The disappearance of student Sophia Koetsier in Uganda

Another missing persons case from The Netherlands
The missing Dutch girl in Uganda

28 October, 2015 Sophia Koetsier goes to Uganda on October 22nd 2015. The attractive 21 year old medicine student does an internship in an Ugandese hospital for two months, and afterwards travels around a bit longer with two other Dutch medicine students. They leave on October 23rd, and on Wednesday afternoon, October 28th they arrive in Murchison Falls National Park. Initially they make a boat trip over the Nile. The previous evening Sophia and her fellow students have partied hard and they are all tired now. But her travel companions suspect that something more is wrong with Sophia. She initially sits on the first row of benches on the boat, but soon goes to the toilers and she spends a lot of time on there. People think she has stomach issues. She seems also off during the subsequent drive to the place where they will stay the night: a low budget backpackers place called Student Center. After the boat trip they arrive there at around 6 PM. One and a half hour before it gets dark. The Dutch students drop off their luggage and the two other med students want to go the toilet together. It is located in a separate building, a little further away. The guide on the terrain tells them that the toilet is about 50-100 meters out, but that they can't go there alone at night because wild animals might be around. They are supposed to tell him that they have to go, and he'll bring them with his car. (If you scroll further down this pahe to the photo heading 'Belongings found of Sophia', you can see a photo of the toilets, and just how close to the main residence they are located). Since it is still light, the travel companions walk to the toilets, leaving Sophia in the main building. When they are done and walk back, they pass Sophia, who tells the guide she has to go to the toilet too. This is the last time Sophia is seen. The guide waits near the barracks where they will sleep, but can not see the toilet as it is located behind a bush. After a few minutes the guide approaches the others and asks if they have seen Sophia. They assume she is somewhere nearby. But when she cannot be found, her two friends raise the alarm. The initial story in the media is that subsequently, within 15 minutes a search party including park rangers with guns is in place. The two travel companions stay at the lodge but shout Sophi's name and cry. They go out in cars to look for her. But the searches do not result in anything. 

In the freshly aired Break Free program, which I translated from Dutch into English for you and uploade below, a slightly different version of events is told. The travel companions are said to be panicked, raise the alarm but then resort to playing Sophia's favourite song, Isabella, over the car radio in the hope that she hears it and returns. Only the next morning more extensive searches are started, although it is still an 'unorganized search'. In any case, it IS for certain the next morning that a group of rangers find a first lead, close by the river. A plastic water bottle, which Sophia had carried with her those last days and in which she collected rubbish, is found at less than 20 minutes walking distance from the toilets. When the search team returns 24 hours later to the spot where they earlier found Sophia's plastic bottle, they suddenly see more items. They are all clean looking. Her underpants is hanging high up in a tree, at almost 5 meter height. It is later confirmed to be Sophia's. The tree is said to be at around seven walking minutes from the toilets. Other trails are not accessible, so you always end up at that tree. From the location of the tree, a well kept ranger path runs parallel to the shore straight to ettlements and a police post, which takes about 18 walking minutes to reach, but it would have been hard to see in the dark. Sophia has not been seen at the settlement. One trouser leg is also found close to the tree, cut into strokes which are partly tied to something. But until this day there has been no trace of Sophia. Why wasn't everything found at the same time? Did Sophie walk from the lodge to the river at dusk? Where there are wild animals? Why didn't later searches conducted by helicopter and on the ground, with local search dogs and a mixed group of police and park rangers, not result in more findings? Dutch media and the Dutch prosecution almost instantly assume that Sophia was most likely is feared grabbed by a crocodile or a hippo.

On November 4th 2015 Dutch police arrives, equipped with a drone. Sophia is by then still not found. But along the river they do find her Ray-ban sunglasses, a right shoe, other pieces of fabric, two orange insoles of shoes and an etui without any contents. Later near the river some folded up clothes are found from her and half a dollar bill. No blood, no body parts. Then the big blame game starts. Some say that wild animals ate her. But the alligator theory is soon dismissed as no blood was found near the river, nor where there any screams heard or any traces of her found in the river. Also her folded clothes near the river could not be the work of wildlife. "The last thing that was found from Sophia is some clothing in the vicinity of the river," says Dutch forensic pathologist Frank Van de Goot, who is part of the Dutch investigation team. "That was some distance from the place where they stayed. She is said to have disappeared from the toilets. Hours and hours later, perhaps even days later, these items of clothing were found. Because her clothes were found on land and neatly taken off, I consider a scenario with only wild animals extremely unlikely." Others say that she must have accidentally drowned. Others refer to her parents' admittance that Sophia took medication for bipolar disorder, suspecting that she took her own life. But no leads have been found since then, and it still remains a mystery what happened to Sophia. 

Break Free
In the below added Break Free episode, Sophia's parents and friends explain to what extent Sophie had bipolar disorder. This condition is characterized by mood swings, that switch between abnormal energetic bouts and depression. But Sophia had a specific version, where too many external stimuli and not taking enough rest could cause her to temporarily show manic symptoms. But she would never experience downers or depression. She would be fine for long periods of time, and if a manic period did occur, she just needed rest and temporarily more medication. Three times Sophia went through this before, her parents say in another interview. They would tell her in those moments to rest. "But that only made her more rebellious", says her father Gerard. "She thinks that's stifling. She won't take any advice from us then. She wants to go outside. Space, air, rest." Before Sophia went to Uganda, her parents asked her doctor's opinion, who said not to see any problem with the internship, and that it would only be good, positive tension there. During her stay in Kampala in Uganda she had been working hard, meeting lots of new people and partied many an evening. Her mother visited her at some point during Sophia's stay there and everything was fine. She just could not find peace and quiet while living with 15 to 16 other students in a large student house. I advice you to watch the following series of about 40 minutes for a better understanding of the specific circumstances of Sophia at the time: This brand new Dutch docu episode airs this week on TV here and covers the disappearance of Sophia Koetsier. This series Break Free covered a few years ago already the disappearance of Kris and Lisanne, zooming specifically in onto the life and death of Lisanne Froon. Back then I also made English subtitles and uploaded the episode online for you all. You can find it on my vimeo channel or at the bottom of this blog post of mine. Now I made English translation and subtitles for this episode about Sophia as well, and you can watch the full ep. below. Due to size allowance limitations, I upload it in four parts, part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. I also embedded them below in this blog post: 

What may have happened?
Because the two travel companions of Sophia stated that she had acted strangely the day prior to her disappearance - as she had locked herself in the toilet on the boat for longer period of times and messes with the lock on a gas tank onboard which causes some commotion - the two friends called actually with Sophia's mother the evening of her disappearance. They said that they went to the toilet block together, but in fact (also) called behind those toilets with Sophia's mother Marije, to tell her that they were worried about her daughter. Her behaviour had been erratic and didn't know what to do. As Marije tells in the Break Free episode, she warned them not to tell Sophia anything about this or their plans to have her return to town sooner than planned. The safari tour was supposed to take seventeen days, all in all. Sophia had been fine during the initial five days of the safari, but had told thew two fellow students about her manic disorder. But they got the impression from her that everything was under good control. Sophia's family and friends had experience with Sophia's ability to walk off when she was in such a state. But Sophia told none of her other fellow students anything about her bipolar condition, so they did not know what was going on. The travel companions believed that Sophia did not hear this conversation, but the parents stress that during a manic flare Sophia is highly sensitive and had strong instincts. Her father believes that she had picked up on what was going on and may have felt the urge to run off. But her travel companions are certain they say that Sophia did not hear or see them calling Marije. The parents also explain how Sophia disliked the bipolar medication as it would make her gain a bit of weight and made her feel more flat in mood. She takes a low maintenance dose. And the times when she walked off in the past, she used to feel a strong urgency to talk to strangers and socialize. Friends recalled how she would be super social and chat with tourists and locals alike in town. Because she would feel very good actually, when having an 'upper'. "She looks for the company of people who do not know her, or who hardly know her. On such a night she could go out, wandering around town. And she would make smalltalk with people she did not know, tourists." Her mum Marije also said: "Because such people don't know her and don't know that she should actually rest. And they just find her amazing. Yes, they think then; what a party animal. What a spontaneous girl! What energy!" Marije also believes that thís is the reason why Sophia locked herself in the toilets onboard the Nile ship. Because she encounter too many stimuli, and wanted to isolate herself. A natural response. In Uganda her friends also reportedly (but this was not confirmed in the Break Free episode) detailed how she didn't sleep much and was gone the night before the safari, sitting in a lookout post all night. Here they say she was found in some lookout post by 6 AM, totally content by the way, as she said she had a great night out there. But the companions got worried at this point and told Sophia that they would have to call her parents if this continued. Sophia was not happy with that message and did not want her parents to be contacted over it, as she feared her mother would then get too stressed. But they could talk rationally with the three of them and the fellow students ensure that she takes her medication as normal. And the next morning, when they went to Murchison Falls, Sophia had been cheerful and thanked the companion for their good care the prior evening. The two students said that Sophia was by no means depressed at any point. During her stay until then, she initially had gone to bed on time, but as the stay in Uganda progressed, she is said to have slept less, as she didn't want to miss any of the fun. She didn't want to miss anything and some suggest that she had set herself a goal, a mission; to survive a night out there like she did in the lookout post. Apparently Sophia had also chatted with a friend in the Netherlands that night, in which she expressed that she knew that her friends had been worried about her, but that this annoyed her a little bit as she just wanted to be alone for a bit. 

Unfortunately there is still no clarity about what happened to Sophia. In the Break Free episode you can see that even her own family and friends are divided in their suspicions. They range from foul play to accidental drowning to an animal attack. The Dutch government has stuck with an animal attack, which makes Sophia's father angry. He believes that someone did something to his daughter. "And afterwards it also turned out that a lot more people were active in that park at the time than initially claimed. It was full of rangers there." What he then says about the Dutch government made me think of Hans Kremers instantly. The same criticism of shortsightedness and poor investigation by the Dutch government: 

"I still find it unbelievable that the Dutch government in particular has reacted the way they did. Namely, stating right away that they have no reason to believe that foul play was involved. While even the Ugandan government believes this scenario by now."

However the crime scene was not closed off and many people touched Sophia's (clothing) items before police collected them. I read that locals wrote on social media that a local man was found wearing her underwear. Her parents think that she fell victim to crime, because they bought the exact same pair of trousers that Sophia had been wearing, and with the best attempts in the world they could not tear it apart with their hands in the way in which straight strokes of the fabric were found near the river.. They could not even recreate it with their teeth. They do not believe that their daughter could have done this herself. They believe other people were involved. They feel it is the easy way out to declare their daughter 'crazy' and state she must have had a fatal accident. With no bodily remains, nobody really knows...  As the Break Free episode also shows, there are new developments with a high judge looking in the case again and suspecting foul play now. But the Dutch government has closed the chapter, much like they did early on with the Kris and Lisanne case. But the theory of the parents is supported by forensic analyst Richard Eikelenboom. After researching the found pieces of fabric from Sophia's trousers, he thinks that the Sophia's cotton trousers must have been cut into pieces with a knife or scissors (something she did not carry with her). In addition, the Dutch Forensic Institute examined her underpants to determine if it belonged to Sophia. That turned out to be the case, but DNA from an unknown man was also found on it. This has not been investigated further, and neither have her other found items been further investigated. "It may be DNA from a cop who has taken the panties off the tree. But we don't know that", says Eikelenboom. "New research could show whether Sophia herself tied the pieces of pants to the branches or someone else. If you tie a knot, you have to put strength and you leave a lot of skin cells behind." And there are more mysterious aspects to this case. Her black underpants was shoved high up a tree with the help of a branch. Her right shoe, found on the banks of the Nile. was spotless. The same for the profile of the bottom part of the shoe. "How is that possible?" Says mother Marije. "The earth is orange there." And Sophia's water bottle and personal items were found on nearly exactly the same spot. But a full day after one another. Someone must have put the items there after the water bottle was already found. Even the ranger who was part of the search team agreed with this on camera.

 

Dick Steffens

Dutch Independent Criminologist Dick Steffens became involved in both the disappearance of Kris and Lisanne, as well as in this disappearance of Dutch medical student Sophia Koetsier. Steffens: "If I read what has been done during the search for Sophia and if I watch videos of how the police worked, I cannot say that there has been hard work put into that search," he says. Steffens relies on a film clip made of the place where Koetsier disappeared, and a police file that lacks crucial information. A hiking shoe can be seen in the video. There is no mud on it, not even on the sole. A little further lies the inner sole of the shoe, which is brand new. According to Steffens, it seems that the shoe has not been used at all, but that it instead has been planted there later. "Then you see her underpants hanging four meters high in a tree." Steffens acknowledges Koetsier had episodes of mania in the past, “but I cannot imagine that in such a state of mind you will tear off all your clothes, crawl into a tree completely naked, and that then not a single trace of DNA can be found there. The scene was just too clean. It's no good, something is not right there", says Steffens. He also finds the conclusion that she was eaten by a crocodile absurd. "I have never heard of a crocodile eating someone without leaving a splash of blood, then bringing a shoe back and hanging underpants on top of a tree," he says. Steffens always advises the family of a missing person to find a good local contact who can collect evidence immediately after the disappearance. Although, according to him, that is not always easy. "For example, the private investigator in the case of Sophia Koetsier asked $75,000." One aspect that often makes missing cases abroad complicated is the fact that the police can be corrupt. “I went to Panama and Costa Rica this year for business and you can buy a lot there. You pay for information from a police officer or someone from the forensic investigation. Let me be clear: there are definitely also non-corrupt people, but in different countries, also in Europe, there are different rules for dealing with the police.” 

According to Steffens, it is an advantage that he himself has a police background because it is easier for him to steer the local police. “In the case of Sophia Koetsier for example, it is always possible to even start a completely new case. Then you could also speak to the policemen who were working on the case three years ago." Mixing yourself into crime cases in corrupt countries is not without danger. For example, crime journalist Alberto Arce describes in his book the dangerous situations that you end up in when you, as an outsider, enter a world of corrupt agents and violence. "You have to be careful, yes," says Steffens. “I have never been in immediate danger, but you are aware of it. You should never go out investigating all on your own and always make a planning for the day and leave it somewhere, preferably on the internet, in case you yourself disappear from the radar." "On top of that, Steffens believes that it is important that you stay on friendly terms with the authorities. “If necessary, you pay them a little. You first give them a small amount of money, and then you tell them that you pay the rest if you have received the correct information. It is extremely dangerous to go out and about with a large sum of money." When I ask Steffens why he is still busy after a long career as a detective - he has been retired for some time - he says it is simple. “I just like doing it. I have to, because I can't let go. As a family of a missing person, you are at the mercy of the gods."  -  Sophia's parents think of the worst possible scenario's: local devil or spirit expulsions, rape, torture, murder. Ugandans with war trauma's. They worry that their daughter is still alive and is continuously abused. But then again, she did have manic episodes in the past, where she can walk off just like that. What hell for her parents... Or perhaps there is some truth to the claim that Sophia set herself a goal to ssurvive a night out alone. I find it hard to believe, but ok, what if.. she went for a walk, tried to climb into the tree and survive another challenge night? She may have thrown the water bottle down then? But it remains very odd that no remains of herself were ever found. No bones, no skull, no body remains at all. Animal attacks as good as always leave marks behind. The ranger says on camera that the wild animals there drag their prey on land to eat it there and that they never eat everything. Signs are always left behind, and this was not the case here. Or maybe she ran into foul play. With a 3rd party coming back to place other items the day or night after (explaining why the water bottle was the only thing found initially, followed by the other personal items found 24 hours later on the same spot suddenly). Or she ended up in the river herself and just never made it out there in any shape or form. But this case again underlines what can happen when no proper forensic investigation takes place, and case officials throw a mysterious case right away onto the accident pile. Here and here you can find facebook pages for Finding Sophia Koetsier

Personal opinion

I think that there are some oddities in this case, like in the Kris and Lisanne case. Such as the fact that the initial search group only found Sophia's water bottle, and that when they came back 24 hours later to the same spot they suddenly saw more items there, which they declare were definitely not there the first time. Also, on the evening of her disappearance, local rangers already went looking for her within 15 minutes. They could not find her, despite it not being possible for her to have been strolling too far away yet, at that point. Sophia's friends and family have urged people to be very careful NOT to put her into the 'crazy' box. She had only had three known 'manic' episodes since the age of 16 by then, and took a low maintenance dose of medication for it. The two travel companions made sure that she took her pills the previous evening. She was very intelligent, very responsible and had just finished an eight week hospital internship successfully. But... I can't get the story out of my mind about her not sleeping all night, shortly before this tragedy. How her two fellow students and travel companions found her outside in some lookout post in the wild by 6 AM, as she wanted to prove to herself that she could do such a thing. Their words of course. We only have their recollections here. They are adamant that Sophia was at no point depressed and they said she would not have wanted to kill herself, 100% not. But I don't exclude the possibility that Sophia had an episode when she disappeared. That she did somehow got wind of the conversation her travel companions had with Marije, Sophia's mother. Even though those two swear until this day that they made sure Sophia could not hear or see them and that they are certain of this. But what if Sophia díd somehow sense what was going on and had one of those freedom urges, going out there willingly to survive a night in the wildlife on her own? Could she have climbed that tree in which her knickers were found herself, in such a state? Leave parts of her pants behind? You can see in the photos taken of the tree that the upper branches are really thin and fragile'; there is no way a human could have reached that high up without breaking branches. And how come Sophia's shoe was found clean of any dirt or red mud? 'As if it came brand new from it's box'. The parents have tried to recreate making those neat strips of pants fabric with their hands and their teeth, but failed. They and a forensic specialist concluded that Sophia's pants was ripped with the help of a knife or scissors. Neither of those were carried by Sophia. So who created them and why tie them around some vegetation like that, when there is a well kept ranger path nearby, leading to habitation? Either Sophia herself was around there initially and did not want to be found, and then later placed the other items out there (but wouldn't she have at least wanted to be found 24 hours later?). Or someone else put it there, trying to stage something. There were quite a few rangers in the area that night she disappeared. But nobody was questioned or investigated.

The best prediction of future behaviour is past behaviour, and Sophia until then had always looked for human interaction with strangers, when feeling manic. She would even enthusiastically chat with strangers in the streets of Uganda. To the point of rather doing that than to come along with the group. I think it is possible that IF she somehow met other humans that evening or night of October 28th, that she would have wanted to interact with them. Only a few nights earlier, she had spent all night and morning sitting around a campfire with unknown Ugandan men, having a jolly good time (and no sleep). According to the two travel companions of course, who wish to remain anonymous. We have to believe this, because they both claim it to be true. So anyway, that is Sophia's modus operandi when she feels good. Now, there is a rangers path right next to the river and leading from that tree to a settlement and a police station within a 20 minute walk. Frank van der Goot confirmed this on location. He stated that it would be too difficult to follow this path in the dark, but Marije went there over a dozen times and disagrees. She feels you can quite easily follow that well kept trail. But nobody has said to have seen Sophia in the next settlement or pass by the police station. Her own father states that a lot more rangers and locals were in the park that night than previously admitted. But there has never been any investigation in who were around there during that night, and what their alibis were. We also never heard who's male DNA was found on Sophia's knickers in the tree. To who did it belong? Was this even investigated? We don't know. So anything is possible. The wild animal attack theory of the Dutch case officials seems the least likely scenario to me... I cannot believe that crocs would eat a human with skull and all. And the ranger on camera said in fact that none of the animals around there would eat a human with skull and all. And that they mostly always would eat on the land. Crocodiles rip chunks off the carcass first, and then swallow it. The ranger beliefs that any animal involvement would have left behind evidence; remains/blood/drag marks, you name it. These were not found. I think the most likely scenarios are either that she went swimming and was dragged along by the Nile. And I don't know if the Nile would have ever made her body show up again somewhere. The fact that nobody found her body yet (even though it is Nigeria's most infamous disappearance case of the past decades) makes me wonder though. Wouldn't anyone who'd find her remains then at some point call reporters? Or, my other bet is that she wanted to prove to herself another time that she could survive out there alone in the local wildlife and that she met people that night who she wanted to interact and socialize with, but then met foul play. 

Parallels with the Kris and Lisanne case. Police of Uganda quickly assumed that Sophia had an accident. They performed no forensic investigation. All Sophia's belongings ended up together in one large bag. The police in the Netherlands sent someone over with drones. Which was about all their contribution in this case... When nothing was found, they declared the cause of Sophia's disappearance a fatal accident. Just like that, without looking into or scientifically ruling out any other theories. It was Sophia's mother who had her daughters' belongings sent back home and who took it upon herself to bring them to the Dutch police. They did not do anymore work in this case, and Marije had to fund her own research. The underwear of Sophia was forensically tested in the Netherlands. It showed that it belongs to her, but there was also DNA from an unidentified male found on it. But since there was no careful procedure followed in Uganda, it is not known if this is DNA from a person who retrieved it from the tree, or from someone else. Nothing was investigated at that point and Sophia's mother asked the Dutch department of justice to start such an investigation itself, which they refused. Claiming that such a thing would not result in anything... And that Marije has to let it rest. When strange male DNA is found on a missing woman's underpants, I think that warrants further investigation, surely? And why hasn't the ministery of Justice, or Foreign Affairs been interested in the strokes torn from Sophia's pants? Why not forensically test those for DNA of skin cells, for instance? Not even since this discovery has any official further investigated the finding of the DNA. What case does this remind us of..... This case shows just like the Kris and Lisanne case does, that when something tragic happens abroad, the family and loved ones back in the Netherlands are left hanging often and have to fend for themselves. Pay for their own investigation. Pay for their own search teams abroad. And when the investigation abroad is bungled or not performed correctly (or performed at all), the Dutch rarely send investigators of their own abroad to ensure that no evidence gets lost or trashed. Just as we have seen in Panama in 2014. They shrug their shoulders and rely on international treaties. Dutch police say that even if they want to step in, they cannot. As it are the authorities in the country where the disappearance took place, who are "leading the investigation". Which really increases the risk of corrupt locl police and politicians manipulating the case outcome, without any checks and balances. In contrast: when an American abroad dies and the FBI suspects foul play, they much more often send a delegation to help or even take over the investigation. That's how it should also perhaps be for Dutch people disappearing outside of Europe. But instead, desperate families have to rely on media interviews to garner any attention, and crowdfunding to finance anything. It is a disgrace actually, for a country as rich as the Netherlands. 

Photos of Sophia - Uganda 2015

Belongings found of Sophia 

Older photos of Sophia