Parents try to retrace the steps, the holiday in Bocas del Toro and an early local radio program

The missing Dutch girls in Panama

This is a video made by the parents of Kris, showing their own search on the Pianista trail 

And this is a Dutch tv clip of the parents of both girls telling about their attempts to find Lisanne and Kris in Panama. The Kremers family followed the exact same trail that the girls took in early August 2014. This was roughly four months after the girls went missing. The Kremers followed the route which Kris and Lisanne had walked, based on the evidence of their location from their photos. This wasn't the first time they did so, as in April they had also followed the trail already, but this time they recorded it and went out further, to see if the trail could hold any answers potentially about what could have happened to Kris and Lisanne. You can watch Kris' parents walk the route the girls took in this youtube video for which I made English subtitles. It is a very insightful and moving video. After passing the top of the Il Pianista trail, the parents saw for themselves that there is simply one track you can follow. Kris' father says that he and his wife think there is no way you can get lost here, given that there are no exits. It leads you in about an hour walking time through a simple ongoing path from the Mirador, passing two quebrada gullies, forest and small streams, to an open stretch of meadow fields with some scattered small sheds. There are in fact two finca's located in that meadow* (*also called the Paddock often, in fact consisting of three large paddocks lined up behind one another]. A finca is the equivalent of a small house in rural, agricultural countryside, often no more than a wooden basic house or even a shed in Panama. The finca on the second paddock is named 'Alejandro Pittí', after its last owner. So at about an hour's walk from this first small stream after the Pianista summit (the place where photos #507 and #508 were taken), there was in theory the opportunity for Kris and Lisanne to find shelter in one of such finca's. But when rescue workers started searching the area, they weren't there. What also stands out in this video is that the girls took tourist-style photos at the top of the Pianista trail, between 13:00-13:15 PM if we go by the digital camera's time settings. And they kept taking photos as they kept following the path downhill, passing the first small water stream, around 14:00 PM, but.. then there were around two and a half more hours to go before the girls started to make their first emergency phone call attempt. In which only the missing photo 509 'may' have been taken. Where did they walk to during those next hours? And why do we not have any more photos of the rest of the ongoing trail? The parents say on camera that there is literally nowhere you can seriously fall on this trail, or where you can get lost. It's one trail, surrounded by mountain walls. Either you walk on, or you walk back. 

If you walk on, there is another water stream soon after (second quebrada - also called... Pittí stream. I am not making this up), which is like a mini waterfall; Kris' father says on camera that he doesn't understand why the girls wouldn't have taken photos there, as it is a pretty sight. They also could have known about it beforehand because they had looked the trail up online the day prior. So why not take a photo here, like they had already done with some other pretty spots, Hans Kremers wonders out loud? Or as someone else wrote online: "I can assure everyone: whoever reaches the 2nd quebrada, will make dozens (so to speak) of photos. Not for nothing have I baptised that quebrada "The hidden gem of Bocas del Toro province". No way the girls would not have taken any photos over there. No way. For them to not take photos is an inconsistency that should not be ignored. The girls would not (yet) have been lost when reaching the 2nd quebrada. They were carrying three camera devices that day: the camera and their two phones." - Back to Hans and Roelie. Walking further, still on one clearly defined trail, the parents come up to a meadow of sorts (called the paddock) which would have had stunning views on April 1st 2014 when the girls were there, as it was nice cloudless weather. Yet there were no photos taken here either. Kris' father finds this strange as well. And if the girls had thought initially that moving on from the Mirador, further down the tropical highland forest would bring them somehow back to Boquete or to civilization, then they would have known by now that this was not the case, he says. The wide views make it clear that Boquete is not in this direction. And Kris' parents think that they would definitely have turned around at that point to walk back. In January of 2015 Dutch pathologist Frank van de Goot walked this same trail and confirmed that indeed, it is one ongoing trail without side trails. The Kremers' family lawyer Enrique Arrocha also hiked the trail himself and went all the way to where the bones were found, which is further up north. He also doesn’t believe the trail is poorly marked (or that the girls got lost). 

Up until the meadow, the parents didn't see or pass any dangerous spot where you can slip, or fall, or injure yourself in any serious way. No ravines, no steep descents. The parents of Kris therefore think that between the river spot where the last picture was taken and the meadow, something strange must have happened. They hint at foul play here. Because the next visual 'contact' was made a week later, in the middle of the night ("the nighttime photos") in what Kris' parents think was some sort of a cave in which the girls were sitting. Or a path where they had ended up. And the orange red coloured rocks that are seen in some of the nighttime photos are only said to be found in that part of the jungle that descends beyond the Pianista trail, Hans Kremers says. I am not sure if this is correct. But Kris' parents are convinced that the girls did not voluntarily walk on for days. They refuse to believe that Kris and Lisanne got lost, after seeing for themselves that after you reach the top of the Pianista trail, the path continues on for kilometers in a clearly visible and safe manner*. And by 16:00 PM the girls would have surely turned around and walked the same trail back normally, knowing how long the walk up until then had taken them.

"You'd really have to make an effort to get lost here"

Kris' parents also do not believe that the girls would have ventured off the path. "They wouldn't be so stupid" they say and besides, there were no other roads to take and hardly any possibilities to leave the beaten path. "You'd really have to make an effort to get lost here", Kris' mother says in the video. Which maps of the area confirm and local guides agree with. And if one of them had broken something, they would "definitely have stayed on the path as well", the parents emphasize. And within three days the first local aide team went down this same path, finding nothing, "not even foot prints" of the girls. So, also no signs that Kris and Lisanne left the well marked trail to plow through the meadow where the parents ended their tour. No signs of their presence was found there, no sweet wrapper were left behind, no paper was scattered (like we saw in one of the night photos). So, no sign of Kris and Lisanne at all at this point. The guide F., who joined the parents in their reconstruction trek, told them on camera that he didn't find the girls on this trail either when he went out looking for them alone on Thursday April 3rd. They weren't there. An indigenous resident of the Pianista trail, Ricardo M., hiked this trail all the way from beyond Alto Romero back to Boquete on April 2nd, and declared to have not seen any sign of Kris and Lisanne that day either. Authorities started to doubt that Kris and Lisanne ever made it beyond the Mirador. 
 

KIDNAPPED
"My daughter was kidnapped! I don't know by who, but I'm sure she was kidnapped" Kris' parents told local newspaper La Prensa on May 29, 2014. And Kris' parents have repeated this statement in multiple interviews which I cover here in this blog series. On the now defunct Answers for Kris website (see an archive version here), they wrote for instance on July 25th of 2014: "The past weeks we, the parents of Kris Kremers, decided to continue the search for answers for Kris on our own initiative. The information shared with us gives rise to many questions and does not yet provide answers. For us it has still not been established that they merely 'got lost'. It is still unclear to us what happened and the facts are still incomplete and too many 'illogical' steps are presumed to have been taken by our girls, which we cannot explain by their character or the circumstances they may have found themselves in." The family of Lisanne initially also did not believe this was a straight up accident case. Lisanne's father said in the press for instance: "This raises so many questions, it doesn't make sense." 

"This raises so many questions, it doesn't make sense." 

Of course there are good arguments for another scenario. Some people say that when you notice that the sun is setting and you are still many hours away from home (host family in this case), that a certain panic will wash over you. They may simply have realized too late that they had to return and just how many hours they would have to walk back to Boquete; maybe there were not enough hours in the day left to make it there before dark. But then they could have at least returned to the Mirador and called for help from there, logically speaking? Perhaps they thought that another settlement was close by, if only they kept walking on. Perhaps locals or the tour guide had earlier told them that they could just walk on (although Marjolein from the language school later declared that she told them on Sunday already that on this trail, you have to return by the same road..). Or perhaps someone heard about their disappointment regarding the delayed/cancelled school volunteer work and informed them that Alto Romero has a small school too, for the children of local people. Maybe they had been made interested in this place beyond the Pianista summit. But it makes no sense why neither of the girls told their parents or the boyfriend about this then beforehand. Or they may have walked on after the summit, passing the small stream (of photos 507 and 508) and mistakenly thinking they were the two rivers and that at the end of the path, at the meadows, Alto Romero already had to be? It's all speculation. But the girls were not dressed for a long tropical highland forest walk. They were more dressed for a short hike up and down a mountain, wearing shorts and tank tops and without provision or survival equipment. Not even a hat or sunscreen was brought along (aka: were found) and neither anti-mosquito spray, despite investigators announcing early in the investigation that the girls were seen buying large quantities of anti-mosquito spray in a local pharmacy on the day of their disappearance. Why wasn't any of that spray found in their backpack? Kris also had sensitive skin and usually brought sunscreen along, but this wasn't found in the backpack either by investigators. So I don't believe that they planned to go too much further than the summit of the Pianista Trail. Other people wrote that this stretch of trail is also used by drug traffickers, trekking from Colombia to Costa Rica. That it is by no means just a safe quaint little rural road. But the tropical forest does close in on you quickly at that point and Kris and Lisanne didn't know the area, so it is difficult to imagine that in the late afternoon, the girls would suddenly decide to venture deeper into the woods and mountains, after having made two failed emergency calls. I put English subtitles in this Dutch spoken video:

 

WHERE COULD THE GIRLS HAVE FACTUALLY ENDED UP?
In between the time of the last photo #508 and the time of their first emergency call that afternoon? Where could little more than 2,5 hours have brought them? Could they have walked all the way to the first big river (called Cabecera de Culebra river) with monkey bridge in the time between 14:00 (last normal photo) and 16:39 (first emergency call)? The overall consensus by those who walked this trail is that they had not enough time to reach the first proper river crossing. Unfortunately Kris' parents didn't walk further to the river to demonstrate just how far the girls could have walked until the moment of the first emergency call...  If you cross the first bridge and follow the course of the river, you reach the second monkey bridge after about 1,5 kilometre. It then takes another 8 kilometres over difficult to cross terrain and a third monkey bridge to reach the village of Alto Romero. Several people live along the trail, leading to Alto Romero. 

It took Hans, Roelie and guide F. and his team 45 minutes to walk from the Mirador summit to the spot where photos 507 and 508 were taken, but they seem to have stopped along the way now and then to admire local trees. Kris and Lisanne needed around 38 minutes: they took photo #505 at 13:20 PM and this spot is located roughly 3 minutes from the Mirador. Photo #507 was taken at 13:54 PM. If they had kept walking onward after the first little stream (quebrada) which lies about 45 minutes* from the Mirador, then there are approximately 20 minutes walking time between the 1st and 2nd quebrada (small stream), where the little waterfall is. It is estimated that considering the dry trail conditions and the overall speed of Kris and Lisanne, they would have arrived there around 14:20 PM. And then it normally takes about 15 minutes to reach the fenced, open field of grass; the paddock, (Hans says it took them 35 minutes to walk to the paddock from the point where photos 507 and 508 were taken). Kris and Lisanne would have subsequently arrived here around 14:35 PM. Going by the findings of Hans and Roelie Kremers, it takes around 1 hour and 25 minutes to reach the paddock from the Mirador which is partly a hike downhill. 

[The paddock pictured] This paddock houses an abandoned wooden barn of sorts. And if you cross it, you end up on more meadow terrain followed by another meadow with a wooden shed at about half an hour's distance, which is sometimes used by local farmers and where one can shelter. This terrain is said to have no GSM reception. Although Annette Nenner hiked the Pianista trail herself and went all the way to the paddocks and she published that there is some cell reception on the paddock. This is important information, especially as some people still seem to believe that Kris and Lisanne 'got lost' on that paddock and withered away (unseen or unheard by anyone) in one of those dilapidated shacks there. Frank Van de Goot explored this paddock during a January 2015 expedition and stated that from this first paddock it's a half-hour walk through dense vegetation to a second plateau (second paddock). The guide who was with the group pointed out a finca to Van de Goot. The road to the finca is not immediately visible, he said, but after some searching a muddy gully appeared to lead to it. A fifteen minute walk from the finca a new path starts flanked by a valley on both sides, at a considerable distance. Van de Goot described this path as "unmistakable". Even on the paddock itself it's not easy to get 'lost'. But going back to our first paddock where Kris' parents ended up in their Answers for Kris search: what if Kris and Lisanne thén kept on walking still, onward along the trail? Some people say that at 16:30 PM they must have then been able to pass the first river crossing, but not the 2nd cable bridge. The first river is a smaller river anyway; it's the second river that has a lot of water and is more dangerous to cross. And just past that river, next to the trail, there is a small refugio. But The Travel Channel sent two reporters to walk the same route, and in this video they proved that it takes a lot more time to reach the first river crossing; you'd need at least three more hours from the first meadow to make it there, but probably longer in reality. Especially when it involves people who do not know the terrain and who already had over four hours worth of hiking in their legs. The Travel Channel crew first had to make it through the night in fact, before they reached this first cable bridge. Lawyer Arrocha also walked this trail himself and said it takes almost 12 hours on foot to reach the river, starting from the trailhead of the Pianista (although guide P. walked it at top speed within about five hours). Either way: Kris and Lisanne could definitely not have reached this first cable bridge by the time they first called the emergency number. And probably neither before sunset, which would have already started to set around 18:00 in those mountains. So they technically couldn't have fallen in the river yet by the time they first called emergency services.

AND WHAT IF THEY TURNED AROUND AND WALKED BACK?

Walking back means they had no direct reason to photograph the same stretch of terrain again, which may explain the sudden stop of tourist-type photos after #508. And we know that they passed a very photogenic wall of moss, shortly after starting their descent. And they didn't really photograph that part of the trail either, as far as we have been able to see... Those long moss grown stone walls, which you can see here in the video, were only pictured in photos #505 and #506. They did not catch the large, photogenic steep rock walls with the sun peeking around the corner in the distance. Maybe they were scared there? In the Answers for Kris video, Hans Kremer wonders about this scenario out loud and counts the minutes while walking back from the first stream. IF the girls had turned around right after photo 508 was taken, they would have ended up below the Mirador summit by the time the first emergency call would have been made, by Hans Kremers' calculations. Is this where they slid and fell down the steep slopes? But if that were the case, sniffer dogs and local guides scaling down later that same week would have certainly found them. It would also contradict with the fact that their few remains were found more than 14 walking hours up north. Their backpack and belongings and clothes also showed no real signs of a serious fall; the backpack had minor tears and the jeans shorts from Kris also was found with a minor tearing, but not necessarily the sort of damage you'd expect to see from a big fall or slide down a high slope or ravine.

On day 3 already, so on Thursday April 3rd, local guide F. walked this same Pianista route all the way to the meadow to look for Kris and Lisanne. But he did not see them, nor "any trace of them". 

On the Boquete side of the mountain near the summit, there are some small wooden huts hidden and scattered around the area. Is it perhaps possible that the girls walked back and were then followed and waited upon there by someone? Did someone follow them and then managed to hide them perhaps in one of those huts, or transported them down the mountain by the red car (or truck) that is mentioned by multiple witnesses, coming off the mountain in the late afternoon of April 1st? Attempts from a private detective, Martín Ferrara former PTJ, to trace and identify its driver failed initially (but you can read new updates and the story behind that red truck in this blog post of mine). And people noticed it, because it is not usual for cars or trucks to come off the Pianista trail. Cars can drive up to 20 minutes below the summit but with difficulty, as the path and terrain are not suitable for cars. It seems impossible though that Kris and Lisanne were kidnapped off the trail in this red truck right away though. Because in that scenario their phones should then have made a connection with the cellphone network again.. And investigators never found a connection after approximately 13:40 PM on April 1st. Phone logs show that their phones were not powered off until just after 17:52 PM. But after that, they could have gone anywhere undetected, of course. And Matt revealed the official police file phone log info, and it now turns out that the phone of Lisanne lost connection with the GSM network already within an hour of their hike up the mountain. In other words: already on the upper half of the Boquete side of the mountain, there was no reliable cell reception either. Cell phones only have sporadic connection with the GSM network here. Although this more recent video of a hike with guide F. on the Pianista shows that there is in fact reception on the Mirador.     

IF ONE OF THEM HAD AN INJURY, THEY WOULD HAVE STAYED ON THE TRAIL 
Or so the parents both stress with conviction in their video. There was fresh streaming water there also. And then they would have been found on day 3 already, when local guide F. walked this same route to look for them, all the way to the meadow and further. But he did not see them, nor "any trace of them". So we can exclude this scenario most likely too. I want to stress the importance of that statement. Because I have read one persistent theory online, fired up by a completely unfounded claim without photo evidence from Frank van de Goot in the beginning of the investigation, which states that one of the girls would have slipped down a slope about 15 minutes away from the Mirador. Her fall would have been broken by the thick foliage, as confirmed by Imperfect Plan and Romain who hiked this trail. But the other would then have joined her friend to sit out the night together, only to be unable to get back up again the next days. However: the fact that guide F. confirms on camera that he went out there alone, looking for 'any trace' of Kris and Lisanne, makes it highly unlikely that this 'professor of the mountains' which extensive survival knowledge, would not have heard shouts of help or seen the signs of two adult bodies having slided down a slope. When there is thick foliage like on the Pianista trail, such a slide down leaves trails and evidence behind. The Pianista trail was very soon after (from Friday April 4th) also meticulously investigated by Sinaproc, their dogs, a helicopter and volunteers going down all the slopes there, and they found nothing, no signs, no belongings and no indications of two people sliding down anywhere. Sinaproc right away started searching the Pianista as well as de Los Quetzales trail, the Hidden Waterfalls and the Baru volcano area. And the professional search dogs did not sniff anything on the Pianista trail, which is just impossible if Kris and Lisanne had been sitting 15 minutes from the summit down a slope, for days on end, at that point. Therefore it is a completely unlikely theory imo. Not backed up by any facts. It also remains a mystery then how the remains of Kris and Lisanne could have ended up many kilometers up north, near Alto Romero. If they had been incapacitated, sitting ducks down a slope right near the Pianista trail and its extension path towards the meadow. 

Another way to get out of that area is to wade through one of the small streams they had to cross. We see Kris crossing the first in photos #507 and #508. These streams were very shallow on April 1st, after a long dry spell and there is no reason whatsoever to assume that Kris and Lisanne willingly went into that water, getting wet feet and following the small stream. It would lead them through rough terrain and very difficult to follow terrain, and to an unknown location... Why would they voluntarily wade through that water? Most likely scenarios here are probably that they either turned around and walked back to the Pianista Summit, or, that they for whatever reason walked onward, towards the meadow, and then further into the tropical forest...

Some other details taken from this video

DON'T TELL THEM
At 05:18 guide F. talks with guide Laureano B., who walks through the screen. Guide F. is called by his nickname Chani. Another of his nicknames is 'Professor of the Mountain'. Laureano B. had a finca behind the Mirador and has featured in various Panamanian TV items covering this case. His pet name is 'Master of the Mountain'. Guide F. says at 05:18: 
-"Domingo?"        (name)

-- "Si"                    (Yes, tell me) 

-"Te dije que no les digas nada sobre.." (Domingo, don’t say anything about … [film interrupted]".

There has been some debate since about what exactly he says here and how to translate it. Luckily many native speakers have chimed in. (I tell you that I have nothing to say to you). Josefina, a native speaker, emailed me with the following translation: "I told you not to say anything." Spanish speaking Manel confirmed this: "I told you not to tell them anything about ...", while native Spanish speaking JuanitaAlSur believes guide F. says “Te digo que no le(s) digas nada…” -“I tell you not to tell them anything…” or “I tell you not to tell him/her anything”. Juanita continued: "The difference is related to the word “le(s)” and it is not clearly audible. I can also provide a third option: “He/she (this is not determined as there is no subject in the sentence) told you not to tell them anything….” Team Sophie wrote me: "I'm native, he says: "Domingo, I'm telling you not to say anything to them.." All of these translations make me curious what guide Domingo was requested not to talk about. Kris' parents had travelled far to find answers regarding their daughter and her friend's disappearance. I'm sure that to them, any information would have been welcome. So why mention oud loud, in Spanish, that something should not be brought up? And what could it have been? 

UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES?
At the start of the recording the guides say in Spanish: "Under THESE circumstances?" They may have referred to the rainy circumstances in which this trek was taking place. Or they may have discussed at what pace they were going to climb up the Pianista perhaps? In the end they left at 5:30 AM and were at the summit at 08:00 AM, so they did about 2 hours and 30 minutes about their climb. About 30 to 45 minutes longer than Kris and Lisanne supposedly did. 

MORE CONVERSATION

-06:31 AM: "Hola que tal", says F. to the man with the cap (Hello, how are you?). There is also a warning about the dog.

-07:35 "Cuidado" (Watch out)

-07:44 "Hola patron..." (Hello boss). 

At 08:13 you don't see the panorama, because it is cloudy that day. The camera also seems to be held low, facing the trees. On photo 499 from Kris and Lisanne you see a lot more, and perhaps Kris stood on something to be higher up. She was smaller than Lisanne, quite a bit in fact (around 15 centimeters) which is also not visible in the photo. Shame that we do not see in this video what exactly they may have stood on. Because that would then almost completely exclude the possibility of a 3rd (larger) person (possibly) taking these photos. At 15:02 guide F. seems to have a disagreement with someone. The other person says that he 'doesn't believe it'. A Spanish speaker told me this is in fact said here: Dice que ellos no creen que ellas se fueron afuera del camino (He says they don't think they went off the trail). No cree? bueno... pa' mi yo no creía, la verdad, pero lo que pasa es que acá es difícil... (He does not believe? Well... for me I did not believe it either, the truth, but what happens is that here it is difficult...). It may have to do with what they point at, over the meadow. Could Kris and Lisanne at the time have walked there? Despite guide F. earlier having stressed that there are no side paths. But perhaps that was just on the Mirador. As it seems here that straight onward through the meadow there is in fact an exit route possibility. You'd have to go past the barbed wire and leave the main path then though. At 19:33 F. talks about the dog. 19:44 "Recuerda la vez"... (Do you remember the time). At 19:46: Luciano, Moisés y el otro estaban...en el segundo paso del rio. (Luciano, Moisés and the other were ... at the second passing of the river). 19:49 "Laureano seguro paso el rio"; (Laureano, the other guide, the Master of the Mountain, sure passed the river). 21:24 "No creo que fuera ahi.. si llueva mañana me voy".. (I don't think it's far from here .. if it rains tomorrow, I'll go). And when the official search group passes them near the end of the video, there is hardly any interaction. Maybe the officials are very serious about their work and not up for pleasantries... Or maybe there was animosity between the Sinaproc searchers and the the local guides. Or even between them and the parents. A bit odd though, considering they are all out there for the same reason, or so we must assume; find out more about what happened to Kris and Lisanne or discover more of their remains or belongings..  

IS THIS A SIDE TRAIL? 

Another detail from this video is that at 08:50 Roelie Grit (Kris' mother) stands near a steep area and asks the tour guides if it could be a visible third path. But F. says 'No no.. That it is only a steep area, not a path'. Unfortunately Hans Kremers did not go down there anyway to film it. I'm sure it is correct, but well... curiosity I suppose. As mentioned before, had the group stayed overnight in this area, they could perhaps have filmed the first river crossing and the monkey bridges... How far from the summit is that place? How much habitation can be found in its vicinity and did those people see or hear anything from the girls? How many people pass those monkey bridges on an average day? But that is for someone else to go explore and find out, some day. Another interesting spot to inspect would be the area past the wooden fence, where Hans and Roelie in the end ended up. You can actually cross that grass field and end up at a place that is marked as 'H13' on the map. There are at least two wooden sheds there, where the girls could have perhaps sheltered until the next day for their return walk to Boquete... But of course, we do not know if Kris and Lisanne actually reached the meadow themselves. And if so, if they even crossed the barbwire fence there (which in the video already shows faulty spots where you can just enter the meadow). Also, this spot at the meadow is a known resting place for the many people who walk this trail, so if they actually made it to there, they could have stayed put and found rescuers as early as April 2nd or 3rd, when guide F. went there to look for them (or so they all say in this video). But the parents of Kris seem to think about foul play at this point and I think this may be behind their choice not to investigate the 'accident' route further. 

A SIGN OF TRUST?

Some people interpret the fact that the Kremers picked this specific tour guide for their reconstruction tour as a sign that they must have trusted him. I get comments often about that video they made, and some folks wonder out loud how the Kremers could have blindly trusted guide F. How could they have selected F. of all people to take them up there. Maybe they just picked guide F. because of the way he manoeuvred himself into the investigation. Stepping forward as the person they had tours booked with; claiming in the press that he was the last person to have seen Kris and Lisanne. Him being the first person to have gone to their room after they went missing, and him being the person who knows the Pianista trail very well. And most importantly probably: he went out on the Pianista trail first to look for Kris and Lisanne on Thursday April 3rd. So it makes sense that the Kremers asked him to join them as their guide. That doesn't mean that they automatically trusted him 100%. We don't know that. Certain comments, detailed in the paragraph above, made the editing cuts and were kept in the end video, Answers for Kris. Including his "Don't say anything about.." comment and also his confession on camera that he was the one to go out all alone on April 3rd (against Sinaprocs orders) and 'saw no trace of them'. Maybe the parents wanted to highlight it. I get the feeling that Hans felt this was important. Guide F. knows that place and knew what signs of an accident to look for, and the fact he saw absolutely no such signs is telling, in my book. There were no signs out there of them having had an accident on that long stretch of the Pianista trail and beyond the Mirador. The Kremers also kept the part in where the guide started taking photos of them. And as David M. put it: Was all this around the point where the Kremers realised that the door was closing on them in Panama? That the authorities were pushing on from this case and closing it down? The new verdict was that it was an accident that had overcome the two tourists. What the Kremers were saying however, is that they didn't believe this. And so there is an obvious deep schism between them and guide F. here. - (Gif image of the Pianista summit, created by me from a video made by Lemo, and of the gully leading to the summit). Here in this blog post of mine, you can read all the important interviews with the families of Kris and Lisanne. 

The parents do not believe that Kris and Lisanne could have gotten lost or injured here 

Despite the path they had chosen after the summit being initially clear to follow and without obvious places where they could injure themselves, there are also very steep, densely forested and treacherous parts of that tropical forest when you continue long enough on this path, with rivers, mudslides and dangerous animals. But you need to walk much further for that and actually go to the other side of the mountain. The families' lawyer said that no-one in their right mind would go near that side of the mountain. The Pianista summit (the overlook spot at the Continental Divide) forms part of the boundary between the Panamanian states of Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro. The Bocas region is marked by heavy tree cover and is a lot more wild and hostile than the rolling hills around Boquete. So why didn’t the Holandesas notice what they were getting into? Some people think that the girls were chased to that side of the mountain, or were perhaps hallucinating and literally out of their right mind at that stage, running in the wrong direction. But their last daytime photos do seem to show that they did in fact cross the Divide and ended up on the 'wrong' side of the mountain. It is also on the 'wrong' side where their belongings and bones were found. But they started calling emergency services very early on, on day 1, when they could not have been very far away from the good side of the mountain. It's puzzling. If they were lost by then and had simply stayed put, the first small scale independent rescue teams and local guides going out would have found them on day three already. So it seems also unlikely that they got injured so severely that they couldn't go on while walking on that main track. So more mysterious circumstances, and more questions. No wonder this case has gathered huge international attention over the past few years... Had it been definitely known what happened to them, it may not have become such a well known mystery case, but since the known facts are limited and inexplicable - when taking everything into account - people from all over the world have been reflecting about what is the most logical thing that could have happened here... 

Palm_tree_dude wrote in January of 2020: "I was in Boquete in 2012 collecting seeds from palm trees and other rare exotics. While I was there, I ended up walking the Pianista trail myself. The same trail that these two girls supposedly disappeared on. The trail isn't as hard as you think and the path is well maintained and clearly visible. There aren't any other paths leading off from it, so you can only really go up towards the summit, or back down again; along the same path. You would have to be pretty stupid to wander off course into the jungle and lose sight of the trail. The girls may well have wandered off course, but I seriously doubt that. If you go off the path, the terrain suddenly becomes very difficult, which acts as a deterrent, so you stay on the trail. I passed maybe 100 people on my way up to the top and back down, which took around 5 hours in total as I was stopping to photo-document flora and to collect seeds. Out of the 100 or so people, there was around a 50:50 mix of tourists and natives. So plenty of activity on the trail. It wouldn't have been hard to spot people from a distance if you wandered off, or for those people to hear someone shout if you got lost, or in trouble. There are houses and people's backyards all along the trail, especially in the lower half. But even in the upper sections towards the summit, there are a few shacks and buildings, often with animals and people sitting outside. Say one shack every 150 yards. If a tourist was in trouble, or had an emergency, they could almost certainly reach one of these buildings, or find another tourist or local on the trail. Unless they had stupidly walked far away from the path and got lost (not likely). [..] I seriously doubt they would have gone much further beyond this point though, as I travelled maybe 200 yards past it and then remember saying "no fucking way" before turning back. Not because the trail isn't visible (you can still see the trail), but rather because of all the mud, running water, uneven terrain and weird voodoo shit hanging in the trees. I didn't get anywhere near the supposed monkey bridges where the Panama government claims the girls may have fallen off, into the Serpentine river. Nobody goes that way, especially two young girls in my opinion. I saw several other people turning back as well, quite quickly. There's no way the two girls would have carried on down that route, past the first stream due to the poor terrain and creepiness of the area. I'm talking animal skulls in trees and ceremonial bracelets and bones suspended from trees on string. I guess that's native land you don't want to be treading on. Although I saw a very friendly, smiling native walk past me on that part of the trail, but I wasn't prepared to hang about there. Neither was the group behind me. [..] I find it very hard to believe that they would have deliberately and carelessly wandered off the trail and got lost in this area. Again, common sense prevails. Two young girls wouldn't have wandered off trail, right into the jungle like that. There's photo's of them at that first stream, past the summit, but I reckon they would have turned back after that and got attacked and taken shortly after. The question is... who did it? And if they did genuinely get lost, they must have been crazy to travel that route I described, beyond the summit. Like completely fearless, naive and oblivious to the dangers." [This is just one person's report on the trail, I haven't read many other reports of animal skulls hanging in the trees behind the Mirador, although not many average tourists walk all too far beyond the summit].

An overview of the different streams behind the Mirador

Thanks to Power-Pixie for extracting some of these images from several videos of the area. First the location of photos 507 and 508, the First Stream. It lies approximately 45 minutes walking from the Mirador summit. The last two photos show stream 1 looking upstream from where Kris stood on that rock, and looking downstream from where Kris stood on that rock.

First stream

The second stream was not documented by Hans and Roelie Kremers in their video. I am not even sure it was present in 2014, as it is a very small trickle basically. But Imperfect Plan did document it during their investigation in Boquete, so here it is. It lies approximately 5 minutes from the First Stream. The photos show it both upstream and downstream. Not much to look at or explore here, and if it was already present back in 2014, I reckon that Kris and Lisanne just kept walking, as they took no photo here. 

Second stream

The third stream was documented by Hans and Roelie Kremers in their video, you can look at it here. It lies approximately 20 minutes of walking from the First Stream, where photos 507 and 508 were taken by Kris and Lisanne. Now, this is the most photogenic of them all. But no photos were taken here by the girls. This is a bit of a mystery, if you assume they did arrive here. There would have no more photos taken or mobile phones used at all after photo 508 was last taken that day. Nothing (according to the phone logs and memory card of the canon camera) for  the next 2 hours and 24 minutes. Until 16:39, when the emergency number 112 was called for the first of two times that day. 

Third stream

At the end of the day, Lisanne's family believe that poor Kris and Lisanne got lost and died as the result of an accident, and Kris' family have for a very long time suspected that these girls ran into foul play. They hired a lawyer, Arrocha, to try to force the officials to further investigate this. By 2019 their spokesperson said that the family is still full of doubts and questions. 

***********

Update 2021: Imperfect Plan organized an expedition in July/August of 2021. They went to Boquete and into the mountains there, exploring the Pianista trail and the trails behind the Mirador, camping in this terrain and even hiking to Alto Romero. Some of their conclusions are that "It’s difficult to go off of the trail. The trail is straightforward. There’s only one trail split, but that split happens far before reaching the Mirador. Therefore, considering the timeline of Kris and Lisanne’s Mirador photos, it’s clear they did not take the wrong direction at that trail split."

They also exclude the possibility of diverging trails: "We learned that there’s just one trail Kris and Lisanne could have taken." "The Pianista Trail is surrounded by heavy vegetation and the trail itself is often carved deeply into the mountainside, limiting any opportunity to go in a different direction." Mostly it would be either impossible or very difficult to go off trail, they concluded, not to mention illogical. And even with a 25 kilo heavy backpack on his back, Romain managed to avoid sliding off a steep incline. "It was a small scare, but it demonstrated to us that even with all our gear it’s still not difficult to avoid slipping off the edge of the trail, especially due to all the vegetation that’s available to grab onto". 

When they reached the summit, it was clear to see which side leads to where: "The Pianista Trail before and after the Mirador have distinct differences. It would not have been possible for Kris and Lisanne to accidentally go in the wrong direction. The positioning of the vegetation, the view of the other mountains, and the manner in which the landscape is positioned at the Mirador are all very clear indicators of which direction a person is facing. Also, the town of Alto Boquete (“High Boquete”) is visible from the Mirador on one side the mountain range, while on the other side of the Mirador there is only green forests visible for as far as the eye can see. Therefore, from these numerous factors, Kris and Lisanne would have been aware that they had passed the Mirador in their subsequent photos, such as in photo #507 and #508. Furthermore, the trail beyond the summit continues in the same direction north for several hours. After hiking north for a while, it’s unlikely that a hiker would assume that the trail would eventually lead back to Boquete." "There’s no doubt that you’re entering a totally different region. Any speculation about Kris and Lisanne having unknowingly chosen the wrong direction at the Mirador can be put to rest. They had intentionally opted to go beyond the Mirador." 

The IP team also confirmed (as has also been said by many hikers, bloggers and locals) that the trail is very frequently hiked by others: "We saw numerous locals hiking the trail on a daily basis. We monitored the foot traffic in the area and kept notes of the number of people that past our camp. Approximately 5-7 locals passed our camp each day, usually around 2:00 PM." And this was on a random, misty day. The team also confirmed that one of the rivers behind the Mirador and before the paddock was "a good source for drinking water, it had swimming holes with crystal-clear water, the temperature of the water was very cool and comfortable, and it had a lot of rocks at waist-level which made it perfect to sit and relax." IP emphasized again that "the water is crystal clear, drinkable and safe. At this point, so in the second week of July 2021, the river temperature was 16.5 Celsius and the air temperature was ranged between 16.8 Celsius to 17.5 Celsius, depending on the amount of sunshine. It took the men approximately 30 to 40 minutes to reach the paddock from the last river. "Although many people imagine the paddock to be open pastures of flat area, it’s actually very mountainous, with steep inclines and declines." "There are no visible houses or cabins near the Paddock, which suggests that Kris and Lisanne wouldn’t have found refuge if they desperately needed to find shelter." The paddock is utilized by local farmers for livestock and fences are present in the area. Additionally, behind the Paddock there is a destroyed cabin which one cannot see easily.

IP also wrote that when they kept walking towards the first Monkey Bridge, there was also only one visible trail that spans the entire distance. "This is the same trail that the locals use and there are no alternative trails that lead to the Monkey Bridge from the Mirador. Occasionally the main trail briefly splits, with smaller trails breaking-off of the main trail for about 5 to 20 meters, but they always merged back onto the main trail." "There aren’t many areas along the trail where you could fall and not be able to climb back. Falling down the slope certainly could result in injury, but in most cases the vegetation is dense enough to slow you down and could potentially help you to climb back up to the trail." The trail continues to Alto Romero. It took 2 days (16 hours) for Romain to reach the Alto Romero community. However, a native to the area can do the walk in only one day.

What had the girls been up to before they arrived in Boquete? 

Lisanne was a very sporty and intelligent girl with an older brother, Martijn. She played volleyball and was described by her friends and family as a very kind, sweet, gentle person. In her youth she dealt with some insecurity issues but as a student she gained more confidence. When her dad was struck by a brain bleed she took as much care of him as she could. She followed a 6 month internship in Belgium while studying psychology. She was a thoughtful person who planned everything. Before leaving for Panama, she already arranged a student room for when she came back to Holland. She and Kris had long thought about what country to visit to celebrate their study graduations, and had first suggested to their parents that they wanted to go to Costa Rica. Lisanne's parents were relieved to hear the girls had changed their mind about this at some point.... only to come with the suggestion of Panama! Ai.... the parents were still worried about this country. But trusted their daughter and her friend. When they said goodbye to their daughters at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, nobody thought about it possibly being a final goodbye. Kris was 5 minutes late at the airport, which typically made Lisanne nervous.

SAN JOSÉ
During the first leg of their trip, they had a sleepover in San Jose. Kris wrote on March 16th 2014 in her diary: "The time has finally come. We are in Costa Rica. What a trip it was! 12/10 hours flying to Houston, waiting 4 hours there and then another 4 hours to San José, Costa Rica. We arrived here at the hostel around 10 o'clock, which actually felt like 4 o'clock in the morning due to the time difference. How tired we were, because we had already got up at 4 AM to arrive at Schiphol airport on time, so we had been awake for 24 hours! We were picked up by a friendly little mister, together with his wife. The same man will soon pick us up again to take us to the bus. It is now around 7 o'clock in the morning. The sun was already rising around 4,5. I am writing this now in the garden of the hostel. Very cute little courtyard with many plants and a kind of fountain/altar made of mosaic. I can't wait to travel to Panama soon. I think the bus trip will be very beautiful, hopefully we will see some nice things of the country. So exciting, the journey has really begun!"

BOCAS DEL TORO
The next day Kris updated her diary about the adventure they had when it came to making the last boat to Bocas del Toro:  "It is so hot here! I really have to get used to it. It's like 30 degrees here, sitting in the sun is way too hot. I am currently in the hostel. We arrived yesterday around half past six. The bus trip was an adventure in itself. The bus journey itself went well. But first we had to speed through San José by taxi because we had no cash on us. When we got out in Sixaola, we and two locals were the only ones left. We had to just figure out for ourselves how to get to the border. The bus driver only spoke Spanish. We were sent one way and with our backpacks we really stood out among the locals. We arrived at the border, which consisted of an old bridge. It was very bizarre to cross the border that way. Once on the other side we arrived at a building where we had to pay money for a sticker on a passport (I think we were scammed). When we stood at that real immigration [checkpoint] a man approached us and asked if we had to go to Bocas. We were a bit suspicious because we didn't know very well if we could trust him. All the people were in a great hurry because they thought we would not be able to catch the last boat. For this reason we decided to just jump in the car and hope for a happy ending. And it came. After a hellish ride where the driver was driving so fast that I didn't even dare to look, we arrived at a small stepping stone for the boat to Bocas. After about half an hour we finally arrived. After two days of traveling it felt incredibly surreal to be at the destination finally. Yesterday we also had a bite to eat but I was so tired that it didn't really get through to me. But now that I am writing this I am sitting at the bar of the Spanish school with some nice Spanish music in the background and I am starting to realize that we are really here and that we can happily enjoy this holiday. Our first Spanish lesson will start in 15 minutes. I am very curious. It is wonderful here" 

BOCAS LIFE
Lisanne wrote in her diary for the period of 15-17 March 2014: "Waaaaah it takes so long! What a trip. Luckily I almost forgot about it already upon arrival in the beautiful and cozy Bocas del Toro. I would not want to be found dead in San Jose, although the chance of this is quite high in San Jose. But I could live in Bocas for the rest of my life. Maybe when I ever retire? I am sitting in the sun, which I can't hold out much longer by the way (hot!) and I take a good look around me at my new accommodation for the next two weeks. The heat is already very special by the way, even in the shade I have the feeling that I can still burn alive. But despite this, the sun is actually quite nice. How intensely happy it can make a person. Kittens, stray cats, yes, they are regular customers here. They walk everywhere! Just like mini salamanders, even in the shower! If they manage to keep the spiders away, they could actually become my best friends." She updates soon after: "Red Frog Beach, one word A - MA - ZING!! We have also seen a dolphin, the ultimate enjoyment. Drinking from a coconut, a real one yes! And getting suntanned, I worked well on my tan, what more do you want?!" And: "Spanish Class, it's pretty complicated. Yet I do notice that I learn to recognize more and more when I listen to conversations, which is a fantastic feeling. The rest of the day we enjoyed relaxing around the hostel. Three lovely afternoon naps in the hammock, a game of cards, some food and snacks. In the afternoon (medio tarde!) we had a nice cocktail at Casa Verde. Lovely time alone with Kris, we had nice conversations and afterwards we were, of course, a little tipsy. Long Live the Holiday. La puda vida [sic. The good life!] In the evening we had cooking class, tortillas and gazpacho were on the menu. Fortunately we live completely according to the Caribbean style so I will have to withdraw from the Dutch [way of] life. A 7 o'clock cooking class means that at half past seven the ingredients really still have to be bought, haha. And that also means that there is food on the table at 10 o'clock. A very educational evening for my patience and concentration. I believe I failed! But the food was very good. After dinner quickly with our backsides under the shower because Wednesday evening is Aqua Lounge Day! A disco a la Caribbean Style. Large outdoor area with swimming pools and ocean views. Amazing! Enjoyed dancing and drinking with the boys. Yes, Bas and Edwin. Our Dutch hostel friends and not to forget Mart! Later Ethan, our Australian negro, joined. Around 3 o'clock we were kindly asked to go find our beds, but a tropical downpour made us delay this about 3 times. Eventually we finally went. Nothing was dry anymore!! But it was a special experience to dance in the rain when it is 30 degrees outside. By the way, you have to use the water taxi here to go to places, really cool. For $1 you can go to the other side, a small beach and Aqua Lounge. You can visit other islands for $5. Two down, so many more to go! Hasta manzana! (see you tomorrow!) Haha apple!" "I have such thick legs, it must be from the heat that my ankles look like rhino legs. We had FAN - TAS - TIC food with the boys in a little Caribbean restaurant. I have never before eaten such tasty pasta with tomatoes. Then followed a little Snickers cake and a 2 liter can of sangria. Yes, this was again the ultimate enjoyment. Now fingers crossed for nice weather tomorrow, because today was three times nothing. Hasta mañana! Today's slogan: it was AMAZING hihi." 

FRIENDSHIPS
You can read all their diary entries here. But summarizing, Kris and Lisanne hung out with three Dutch guys, an Australian guy and made friendships, ate lots of good food, went out drinking with the lads, socializing in the evenings or playing cards with them. They also enjoyed Spanish lessons and day trips, including island hopping and starfish spotting. Lisanne seemed to open up and even told one of the guys that it was the first time she had swam in an ocean and how much she enjoyed it. They were sensible by the sound of things, but enjoying themselves. Lisanne wrote: "Cool experience; bounty islands, snorkeling, we're really detoxing from Dutch life. Taking it easy and lots of patience. Just everything is manana. We have seen a real dolphin and sloth, drank from a coconut and are getting a nice tan. It is very hot, even in the shade. But the sun is lovely and can make a person intensely happy. Going to the disco, Caribbean style. Dancing in a tropical downpour is such a special experience." Kris seemed equally elated about the two weeks in Bocas although she also had a day or two of feeling sickly. The girls were in regular contact with their parents at home, texting them and skyping to show them the beauty all around them. Everyone was happy and relieved to hear them feeling so good.

BOQUETE
After their two week holiday in Bocas del Toro, Kris and Lisanne took a (shuttle) bus to Boquete. A rustic mountain village where also many Americans and backpackers are staying. Both friends went there to do volunteer work in a children's daycare school. Lisanne had enjoyed herself thoroughly during the first two weeks in Bocas, but once they arrived in Boquete, homesickness flared up for her. She wrote tearfully in her diary about doubting the whole undertaking and longing to be with her parents again. She had initially felt that this trip would be an important experience for herself to take along with her during the rest of her young adult life, but now she felt like she failed that test and just wasn't ready for the challenge of living everyday Panamanian life with a family she didn't know, speaking a language she hardly understood. She wrote on the day of their arrival in Boquete, March 29th: "I'm sitting here, with tears in my eyes and rolling down my cheeks. The view of the mountains is beautiful, the house is spacious and the family is friendly. I'm even here with Kris, who is so very familiar. But still I want to go home. I had no problems for two weeks and suddenly I went completely crazy. The transition from two weeks of lively holiday to stepping into the life of a real Panamanian family is just too much for me. I cannot make myself understood and this is real life, not a vacation anymore. I was way too naive to think that I could handle this. Because this is exactly the type of situation that I just can't handle. Not even now that I'm 22 and living on my own. I'm in way over my head. I want mom and dad to hold me tight and tell me that everything will be alright. But I can't let them know how I feel now, because I don't want them to worry. It is precisely because I am 22 that I think I have to solve this myself. Still, I now feel like a small child of 2 yelling for her mother who is 2 metres away. I didn't really want this, but I went anyway. I thought I should be able to do this, the final test before I can be really happy with myself. So far I have failed badly. Shit." But she tried to pull herself together again the wrote the next day: "Okay, the tears are gone but it is still strange. I still feel like a tiny intruder in this family. Delicious French toast for breakfast! Explored Boquete in the afternoon which was nice. What a world of difference with Bocas! Here it's windy and everywhere around you there are mountains. Magnificent! You can go almost anywhere here for 60 dollar cents. In the afternoon we also went to the school to check out some excursions, that will be fine. We mainly eat rice here by the way! Tomorrow our first day in Aura! Exciting!"

MORE DISAPPOINTMENTS
Kris was also sounding less carefree and happy in her March 30th diary entry: "Wow. How much has changed since the last time I wrote something. We are now staying at the host family. The last days in Bocas we mainly enjoyed the beach, good food and going out. We had quite a bit of sleep to catch up on. The time we had in Bocas was really amazing and we really had a holiday there. So it really felt like goodbye, because we probably won't be coming back there. I have never seen a place with such a beautiful coastline and palm trees and such. Really super. Yesterday we arrived in Boquete. The journey actually went very well. The small bus even had air conditioning. We also found the school in no time. We had to get out earlier than the other people on the bus, so that was a bit strange because we got off almost in the middle of nowhere. The school called the family where we would stay. It was really nerve-racking to wait for them because you really hope there is a click. Fortunately it went well. Last night we really had to get used to the new situation. You suddenly stay with a family that you are not (yet) part of. You know nothing about their habits and you actually don't know how to behave. On top of that you can hardly speak a word with them, so you also cannot express how you feel. We were also really exhausted yesterday, but after a good night sleep all is not so bad anymore. So once we have stayed here for a while I am sure that it will be all right. The family is very sweet. The mother's name is Miriam. The eldest daughter Y. Miriam also has 2 other children. A. and A. Y. also has 2 children, J. and S. The youngest is 1 and the other almost 3. They are all very friendly and used to visitors who cannot speak Spanish. The eldest daughter does speak English. But for our Spanish it is better to speak as little English as possible. We also went to Boquete today. Very nice and cute village. Tomorrow we will start at Aura. Very curious how that will go." Kris also pepped herself up with the possibility of a new working project being offered soon: “Anyway, go with the Panamanian flow.” were her last written words in her diary. And under April 1st, a big line is drawn in Lisanne's diary, and the diary then remains empty as well... Unfortunately that next day brought new disappointments, as we know. The head of the local daycare, Gardería Aura, seemed not to know who they were and what they came to do there on Monday morning. Lisanne was disappointed and angry. Kris was annoyed and no longer wanted to work for this daycare full stop, asking the staff at the Spanish language school to please look for another workplace as soon as possible. We also know already what Kris and Lisanne did in the meantime, to fill up the unexpected empty time... Hike the Pianista trail. I got a sinister feeling when reading some of these last diary entries, and wonder if Lisanne thought back about it all during her ordeal in the tropical forest; should she have listened to her intuition and had she really not been in the right place here in Boquete? Was it just homesickness or some subtle foreboding feeling she had? Brrrrr... I can't help but think what would have happened if she had given in to her urge to go back home on Saturday already. Or how things could have gone different if they had stuck with their first chosen holiday destination of Costa Rica. They wanted to make a difference, doing something for less fortunate children aside from relaxing. But Latin America can also be a harsh place.

BREAK FREE
I watched a long program about Lisanne's life, called Break Free, where Lisanne's brother returned to Panama to walk the same route as the girls did. You can see the entire Dutch TV program they made about this here. I also translated the whole series and uploaded it in parts further down this blog post for you, or you can watch it here. So in the program, relatives are also interviewed. They tell that the very sweet and kind Lisanne "always said, she didn't have that many friends". And one or more relatives say that they feel while watching the photos of Lisanne, that she was literally "on top of the world" in Boquete. That she had overcome her insecurity and had gone out and achieved something on that summit of the Pianista trail.. I found that hard to watch to be honest. I don't even know these girls personally, but after reading so much about them, you feel almost connected to them. Especially knowing how restrained Lisanne herself was about the whole trip and how homesick she was once she arrived in Boquete, away from the beach and fun. Her mum said in that Break Free series that at the age of sixteen, her brother would go out with his friends during the weekends. Whereas Lisanne did not and rather stayed at home. It may be that it took some more time and confidence for her and that she was a late bloomer. At the age of eighteen I lived on my own as a student, well in a student house with my own apartment. I'd traveled so much by twenty-two. By the time she left for Panama, Lisanne had júst started renting a room for herself in a student dorm. She was still living with her parents at that point, and planned on leaving the nest once she returned from Panama. As such, this holiday may indeed have been an important rite of passage for her... The door to adulthood and independence. But important as this achievement may have felt at the time, at the end of the day these two girls still had their whole lives ahead of them. Climbing the Pianista trail would have been mostly forgotten two or five years down the line, had they made it back home. The feeling I got from reading about Lisanne's diary entries is that she perhaps felt she 'had' to make such a trip, but actually found it kind of scary. It's such a hype among young (First World) people now, and for a good decade or more already, to have this gap year between studies or after studies and go far far far away. It's just... perhaps it becomes a form of pressure for some people. It may be a wonderful experience and a rite of passage of sorts, into adulthood. But being so far away from home is not for everybody. And social media often mainly shows the glossy highlights.. This is a trailer for the Break Free program about Lisanne, right with English subtitles. Like I said, if you are interested in viewing the entire program, scroll further down this post for an upload where I added English subtitles).

A week of delay, that is nothing really.. if only they hadn't felt pressed to go out and do all these daily tour things right away... As a reaction to the unexpected delay in the volunteer work. Despite Lisanne warning other young tourists from their group in Bocas del Toro not to go on excursions without a guide. I thought they were brave to happily climb up that trail by themselves. Seeing footage of the trail, I'd have probably turned around at the first frightening turn. That Pianista trail gets so creepy higher up. Did they perhaps run into someone that fateful day? Or felt so confident around new people after their successful two week stay in Bocas, that they were too trusting and relaxed around strangers in Boquete? Or did they feel energized after their successful ascend, and simply walked on too far?  -  A nice personal anecdote from the Break Free memorial program was that Lisanne made a little pact with her father before she left; they stood outside one evening before departure, and it was a full moon. Lisanne and her father made an agreement; when they would look at the moon, they would know about each other that the other was watching it too. At some point she was in Panama and sent her father an app message saying: "Well dad, I have looked at the moon a few times now since I've been here, and that way I know that you are with me."  

 

This is a very interesting and insightful short radio investigation in Panama on the case, by a Dutch criminal journalist

This is a very interesting video I invite you to watch. Well, listen to in fact, as it is a Dutch radio program (original source). But I added English subtitles to it as well as I could (clearly am far from a pro haha). It aired on July 20th, 2014 but the program was made already in May of that year. A Dutch criminal investigator and journalist, Okke Ornstein, who lives in Panama and also writes about crime and corruption there, goes to Boquete in 2014 once the worst of the media storm has died down. He interviews several other Dutch people living there. One woman funded a private detective (Martín Ferrara, former PTJ) as soon as the 2nd day of the girls' disappearance, "out of loyalty and sympathy". The retired Dutch policeman who gets interviewed in this radio program, seems to insinuate that despite the showing off of large forces to look for the girls, in reality the investigation was poorly executed. This article in a local Panamanian article seems to confirm this, and explains that Sinaproc staff were well intending, but unwillingly messed up not just a possible crime scene in the jungle, but also the crime scene of the girls' bedroom for instance, by not entering it with criminal specialists or even the police. Interviews with witnesses were also said to have been potentially botched, as no official guidelines were followed. [Scarlet: in this case witnesses were also often not approached in time at all by police, leaving weeks between the event and their questioning, potentially muddling their memory. And this argument was opportunistically used by investigators later: due to their own laxity, witnesses statements that did not fit the narrative were cast aside again because they were collected too late... Yeh, Kafkaesque..] And they messed up the fingerprint proof, according to the article. But Sinaprocs chef defended himself and his team and said that they did preliminary investigations early on in the case, when it wasn't even clear yet if the girls were missing or not. And that they made only photos of their room, without touching anything, and interviewed some people to establish where these girls had gone (in part 2 of this blog series you can see many photos of the girls' bedroom, and how everything was moved around in that room). I suppose that is a reasonable argument, given how long it took officials from the capital to make it to Boquete.. But in the Netherlands, law enforcers and search teams always start from a worst case scenario. So even if these girls could have just spent the night elsewhere and be back again the next day, their room would still have been treated as a potential crime scene. Just in case. 

Slow Sinaproc
The Dutch policeman also criticizes the Panamanian officials that stepped in later. A lot of camera teams were present and army-style dressed officials made it seem as if Panama did everything they could, he says, but vital steps were missed: fingerprints weren't investigated and checked efficiently - something which is normally extremely common in Latin America - nor taken from the volunteers and those who found the girls' belongings and bones. The jungle cabin and other houses from one of the guides wasn't checked for evidence of traces of blood or DNA for instance. They are criticized for not being more proactive about finding witnesses themselves or interrogating potential suspects from the area, aside from following up the odd anonymous tip. Guide F. also complained on camera that "when the people [parents] went back the first time, to Holland, the government stopped looking. Nothing. But when they came back again, they sent a helicopter up. For one month they did nothing. Only when the parents stayed here, was something done." Local guide John Tornblom, 32, with more than 10 years of experience in the surrounding cloud forests, said about Sinaprocs searches: “We were out looking for the girls three or four days before SINAPROC even got involved. The first 24 hours are key for a search and rescue operation,” but the authorities hesitated because they “thought the girls were out on a party somewhere, instead of really missing.” Once the government did get involved, Tornblom says, volunteers like himself were ordered to stand down while SINAPROC conducted its own searches. “We’re the ones who know the area, but they cut us out,” says Tornblom, who describes SINAPROC as “top-heavy” and weighed down by bureaucracy. “We were up hunting for those two on the Baru volcano those first few days”, since the still-active volcano is the most popular hiking attraction in the area. “[The girls] didn’t tell anybody where they were going,” he says, “so we could never narrow the search down to a tight grid”. “That rescue operation was a total clusterfuck.” - Camera footage showing the girls the day of their disappearance in Boquete was either never released or they were too late to prevent it from being overwritten. Local guides already went out for their own research before the large Sinaproc team arrived, in the first days after their disappearance. Uncoordinated and unchecked (from a police point of view; from a human point of view the sooner someone went looking for them, the better). And they said that they didn't find anything; not even traces of the girls. Ornstein also has some critical things to say about the state prosecutor on the case. Betzaida Pitti is the right hand of Ana Belfon he says, a person who used to work for the dictatorial regime of Noriega. You can hear the whole show in this video I add here; English subtitles were added.

 "The fact that you hired a detective so soon, does that imply that you expected it to be a crime? Foul play?" - "Yes. Immediately. Right away yes. That risk was very high, yes. The chance that it was a crime. We estimated that chance right away at 80 to 90%. Of course it is possible that you get lost and stay away for a couple of days or so. That is possible.. But I also approach this from within my professional background (as an investigation and suspect search specialist)"

Conflicting times

By the way; initially the radio presenter and interviewed lady made a mistake in this radio airing, and assumed that the girls started their Pianista trail tour around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. And that they would have reached the summit by 19:00 PM, which would be near sunset in Panama at that month of the year. They made this show in May of 2014 however, before the backpacks and bones were found. Or the digital camera with the photos. So they could only go by suspicions and witness statements back then. The hired private investigator interviewed everyone living on the Pianista trail and came up with different eye witness statements. Witnesses all told him that they saw the girls climb the Pianista trail on April 1st around 14:00 PM. Which matches the statement of the (now dead) taxi driver at the time - more on him further down this blog post. This taxi driver stated to police that he picked them up around 13:30 PM and dropped them off at the start of the Pianista Trail around 13:45 PM. He died under suspicious circumstances aged 34 a year later, when he was found floating in a shallow pool of water during his work hours. One witness confirmed that he saw the girls waiting for the taxi at the side of the road close to 13:30 PM. Which was about the time that the taxi driver said to have picked them up. He already had two (unidentified) male passengers in his taxi then. And there are also the statements from the language school staff, who both saw the girls leave there around 13:00 PM, before they went to their guest house to get walking shoes, and then took a taxi to the Pianista trail [Later staff member Eileen somehow withdrew that statement and said that the girls hadn't been at the language school at all that day.. Which seems incorrect information]. Police also told the owner of the Spanish language school, Ingrid Lommers, that they had video footage, showing the girls in a shop in Boquete in the morning of April 1st. Nothing was ever heard again from that video footage, other than that it got accidentally overwritten. But I added Ingrid's social media statement about this further down below this blog post. I also added a video below of her declaring this on Dutch TV. Multiple witnesses on the Pianista trail stated that they saw Kris and Lisanne walk up the mountain later, around 14:00 PM in fact. Of course, witnesses can be wrong.. 

     

Juan found a better map of the Sinaproc searches 

**Please note that this map is a snapshot of the operations at some point during the searches. This is not an end shot of all the terrain which Sinaproc has searched. They eventually searched through the whole area behind the Mirador, and also all the terrain off the beaten paths. Sinaprocs spokesperson concluded at the end that the girls were not there. By August of 2014 they were still searching the area. This map is not conclusive therefore and only added here as an illustration of their operation. 

And a better image, found by Juan, "With icons, where the dogs searched, where helicopters flew, and where there are cows in the meadows.. Finally a big, clear picture of this Sinaproc map, by Daphne Jacobsen. Indicating that La Pandura was a well known key location, just like Piedra de Lino.

One of the earliest interviews with the parents from Kris and Lisanne 

This short interview appeared in the local Dutch news (NOS journaal) from April 5th 2014, 18:00, so taken only 5 days into their disappearance. In it the parents are still hopeful for a positive ending, but visibly upset. They also state: "Tuesday afternoon was the moment of the last contact with the two friends... They said that they would go for a walk, and have been seen that day in a local cafe." You can read all the interviews which the parents gave in this separate blog post. 

      

So what might have happened? Read about it here. And here you can read [restored] reader comments