The Mysterious Disappearance & Death of Two Dutch Hiker Girls

[Doc Safari]

I've become extremely interested in this case, fascinated if you will.

I'll post this video for now and then try to find some additional material to give my take on some of this:




I realize it's a long video, but I've always been interested in missing person cases.


I'll just leave the video here for now and not give what I think happened until some of the replies start coming in.

[WillBrink]

I recall when it happened as I was in Panama at the time. It was of course a surprise to everyone as Panama, other than a few key areas like any country, very safe. That area, wealthy expat area, so safer than ever. I don't have time to watch the entire thing, but I'm assuming they concluded an accident vs homicides. If homicide, that would be very rare to happen to a few gringa tourists, especially in that area. That's also a safe enough area to hike, and not even close jungle, but there's plenty of places to fall from, weather does change rapidly, etc.

[Doc Safari]

The nutshell:

1. Guide offers to escort the two holandesas to the summit of a popular hiking area, then to his ranch for an overnight stay. They refuse.
2. The girls hike the area on their own, and apparently continue on into a rugged area primarily used by the indigenous natives (Indios).
3. The girls disappear, and a search fails to turn up what happened to them.
4. Time goes by, and a backpack belonging to one of the girls is turned in to authorities.
5. In the backpack are both cell phones, and the records of cell phone calls indicate they started calling both the international (112) and Panama (911) emergency
numbers repeatedly but could not get a signal.
6. One of the cell phones was activated and the wrong PIN number entered repeatedly until the person gave up. It's assumed Kris was dead or incapacitated at this point and Lisanne was frantically trying to use her friend's phone to save her batteries.
7. A camera in the backpack had pictures of the girls' hike on the first day or so, and then abruptly stopped for several days until a series of almost 90 nighttime photos snapped one after another were interspersed with some mysterious photos of rock formations, an apparent attempt to leave a trail marker, and others. Most of the nearly 90 photos were in total darkness and were hard to make out. Of the photos that were clear, there are strange things about the photos as if Lisanne was attempting to leave clues or a message. One photo shows the back of Kris's head with blood on her temple. Most of the photos were never released.
8. All cell phone activity eventually stopped.
9. Further searches finally turned up minimal remains of both girls, plus bone fragments proven by DNA to be from three other people.
10. Lisanne's shoe was found with her skeletal foot still in it. The bones in the foot were broken as if from a high fall. Kris's rib was found, as was one of her empty boots. Kris's shorts were found on a rock near the river at the monkey bridge.
11. Although confirmed dead, what actually happened to them is the subject of speculation.

My take: It's a "real life" "Blair Witch Project."


I think I understand the photo sequence, but I'll refrain from giving my opinion until other people chime in.

[WillBrink]

The nutshell:

1. Guide offers to escort the two holandesas to the summit of a popular hiking area, then to his ranch for an overnight stay. They refuse.
2. The girls hike the area on their own, and apparently continue on into a rugged area primarily used by the indigenous natives (Indios).
3. The girls disappear, and a search fails to turn up what happened to them.
4. Time goes by, and a backpack belonging to one of the girls is turned in to authorities.
5. In the backpack are both cell phones, and the records of cell phone calls indicate they started calling both the international (112) and Panama (911) emergency
numbers repeatedly but could not get a signal.
6. One of the cell phones was activated and the wrong PIN number entered repeatedly until the person gave up. It's assumed Kris was dead or incapacitated at this point and Lisanne was frantically trying to use her friend's phone to save her batteries.
7. A camera in the backpack had pictures of the girls' hike on the first day or so, and then abruptly stopped for several days until a series of almost 90 nighttime photos snapped one after another ended with some mysterious photos of rock formations, an apparent attempt to leave a trail marker, and others. Most of the nearly 90 photos were in total darkness and were hard to make out. Of the photos that were clear, there are strange things about the photos as if Lisanne was attempting to leave clues or a message. One photo shows the back of Kris's head with blood on her temple. Most of the photos were never released.
8. All cell phone activity eventually stopped.
9. Further searches finally turned up minimal remains of both girls, plus bone fragments proven by DNA to be from three other people.
10. Lisanne's shoe was found with her skeletal foot still in it. The bones in the foot were broken as if from a high fall. Kris's rib was found, as was one of her empty boots. Kris's shorts were found on a rock near the river at the monkey bridge.
11. Although confirmed dead, what actually happened to them is the subject of speculation.

My take: It's a "real life" "Blair Witch Project."


I think I understand the photo sequence, but I'll refrain from giving my opinion until other people chime in.

Well, then does not sound like an accident.

[Doc Safari]

Well, then does not sound like an accident.

I realize people are busy and probably a lot of folks won't invest an hour to watch the video. I miss the days when I assisted with investigations a lot more mundane than this, so I'm totally fascinated by it.

To answer your question, there are indeed things that don't fit the "hiking accident" narrative.

I watched many many videos and read several write-ups on this. I believe this video addresses all but a few doubts.

I want to give my analysis of why nearly 90 photos were snapped in rapid succession, but I want to wait for other people to post.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Are the pics in the video?

[Doc Safari]

Are the pics in the video?

The ones that appear to be relevant are. Most of the rapidly snapped 88 or so photos were never released.

Unfortunately, I'm at my pic posting limit so I can't reproduce the relevant ones here.

Start at about the 48:00 mark and watch it to the end.

[Firefly]

Um....honestly their parents may as well have just shot them at home.

[opngrnd]

Ok Doc, you have piqued my interest.

[austinN4]

I have been to Boquete and would not have thought it unsafe, but that was some time ago and things change. For that matter, things can go to hell pretty quick just about anywhere.