide 3 hours to climb the Pianista up to the summit. The girls reached the summit by all accounts in just less than 2 hours time, making them fast walkers. But they also had excellent walking conditions on April 1st of 2014, with sunny dry weather and it had been dry for a long time, so the trail was easy to walk. Other fit hikers also managed to reach the summit (well) within 2 hours, often in rainy and muddy conditions. This hiker for instance who is in good shape, reached the Mirador summit in 1 hour and 20 minutes he stated (and one hour to go back down again).
Normally tourists turn around at this lookout point at the top of the Pianista trail, to walk the same path back to Boquete again. These days there are signs at the top - placed there after the tragedy of Kris and Lisanne - warning people not to walk further without a guide because there is more treacherous terrain ahead. But also a small waterfall... Based on police investigation into their computer use and online search history, we know that Kris and Lisanne had researched the Pianista trail prior to their hike. Please notice here that public prosecutor Pittí only decided to have the computers at the language school examined and to have a digital image of the hard disks and server created on April 29, so 28 whopping days after Kris and Lisanne disappeared! Panamá América reported that: "An inspection of the computer of one of the Dutch women, made by the authorities of that country, showed that hours before her disappearance they were looking for information on the internet about the El Pianista trail." And Dutch digital newspaper RTL Nieuws also reported that Lisanne Froon and Kris Kremers searched on April 1st for info on how to enter the trail, its extension and the conditions of the terrain. The information that most caught the attention of the young women was apparently that there were three sections of the trail that could be covered in three hours, two hours and an hour and a half, the newspaper added. The language school also had a copy of Lonely Planet, in which they read the information that it was necessary to turn around and walk back to return to Boquete. Language school staff member Marjolein also told them explicitly on Sunday March 30th that they had to turn around on the Mirador and had to walk back down again if they ever chose to walk the Pianista trail.
In this video, shot by Kris' father, you can also see the same place in the distance at the 07:50 mark. We can determine from the footage that this place (Boquete and surroundings) faces the south/south-east and that the trail that goes on beyond the summit faces the north. Considering that the trail continues in a more or less straight line, I personally do not believe that these girls ever believed that the ongoing trail allowed them to loop or to eventually see Boquete looming in front of them again if they kept walking on to the north: a theory that has been suggested at times by people following this case online. Not only had language school staff member Marjolein informed them beforehand that they had to turn around, but unless you are in very disorientating, uniform stretch of nature (such as dense woods or plain desert terrain), it is also not that easy to become so disorientated that you forget that the way home is laying straight behind you. We all have a built in sense of direction and granted, some have a better or a lesser developed sense for this, but given that Lisanne or Kris took an actual photo of Boquete laying down there behind them, there is simply no evidence or indication that they believed the trail would somehow loop back home. They would also have seen on this clear sunny day that ahead of them was nothing but nature. No villages. No civilization. Lisanne even checked Google Maps at this point, still standing on the summit. (Earlier that day. she had activated Google Maps on her cell phone at 10:16 AM). A summit which, being the highest point in the area, also could act as a trail marker of sorts. It seems most likely that they kept following the trail north, because it was a glorious day and not that late yet and because there was more nature to be seen ahead.
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So, by the time they were done taking summit selfies, the girls did not return to Boquete, as advised. Instead, they continued to walk on, past the summit: Photo IMG_505 shows Kris bent in a specific way, with one hand used to shield her eyes, looking back. She seems to stick her tongue out. This picture was taken after they walked straight on beyond the summit, following the trail downwards again, further into the tropical forest. It was taken at 13:20 PM. Photo #506 was taken six seconds afterwards and appears to show the infamous 'wall of moss' just behind the summit, something which this matching gif image seems to confirm; it was taken by a youtuber and appears to show the location of photo 505. At 13:38 PM the GSM network connection of their mobile phones was cut off as they had ventured too far from the summit. Then IMG_507 shows Kris crossing a small stream, seen from the back again, at 13:54:50. The back of her jeans shorts shows a mud stain. Authors Hardinghaus and Nenner possess the case files and the normal sized photo copies and they claim that "There is also a small hole in her jeans". This could be of interest, given that the jeans shorts was eventually found by rescuers with similar damage to it. If the authors are correct, this damage may have already been made by Kris before photo #507 was taken and not be any indication of what may have happened after their disappearance. Eight seconds after photo #507 was taken, IMG_508 is said to be taken. It is the last known photo taken by the girls that day. However, strangely enough there are two versions of photo #508: one shows in its metadata that it was taken 8 seconds after photo 507, but another version of the same photo circulating in online media and such, states that this last photo of Kris looking backwards was taken 50 seconds before the previous photo of her passing the creek. Of course, with her general direction of movement being forward and not backwards, this makes no sense. It is strange that two different versions circulate. This photo specialist explains that he thinks that he can link it to photo manipulation by a 3rd party. So far, this is a subjective explanation of events, but interesting nonetheless. The fact that no more daytime photos were taken on April 1st, could implicate either that they kept walking and that something unexpected happened, which prevented them from taking any more photos on the trail leading deeper into the forest. Or it is also possible that they returned at this point, back to the summit of the mountain and that they did not feel like taking more photos of the same scenery they had already seen. They had already taken pictures of that same route, after all. The girls would have probably only needed approximately one hour or less to walk from the location of photo 508 - the 1st quebrada/stream - back to the summit. And to then walk further downhill, back down to Boquete, would have probably taken them 1 (maybe 1,5 hours if they were very slow) at most. They could have been back at the trailhead by 15:30 or 16:00 then. And with the sun setting around 18:40 PM that day, depending on their location beyond the Mirador Kris and Lisanne would have had to turn around at the latest at 16:00 PM, in order to make it home before dark. Although that would have been already tight and 15:00 PM would have been a better time in fact. It is one theory that the girls kept walking after having reached the summit ("plenty of time") around 13:15 PM, but panicked by 16:39 PM. If they had indeed kept walking on and on for all that time, they would never make it back to Boquete before dark then.. More theories will follow. Please check out my entire and comprehensive oversight of all the photos taken by Kris and Lisanne, put in chronological order and with the known photo numbers and times attached here. Update: many of the remaining photos taken by Kris and Lisanne have been made public. You can see them all here or here.
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On April 1st, 33 pictures were taken with the Canon digital camera. Photo #476 was probably the first taken that day, at 11:18 AM (17:18 data time). Left you see the last known photo taken by the girls on April 1st (photo 508). It shows Kris in what’s being called a “Quebrada”: a gully or ravine which you can walk through in the dry season, but in the rainy season they can be knee deep covered in mud. The term can also be used, confusingly, to describe a small stream of water. The photos also show what is said to be a barranca, also a gully or ravine, but with steeper sides, and also treacherous in the rainy season. On the photo of Kris crossing the small stream, the main trail she follows leads to the earlier mentioned small waterfall. They never pictured it however. The girls no longer made smiling selfies at this point, but instead someone - assuming it was Lisanne - took photos of Kris walking some distance in front. Kris looks back and her facial expression has been called slightly worried by some, although this is open for interpretation. The camera point is quite high, indicating that Lisanne may have climbed up onto something perhaps, or that the road itself was making a descent towards the creek. Something I couldn't verify in the videos featuring this stretch of the track.
WHAT HAPPENED THEN?
The question everyone is asking now is: what could have happened to the girls after photo 508 was taken? Their photos show that they had left the Pianista trail and crossed over to the other side of the Divide. The Pianista trail is a clear path, but once you walk on, paths eventually become small trails, poorly maintained and the forest closes in. But not unless you walk on for a very long time; initially the ongoing path is clear to follow and partly surrounded by stone walls that make it nearly impossible to unknowingly divert from this one and ongoing trail. You cross a small stream twice, the second time also passing a very small waterfall of sorts. These trails are said to be used mostly by locals, tourists and indigenous people living within the forests; some walk their cattle there, others use the trails to walk to their coffee plantations. This includes the Ngobe people, who’s village is approximately 12 hours by foot from the Continental Divide, and in whose territory the girls’ backpack was found. But despite this clear to follow trail going on for a long time after the El Mirador, it is a frightening thought that the girls were in distress relatively shortly after they crossed onto this side of the mountain and that they started to call emergency services so soon, while it was still light. And they called those emergency services in vain... The reason why they started calling 112 has never been discovered. Some people think they called for help because they thought they were lost.. Or because one of them had an injury. Being born and bred in the Netherlands myself, I like to stress here something that's a Dutch fact of sorts: every child is thoroughly made aware by their parents and by the state that one does not call 112 for anything short of an immediate life-threatening situation. Think of heart attacks, critical car accidents and being threatened by someone with a gun. You can get punished for abusing the number and even in actual life-threatening situations, many people are hesitant to call 112, unsure if their issue is 'serious' enough. I am extremely weary therefore of the theory that Kris and Lisanne would have called thát Dutch number by 16:39 already when it was still light, simply for fearing they could not make it back home in time or felt lost. That is not usually a good enough reason to call 112 in our country.
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And regarding these emergency calls: David wrote me under one of my youtube videos about this case, that he thinks you would normally only call emergency services as a desperate last resort. It's an important point to bear in mind he thinks, because if someone merely gets lost, in daylight still, his own experience has been that people are inclined to first try to find their own way out. To walk around the area until you find something that looks familiar. Not to start calling emergency services right away. Which seems a valid point to me. Although we need to remember that this was a foreign country, foreign terrain for these girls. Who were just 22 and 21 years old. So they may have panicked faster than they would have done at home, in the Netherlands. But David's point is that it's quite an extreme measure, calling 911 (or 112 in this case). So it is hard to say what triggered Kris and Lisanne to call emergency services themselves at 16:39 PM already. I personally think that it was because they experienced something frightening. Something very acute. Fear of being stalked, or fear of being unwantedly chaperoned by some men they were afraid of perhaps. Of course, one can imagine many possible reasons. They may have endured an injury perhaps. I lean away from that scenario personally, because in such a situation sourch troops should have found them a day or two later sitting alongside or near the trail, logically. And if they hád called 112 because they had just realized that they wouldn't make it back to Boquete before the evening fell (which I do not believe considering the time of day and the normal Dutch hesitancy to call 112 for anything that isn't directly life-threatening), why didn't they also try to call their host family nearby? Miriam's number was in their WhatsApp contact list. She would be a more reliable source to try to contact, being able to direct police or volunteers up there to guide them back home in the twilight or dark. What would emergency call center staff in the Netherlands be able to do, practically, in this situation? And Miriam would have also waited for the girls in the evening with dinner.. Wouldn't Lisanne have tried to call Miriam therefore, when things went wrong? But they didn't try to call the host family... Nor their own family.
Calista Hart wrote this about the girls' disappearance in her blog: "In April my Spanish teacher told me that two young women had gone missing from the sister school in Boquete, Panama. They had left all of their belongings, and not told anyone where they were going that day. The last anyone saw of them they were talking to two strange men, making plans to see the waterfall." With which men they talked, and which exact waterfall they wanted to see? We don't know. There are several in the area. And this blog post has a description of how to get to this one specific waterfall, pictured on the right. It is considered 'the hidden one', as there is no official description of how to get there. Quote: "The Pianista really is a knockout, winding through meadows with stunning mountain vistas along the rushing Rio Pianista, and with an abundance of lush cloud forest vegetation. This trail goes up to the Continental Divide (a more ambitious hike that we did with a group last year), and if you’re especially adventurous, it can take you all the way to Bocas Del Toro on Panama’s Caribbean coast. (CAUTION: no one should EVER go beyond the Continental Divide without an experienced guide. Just Google “Dutch Girls in Panama.”) Today we had something much more mellow in mind – we wanted to get to the “secret” waterfall that Susan and I had not seen yet, but the others in our group had been raving about. The trail begins at the Il Pianista Ristorante (outstanding Italian food, BTW) in the Alto Lino area just north of Boquete. You need to wade across the Rio Pianista after 200m, but then it’s a steady, leisurely incline for 2km before you start to climb a steeper, narrow path. Today, we were accompanied by two young guides, Jefferson and Miguel (as it happens, these cousins are nephews of our gardener, Sergio) – and it was a good thing, because finding the waterfall required us to get off the trail and take another cow path that leads into the cloud forest. We could not have found it on our own. Since we’re right in the middle of the rainy season, it was a pretty muddy slog – but not too bad." Source: blog Latitude Adjustment.
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