Deaths of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon

Kris Kremers, 21, and Lisanne Froon, 22, grew up in Amersfoort, in the Netherlands' Utrecht province. Kremers had completed a degree in cultural social education, specializing in art education, at the University of Utrecht, and was described as open, creative, and responsible; Froon, described as aspiring, optimistic, and a passionate volleyball player, had graduated in applied psychology from Deventer. A few weeks before the trip, Froon moved into Kremers' dorm room in Amersfoort, and the two worked together at a café and restaurant, In den Kleinen Hap. After saving for six months, they planned a Panama trip to learn Spanish and volunteer with children, partly as a graduation present for Froon.

Kremers and Froon arrived in Panama on 15 March 2014, touring for two weeks before reaching Boquete, in Chiriquí Province, on 29 March to live with a local family while volunteering with children. On 1 April, around 11 a.m., they set out to hike the El Pianista trail near Boquete, in cloud forest surrounding the Baru volcano, and were reported to have had brunch with two young Dutch men beforehand. They were never seen again. That afternoon, unsuccessful emergency calls were attempted from both phones — Kremers' iPhone at 16:39 and Froon's Samsung Galaxy S III at 16:51 — neither reaching emergency services for lack of reception. On 2 April the women missed a scheduled appointment with a local guide. On 6 April their parents arrived in Panama with Dutch police, dog units, and detectives for a ten-day search, offering a US$30,000 reward for information.

Froon's phone battery died after 05:00 on 4 April and was never used again. Kremers' iPhone made no more calls but was turned on intermittently, searching for signal; between 5 and 11 April it was switched on repeatedly without the correct PIN entered again, and it powered on for the last time at 10:51 a.m. on 11 April before switching off at 11:56 a.m. On 8 April, ninety flash photographs were taken on the pair's digital camera between 19:00 and 22:00, deep in the jungle in near-complete darkness; the images appear to show the women near a river or ravine, a twig with plastic bags on a rock, a backpack strap and mirror on another rock, and the back of Kremers' head.

Ten weeks later, on 14 June, a local woman turned in Froon's blue backpack, found by a riverbank near her village of Alto Romero, in Bocas del Toro Province. It held sunglasses, US$88 in cash, Froon's insurance card, a water bottle, her digital camera, and both women's phones, all in good condition. The find prompted new searches along the Culubre River; Kremers' denim shorts turned up on a rock a few kilometres away. Two months later, nearer the backpack site, a pelvis and a boot containing a foot were found, and at least 33 scattered bones were recovered along the riverbank. DNA testing confirmed the remains as Kremers' and Froon's, though only around 5% of Kremers' skeleton and 10% of Froon's was found.

No official cause of death has ever been established. A Panamanian forensic anthropologist examined the bones under magnification and found no scratches or marks of any kind, arguing against animal scavenging. A forensic pathologist leading a research team working with the Kremers family told Dutch media that violence appeared implausible, and that the most likely explanation was that the women became lost or disoriented and fell from one of the area's many cliffs. Panamanian authorities faced criticism over their handling of the search, and the case has since drawn public speculation about Kremers and Froon's final days, without resolution.