Lost in the jungle of panama history. The mystery of the disappearance and tragic death of tourists in Panama

This is a tragic and mysterious story of the disappearance of two tourists from the Netherlands who went to Latin America. Lisanne Fron and Chris Kremers decided to visit Panama to get to know the culture of this country and the traditions of the locals, but disappeared into the jungle without a trace. After a long search, the girls were finally found, but, unfortunately, it was too late.

Two students from the small Dutch town of Amersfoort, Chris Kremers and Lisanne Fron, have long wanted to visit Latin America. Their choice eventually fell on Panama. They planned a six-week trip: the first two weeks they were supposed to live in the resort province of Bocas del Toro, and then for the remaining four weeks they would go inland, to a small locality Bochette, where the Spanish language school was located, aimed at tourists from Europe.

Spanish training was to take place in the practice mode, in other words, the girls had to perform various social work with local students. On February 15, 2014, the girls will arrive at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Parents who saw off the girls, at parting, before a long separation, take pictures of their children. Lysann and Chris will go through customs and hide behind the doors of the waiting room. Parents will never see them again.

Little is known about the girls themselves. Chris Kremers was supposed to be an art historian when she graduated. She was an open, sociable person. She paid for the trip to Panama from her own savings, saved up for it for at least six months, moonlighting as a waitress at a local restaurant, where she met Lisanne.

She was a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan.
Lisanne studied to be a psychologist. Dreamed of working abroad southern countries which in turn required knowledge of other languages, especially Spanish. The trip to Panama was partly a gift from my parents, a kind of advance payment for a future diploma. With a height of 184 cm, Lisanne successfully played for the student volleyball team. Favorite music - "Coldplay"

The first two weeks of the trip, Chris and Lisanne will spend as planned in Bocas del Toro

Lisanne took pictures with a parrot and wrote enthusiastic comments about Panama on social networks.

Chris posted on her Facebook page, photos from Bokas, with a standard resort theme: beach, sea, starfish.

On March 29th, as planned, Chris and Lysanne move to Bokquete.

The town of Boquette. Photo from the top of the mountain.

Despite the fact that Bokchete is located far from the sea, it is still a large tourist center Panama. The main attraction is the more than three-kilometer-long mountain of volcanic origin, Baru. In good weather, the most high peak Panama is visible from both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Although Baru is a fairly gentle mountain, climbing to a three-kilometer height is naturally associated with certain difficulties, so most of the hiking trails in the vicinity of Boquette are not laid on Baru, but on nearby hills and hills. There are also several observation platforms (in Spanish they are called the sonorous word "Mirador") with views of the city and the volcano that last erupted in 1550.

And of course, not a single tourist who finds himself in Central America will be able to pass by the opportunity, at least with one eye to look at the jungle. Formally, they begin immediately after leaving Boquette, in fact, the town itself lies in the middle of the jungle, but on the slopes from the side of the city, the jungle is quite civilized, one might even say “fake”, with paved hiking trails, or even just small roadside cafes, for the convenience of weary travelers. This is what the jungle looks like three kilometers from Boquette.

But in order to appreciate the true beauty of the rainforest, you need to go to the outer slopes of the mountains from the city. At 6-7 six kilometers from the city, the jungle already looks like this:

In Boquette, the first surprise awaits the girls: the Spanish course was postponed until April 8th. Thus, Lisanne and Chris had a whole week of unplanned free time. It was decided to dedicate this time to exploring local attractions and surroundings. Fortunately, the choice of one-day tourist routes around Boquette is really impressive.

Starting the story directly about the most criminal component of this story, it should of course be said that the attempts of the media and researchers to clearly reconstruct the events of March 31st and April 1st ended in complete failure, due to the complete discrepancy between the testimony of witnesses and some facts about which there will be known somewhat later. But there is nowhere to go, so the events of these days will be presented in exactly the same sequence as it sounded in the reports of the Panamanian police and the press.

March 29, 2014, Saturday.
Lisanne and Chris arrive in Boquette. They, by prior arrangement, rent a room in the annex of the house, from a woman named Miriam. She rents out a room under a contract with a Spanish language school. The room appears to have a separate entrance. Girls receive two pairs of keys.

March 30, 2014, Sunday
After a joint breakfast, the girls leave to explore the city and return in the evening. Something unusual or the presence of third parties with girls, Miriam did not notice.

March 31, 2014, Monday
The girls leave for the language school early in the morning, where they receive word that the practice will start a week later than planned. According to some reports, the girls, especially Lisanne, were upset. At school they talk to the manager educational institution and then with local guide Feliciano Gonzalez.

They order escort from him for two hiking routes. On Wednesday to the so-called "strawberry farm" located at the foot of the Baru volcano, and on Saturday directly to the volcano itself.
On the same day, the girls contact their parents for the last time via Whatsapp. "We're fine. We'll talk later," was Lisanne's last message.

April 1, 2014, Tuesday
9.00-11.00
Girls are seen in a cafe near the school, in the company of two young people
13.00
According to the guide Feliciano Gonzalez, at this time the girls leave the Spanish language school. Subsequently, Feliciano repeated more than once that he was obviously the last one who saw the girls in Boquette
13.30-13.40
Taxi driver Leonardo Mastina sees girls voting, on the road, not far from the Spanish school. He drives them for five dollars to the start walking route"El Piano".
Earlier 15.00
Giovani, the owner of the cafe located at the start of El Piano, sees the girls. They ask him a few questions about the route.
15.00-15.30
One of the workers (obviously a cafe) sees the girls leaving along the route and gives them his dog "Blue" as a guide. According to the cafe owner's wife, Doris, Blue will be back in an hour. One.
17.00?
A certain Pedro Capon, possibly the owner of one of the cafes or shops at El Pianosta, sees two girls returning from the route. They ask him how they can get back to the city. He shows them a place where they can catch a taxi or take a bus. But in which direction the girls went, Pedro did not see.
17.00?
An American who lives near the start of El Piano sees two girls who have returned from the route. They are talking to the owner of one of the cafes, apparently asking how to get to the city.

As many who have visited Panama tell, the use of dogs as guides is a common practice. If the tourists lose their orientation and the right direction, the four-legged guide can be given the command “Home!” and he will lead the lost back to the city without any problem. This is possibly the main witness in this case, a husky named Blue:

Guide Feliciano Gonzalez. He repeatedly criticized the local police for the lack of activity in search activities, and after the disappearance of the girls, he gathered a small volunteer detachment of local Indians and went into the jungle himself. In addition, in an interview, he told the Dutch press that in the jungle, on the other side of the mountains, there are many abandoned and nowhere marked on the maps of huts and dugouts. Whether someone lives there or not is unknown even to him.

The taxi driver Leonardo Arturo Gonzalez Martinez, who brought the girls up, allegedly on the first of April before the start of El Piano, will die a year after we describe the events. Not suspicious, but rather ridiculous death. A young thirty-four-year-old man feels bad, falls into a pond and drowns.

On April 2, Chris and Lisanne had an appointment with Feliciano Gonzalez. His services have already been paid for. The girls did not show up for the appointment. During the day, the guide will make inquiries at the Spanish language school and at the place of residence of the family where the girls are staying. And by the evening of the same day, he will report his suspicions to the police. On the morning of April 3, the Panamanian police will begin search activities. Searches will be carried out in the Spanish language school and in the apartment where the girls lived. In the room they will find two laptops belonging to Chris and Lysanne. After examining the data, the police will determine that early in the morning of April 1, the girls made a lot of queries on Internet search engines about hiking trails in the Boquette area. They were especially interested in the El Piano route.

On the same day, a search and rescue operation begins.
By April 5, police and rescuers complete their search for El Piano and nearby tourist routes. And they go beyond them, to the trails located on the outer slopes of the mountains around Boquette. The first helicopter rises into the air, while the truth is not so much for searching, but for coordinating rescue teams. Orientation for girls goes to neighboring Costa Rica.

On April 7, one of the largest international tour operators offering holidays in Panama, Lonely Planet, strongly recommends that tourists refrain from solo trips outside the observation decks, paying attention to the increasing cases of robberies.

On the eighth of April, the search begins with the help of helicopters. According to the Panamanian police, the operation to search for Chris and Lisanne was the largest in the history of this country. On April 10, Chris's parents arrive in Panama. The active part of the operation will be completed by April 14th. All search activities were unsuccessful. Neither the girls themselves, nor their remains, nor traces of blood were found. Usually left by the lost, various markers on trees or scratched arrows on rocks have also not been found. A map from the search headquarters of the Panamanian police, showing what work was done during these days of searching:

On April 30, a $30,000 reward was set for information on the whereabouts of Chris and Lisanne. Later, one of the television channels of Panamanian television will add another ten thousand to this amount.

At the end of May, a detachment of the Dutch police flies to the aid of Panamanian colleagues, consisting of eighteen employees and twelve dogs of various profiles. The first three days of their arrival in Panama, the Dutch police group will concentrate on inspecting the living quarters in Boquette and near El Piano. It is clear that the police did not have any legal rights to such actions, however, according to the police: "most of the local residents with whom they dealt agreed to inspect their premises."

Naturally, one of the main versions of the disappearance of the girls was the assumption that Chris and Lisanne could simply get lost. The route "El pianisto" began on the northern outskirts of Boquette, at an altitude of 1270 meters above sea level. For the first one and a half kilometers, the route passes along coffee plantations, small groves, through a fairly calm landscape. The ascent on this section of the route is only about 200 meters.

Then the trail narrows, the route becomes a little more "wild", rising to a height of about 500 meters and after four and a half kilometers, ends with a small observation deck, in Spanish "mirador", at an altitude of 1890 meters above sea level. At this stage, so to speak, the official route indicated in Google earth and some "conservative" guidebooks ends. The trail continues further, descending the mountainside to the so-called "Caribbean side" of Panama. This unofficial part of the route, in various sources, is called a little differently, but approximately in translation into Russian it can be referred to as "Caribbean descent".

It leads to a sparsely populated area under autonomous Indian control, with complicated name Ngobe Bugle. The area is inhabited by two Indian tribes, one of them is called Ngobe, and the second, as you probably guessed, Bugle. The terrain into which the Caribbean Descent leads is initially somewhat rugged and then mostly flat, separated by the Río Caldera and its tributary called the Culebra.
On the map it looks like this:

For a long time, it seemed that the details in the story of the disappearance of girls would remain forever obscure. However, two and a half months later, on June 14, 2014, this story took an unexpected turn. On this day, a local Indian living on the "Caribbean side", while working in a small rice field, found, in a shallow bed of a nearby flowing river, a blue backpack. The contents of the backpack were as follows:

Foreign passport in the name of Lisanne Fron
-Insurance medical card in the name of Chris Kremers (according to some reports, the cards of both girls)
- $83
- Two pairs of cheap sunglasses
- Two mobile phones
- Two bras
- Water bottle
- "Canon" camera.

Judging by the initial press reports, the position and condition of the backpack was such that it was not possible to unequivocally determine whether the backpack was left in this place, or whether it was brought by the current.

By the way, photos of the girls' things showed how different the approach can be in covering a criminal story in the media. The fact that these photographs appeared in the Panamanian press without any consent from the girls' parents caused violent protests from the Dutch justice system. The Panamanian side did not understand the objections of their European colleagues, saying that such cooperation between the investigation and the media is an absolutely normal practice. True, later, in many Panamanian and Dutch newspapers, there was information that this photograph was not taken at all by the police, but by the Indian himself, at home, immediately after he discovered this find.
As a result of various examinations of the found items, it will be established:

The DNA of two unknown women will be found on the backpack itself, as well as two slightly incomplete "male" DNA. Nevertheless, one of the men can be identified, but who it is and how he left his genetic imprint on the girls' backpack, the police will not report.
-According to official figures, "more than a dozen" different fingerprints will be found on the girls' mobile phones. According to unofficial - thirty-six. Three of the fingerprints found on the phones will also be found on the camera. One of these "duplicate fingerprints" will arouse the suspicions of the Panamanian police and be entered into the fingerprint database of wanted criminals.

The police did not report anything about the condition and technical serviceability of mobile phones and cameras. However, data from mobile phones and a camera was subsequently decrypted and published. Most likely the SD card of the camera was still slightly damaged.
-At the place where the backpack was found, the police will take six samples for DNA extraction. Five tests will not give any result. The DNA of the sixth sample belonged to an employee of the Institute of Criminalistics, in which this examination was carried out.
-Remains of soil and plant material will be found on the backpack. According to the Dutch police, this material has never been compared with the composition of the soil of the area in which the backpack was found.

A new search operation was launched along the Culebra channel. During the second search operation, the following were found:
- Black shoe. Discovered June 16th. It belonged to Lysanne. The boot was near the riverbed, behind a tree. Part of Lisanne's leg was found in the boot. According to the police, it was separated as a result of "natural processes". Subsequently, on August 29, not far from this place, smaller bone remains will be found on which the skin will be found. The skin material showed the first stage of decomposition, as a result of which the police concluded that it was stored in the shade, in a cool place, at low temperatures. Some black dots and many holes were found on the skin, apparently left by insects, as well as some red stripes, which are traces of hemoglobin from the muscles.

Hip bone. More precisely, part of it. Was found nearby, also on June 16th. Subsequent DNA analysis showed that the bone belonged to Chris Kremers. The bones showed no signs of decomposition. The police assumed that the bone had been chewed off by predators, although no obvious traces of animal fangs were found on it.
- Blue boot. Discovered June 18th. Initially, the police believed that this shoe belonged to Chris. However, no evidence of this, in the form of DNA examinations and other studies, was provided. Moreover, after deciphering the photographic material, it will become clear that Chris was wearing different shoes that day.
- The denim shorts belonged to Chris. They were found at the end of June. They lay on a small stone, near the mouth of two rivers. There were no traces of blood or tears on the shorts.

On August 3, more than fifteen kilometers (in a straight line) from the start of El Piano, new bone remains will be discovered. Most of them belonged to animals, but one piece of bone material turned out to be the rib of Chris Kremers. Even during a visual examination, the experts drew attention to the unusual absolutely white color of the bone. Subsequent analysis on the rib by Chris Kremers found a large amount of phosphates, as a result of which the rib received such a color.

The complexity of the landscape, the area where the things and the remains of the girls were found, can be judged by the fact that the trip alone, the investigator of the Panamanian prosecutor's office, Batzaida Pitti, for the found bone remains of Chris Kremers, lasted about ten hours, and at the end of this "business trip" she needed health care due to dehydration.

After these findings, the Panama police voiced one of the versions, according to which the girls could become victims of predators. The prime suspect looked like this:

However, Puma was not the only suspect from the Panamanian fauna. Many local media noted that reptiles could pose a much greater danger to girls who had gone into the jungle. For example, the Bushmaster is the largest venomous snake in South and Central America. Some individuals can reach a length of four meters. Despite its impressive size, the Bushmaster is a very "shy" snake, avoiding meeting with a person and settling, as a rule, far from his halo. But many of his younger brothers of the viper family are more aggressive towards people.

The main hopes that the cause of death of the girls would be established, the police naturally placed on data from mobile phones and a camera found in a backpack. These hopes were not destined to come true. On the contrary, photographs and printouts of mobile data will completely confuse this story, turning it into one of the most mysterious crime stories of our time.
But before moving on, a few words about the reliability of the data, which will be discussed below. Firstly, apparently, the camera's SD card was slightly damaged by a long stay in the water or for some other reason. Therefore, some police data had to be restored.

Secondly, after studying the photographic material, the police handed over the photographs to the girls' parents and the latter, naturally, did not want to arrange a photo gallery from this material, publishing only some of the pictures. And thirdly, the time and serial numbers of the photographs were published only in the Panamanian press, and were partially confirmed only by the girls' parents. But the data from the mobile phones of Chris and Lizan was published by newspapers around the world, the Dutch police referred to them and, therefore, the probability of error in them is minimal.
So fast forward to April 1, 2014...

The time of the photographs contradicted all the testimonies. According to the photographic material, the girls started their journey to El Piano not after 2 pm, but much earlier, approximately at 10.45 am.
The first published photo of IMG_491, taken at 12:03:08, apparently somewhere in the middle of the mirador. In the photo - Chris, in her hands she holds an object that looks like a plastic bottle, which will then be found in a backpack.

The next published photo, IMG_493, was taken at 12:22:45 pm, by this time the girls had already been at El Piano for about two hours. Apparently, this hiking route did not cause them any special emotions, as we can see, they took only three photographs in a two-hour hike. The photo shows one of the canyons, in Spanish - "barranco", located somewhere in the immediate vicinity of observation deck. This appears to be one of the restored photographs. Its place in the general chronology causes heated debate among the researchers of this case. The fact is that there are no canyons to the mirador on the parents' video (later, parents Chris and Lisanne will go along this route, filming the path on a video camera). In addition, many people notice that the photo is slightly smeared, as if taken on the run.

The next photo is IMG_499, taken at 13:01:44. Everything is simple here - Lisanne on the mirador.

IMG_500, taken at 13:01:50. 6 seconds after the previous photo, Lisanne is photographed facing the opposite side of the mirador. The differences in cloud cover are frankly surprising in both photographs.

IMG_XXX, around 13:00, exact time unknown. The only photo taken with a cell phone. Or the only one published. Chris on Mirador.

IMG_505, taken at 13:20:33. Beginning of Caribbean Descent. Chris in the "steering wheel". The number of photographs is increasing dramatically. Based on the numbering and time, it is clear that in 19 minutes the girls took 5 photos.

IMG_507, taken at 13:54:50. This is the so-called "Kverbada". Crossing the stream. In total, there are two of them on the Caribbean Descent. This is the first one.

IMG_508, taken 13:54:58. Eight seconds after the previous photo, Chris is photographed on the other side of the stream. Both the police and the girls' parents have repeatedly confirmed that this is the last photo taken by the girls on the first of April.

What the girls did for the next almost two hours is unknown. At 4:39 pm, Chris will dial 112 on his mobile. This is the emergency number for the rescue service in Holland and many other European countries. Twelve minutes later, at 4:51 pm, Lysanne will follow her friend's lead by also dialing 112 on her Samsung.

The telephone number of the rescue service in Panama is 911. However, the fact that the girls tried to call the number 112, which is more familiar to them, was in principle not a mistake, since when dialing this number, cell phones automatically turn on forwarding to the number of the rescue service of the country in which the owner is located phone in this moment. The real problem was that in the place where the girls called from, there was apparently no network coverage and neither Lisanne nor Chris could get through to the rescue service. Moreover, on this day they did not make any more attempts to call.

April 2nd This time, Lisanne was the first to call at 06:58. Chris makes his attempt at 08:14. and no longer uses his iPhone that day. Lisanne tries to call again at 10:53 and 13:56. This time, she not only dials 112, but also tries to dial 911 directly.
April 3rd At 09:33, Chris attempts to contact 911 again. However, the network coverage was insufficient to establish a connection this time. This was the last call to 911. During the day, the girls turned on their phones a couple more times, but did not attempt to call or send a text message.
April 4th Chris turns on his mobile twice, at 10:16 and 13:42. On Lisanne's phone, no activity was recorded that day.
April 5th Lisanne's phone turns on at 04:50 at night and stays on for 10 minutes, causing it to run out of power and turn itself off. Chris' phone turns on twice at 10:50 and 13:37.
April 6th At 10:26, Chris's phone turns on again, but for the first time, the person who turned on the phone does not dial the pin. The next inclusion at 13:37.
According to RTL, from April 7th to 10th, Chris' phone was turned on a total of 77 times.
On April 11, Chris' phone will be turned on first at 10:51, again without a pin. And then at 11:56 and after about an hour it will turn off.
Weather conditions for eleven days were approximately the same. During the day, the thermometer rose to 30-36 degrees, and at night it dropped to 24-20 degrees Celsius. the only torrential downpour with thunderstorms began on the evening of the third of April, at 17.00 and ended on the night of the fourth, at about two o'clock. Rain with a thunderstorm was also on April 8th, but not for long, from 18:00 to 19:00. No precipitation was observed on other days.

And on the night of April 8, someone suddenly turns on the camera and takes exactly 90 pictures on it within three hours. That is, on average, one picture per two minutes. Unfortunately 87 of them will be taken in absolute darkness, without flash. As the Dutch police will state, despite the fact that the pictures were certainly taken with an open lens, it is impossible to see or recognize anything in them. Of the three pictures taken with flash, only two will be published initially.
This is IMG_542, at 01:38:12

The next "resulted" photo IMG_550 taken at 01:39:54

In February 2015, the Dutch police will publish a report on research work conducted by them on the death of Lisanne Fron and Chris Kremers. The meaning of the report is, of course, not an attempt to prove one or another version of the death of the girls, but rather an attempt to determine the most likely cause. So, according to the Dutch police, the girls died in an accident: “First of all geographical conditions on the last stretch of the route "El pianisto" (meaning "Caribbean descent", and the last kilometers) show that the accident is the most possible cause of the subsequent death of Lisanne and Chris.
The opinions of experts on this report were naturally absolutely polar, and many subjected it to serious criticism. Panamanian criminologist Octavio Calderon speaks: “There are no facts at all on the basis of which it can be argued that the girls were near the river. Two bones found, of two different people, from two different parts of the body, in different parts of the river, rather indicate that someone put them there ... "

Almost six months after that, the parents of Chris Kremers still decided to show the last, “third” photo. The photo was shown in one of the programs of the Dutch television.

Map with localization of finds and photographs taken.

The remains of the girls were handed over to their parents and buried in Holland.

This is where the "official" part of the post ends, and then we will try to deal with inconsistencies and incomprehensible moments.

1) Why does the time of the photographs contradict all the testimonies?

Officially, neither the Panamanian nor the Dutch police give an answer to this question. Doesn't match and that's it.
Knowing that the way to the "mirador" takes at least 2 hours, and the girls on it were photographed at noon, or thereabouts, it means that they set out on the route at about 10 o'clock in the morning. Why do witnesses claim that they saw them leaving for the route around 14:00-14:30? And around 17:00, at least two people claim that they returned from the route, although this is impossible, if only on the basis of the fact that around that time there was an attempt to call the rescue service from phones located on the other side of the Mirador, on "Caribbean descent".

Witnesses confused them with other European girls? Or are they deliberately deceiving, misleading the investigation? But again, why?
The more people cheat and collude (and here there are about six people), the more more likely let it slip, or allow inconsistency with the testimony of another person. If there was intent, and there was a criminal background, then it is much easier to say that "I did not see anything and I did not hear anything."

In fact, even though official version and says that the girls died in an accident, crime is more than possible here. In Panama, as in many countries Central America, in addition to the drug trade, the slave trade in the field of sex services is also flourishing. Many girls are kidnapped or lured into this area by fraud. It is quite possible that interested parties could pay attention to foreign girls who are different from local ones.

2) Why did the girls only call the rescue service, never once trying to get through to relatives or friends?

On the one hand, there is a logical explanation that, seeing the futility of trying to call 911 and 112, they did not want to waste time charging their phones. But it is also puzzling that no attempt was made to send SMS to the same friends or parents, especially in the early days when the phones were not turned off and the batteries were not yet saved. There is always a chance (and a rather big one) when, in the absence of a network, the SMS "hangs" on sending, and then, upon receiving the minimum signal, it is still sent. Moreover, it is sent even when it is impossible to get through.
However, the girls might not have known about this if they lived in a place where cellular communication is always stable.
Also, for some reason, there are no records in the phones, no photos of the incident. At least eleven days the girls were alive (one for sure, anyway), and not a single phone has a record of what happened (neither voice nor text), and not a single photo shedding light on what happened. Not on the phone, not on the camera.

3) The time of turning on the phones, and trying to get through.

For several days, from the second to the sixth of April, the girls turn on their phones at the same time intervals - between 10-11 and 13-14.
Whence such selectivity, and a binding to time?
By the way, iPhone Chris "stretched" 11 days. A very good time for a modern smartphone, even if it was turned off part of the time. When turned on, the mobile phone tries to find a network, and if it is not there, or it is weak, a lot of energy is spent on finding and maintaining the network.

4) Shorts Chris.

The shorts found during the search operation added another mystery to this case. According to the Panamanian police report, the shorts were neatly placed on a large rock near a stream bed. There were no signs of tearing or any other damage. The police also said that no traces of blood were found on them.
Actually, the question is: why take off your shorts in the jungle and leave them on a stone?
Versions that were put forward by forum users (both Russian-speaking and Dutch):
a) The shorts got dirty, they were taken off to wash, put to dry on a stone, but something frightened the girls, they ran away and did not return.
- It is quite possible, but it is unlikely that soiled shorts are washed in such a situation. Well, they got dirty, so what? This is not a city where everyone is looking at you. In the jungle, values ​​and priorities are somewhat different.
Alternatively, the shorts were not soiled with mud, but the owner began to have "critical days". In such a situation, washing is quite logical, but the police officially stated that no traces of blood were found on them, and in plain water of a mountain stream, without detergents, it is impossible to wash off the blood. However, the examination easily determines the nature of the blood, and the investigation could bashfully keep silent about such an intimate fact, considering it irrelevant to the case.

b) The girls wanted to swim in the stream, undressed, but something frightened the girls, they ran away and did not return.
“You don’t swim much in that stream. It's a stream, not a river. He is small. You can drink from it, wash your hands, but swim ... Moreover, why then only shorts remained? What about the rest of the clothes? In addition to shorts, Chris was also wearing a T-shirt.
c) Chris took off her shorts because she was hot and she decided to get rid of them.
- It is difficult to imagine a person willingly walking in his underwear through the jungle. Moreover, it was more rational to put the shorts in the backpack that the girls had with them.
d) The shorts were taken off because Chris was injured.
- Why then carefully lay them out on a stone? Wouldn't it be easier to put them in a backpack? Moreover, if the injury was open, there would be blood on the shorts. If it was closed (a fracture or dislocation of the hip joint), then Chris would not have gone far from the shorts. The body would have been found nearby.

5) The remains of the girls, found at a considerable distance from each other, and their condition.

a) Lisanne's boot. The boot was near the riverbed, behind a tree. Part of a leg was found in the shoe. According to the police, it was separated as a result of "natural processes". Subsequently, not far from this place, smaller bone remains (it is not specified which ones) will be found, on which the skin will be found. The skin material showed the first stage of decomposition, as a result of which the police concluded that it was stored in the shade, in a cool place, at low temperatures.

These findings speak in favor of the criminal component of what happened. As a result of what "natural" processes, the foot could separate from the lower leg? Ligaments will not rot even in such a hot climate in three months. Also, the police do not say anything about the traces that must have been left on the joint during separation, as a result of which the nature of the injury would be clear. And how does the find made very close by correlate with this: “small bone remains”, on which the skin, which was in the first stage of decomposition, was preserved? How can a leg decompose, to the point of destroying the joint, while the skin remains virtually intact? In which refrigerator did these bone remains lie, and who brought them to the boot and threw them up?

b) Part of Chris' hip bone, near Lisanne's boot. The bones showed no signs of decomposition. The police assumed that the bone had been chewed off by predators, although no obvious traces of animal fangs were found on it.

The police did not put forward any versions (in any case, officially) of how the pelvic bone could burst, and what character the fracture line had, by which it was possible to judge the nature of the injury. To break the pelvic bone in his lifetime, it was necessary to fall from a very high height, and extremely unsuccessfully, on his back or side. The version about nibbling by predators does not stand up to criticism. Predators of the cat family (puma) do not gnaw bones. This could be done by a wolf, or a hyena, but they are not found in this area. And according to the police, there were no traces of teeth on the bones.
Assuming that this place was still the place where the girls died, how could their backpack be much further than this place, downstream of the stream? Who brought him there?

c) On the third of August, more than fifteen kilometers (in a straight line) from the start of "El pianisto" the rib of Chris Kremers will be found. Even during a visual examination, the experts drew attention to the absolutely white color of the bone. During subsequent analysis, a large amount of phosphates were found on the rib, as a result of which the rib received such a color.

Where did the phosphates on the rib come from? According to the police, it was in the stomach of a predator. But first, what kind of predator was it that could swallow a rib whole? and secondly, how could this rib leave the stomach without being digested and pass through the intestinal tract? Yes, and hydrochloric acid, which is in the stomach, does not precipitate any phosphates on the surface of the bone, but, on the contrary, dissolves inorganics, as a result of which the bone becomes soft, and is digested ...

6) A backpack found in a stream bed with things.
Some surprise is its good safety, and the safety of the things in it. It is also not clear whether the girls themselves left him here, or he swam downstream (during the rain, the water could rise, and theoretically, the backpack left above could be brought to this place by a stream), but if he was carried by a mountain stream, throwing him against stones, then he safety is amazing. If the girls left him, then how did their remains end up upstream? So they came back?

It is also strange that the phones and the camera are well preserved. And in general, the very fact of their presence in a backpack is surprising. By the tragic denouement on April 11, when Chris' iPhone was last turned on, whoever turned it on (Chris or Lisanne) was clearly already in a state close to insane (as indicated by 77 phone on/off). A person in this state obviously will not neatly pack things in a backpack.

Jack London has a very powerful story "The Love of Life". It describes very well the behavior and condition of a person who is desperately fighting for his life, and about the change in his preferences, values ​​and priorities in the process of struggle. Although the story is artistic, everything is described very reliably, and on the verge of death, it is unlikely that the girl will pack phones and a camera in a backpack, especially since there is no information on them that can shed light on what happened.

7) Night photos on April 8th.
A series of 87 photographs taken with a camera in complete darkness without a flash, and three with a flash.
Different versions of the origin of these photos are being put forward, somehow, someone fell asleep, putting his head on a backpack with a camera, and periodically pressed the "shutter" button, and an attempt to scare away a predator in the dark with the sound of a shutter.

But if the camera was in a backpack and took photos by itself from accidental clicks, then how did it end up "on the street" after a series of these shots, where three more shots were taken with a flash? All these 90 shots (87 in the dark, and 3 with flash) are one "photoshoot". Lie with your head on a backpack, sleep, and then wake up in the dead of night and start filming? Extremely unlikely. If it was conscious photography, then why was it necessary to click the darkness for several hours, and then at the end, take pictures with a flash? Scare off a predator? The shutter sound (or simulated shutter sound) is quiet enough to scare them away. Yes, and in the pictures with a flash, there are no predators.
It is quite possible that the button was pressed by a person who is in stagnation, poorly understanding what he is doing at the moment.

8) Three night shots with flash

These pictures were examined microscopically by many users of the forums. They were enlarged, and clarified, and what they didn’t do with them, trying to understand what exactly was photographed on them, and most importantly, why.
In the first picture, for example, some saw ... a leg.

With due imagination, in principle, it can really be seen there.
The second photo of a branch with something red is also controversial. The red things are plastic bags. Such packages were found in the girls' room, and they can be seen in the photo. It is possible that they wrapped something in these bags and put them in a backpack when they went for a walk. Why did they just put them on a branch? There are two explanations: they waved a branch to a rescue helicopter, and the bags were to attract attention, or they hung them on branches to collect rainwater or morning dew for drinking.
Also, it is not clear what kind of piece of paper lies near the branch, and what is written on it, and whether it is related to what is happening.
Localization of this night "photo shoot", by the way, could not be established.

The third photo, which shows Chris's hair, causes the most controversy.
His parents, the girls, initially did not want to show it, and as a result they showed it only six months later, and then, in a TV show, where another photo lies on top of him, hiding a part. The full photo has never been released, and it is not known whether by accident or design part of the photo has been hidden. If intentionally, then what is depicted there?

Many comment that Chris's hair looks clean, which is strange for an eighth day of wandering through the jungle, opponents answer them that this is a flash effect, in which even dirty hair can look relatively clean. There were even experiments (amateur) confirming this statement. Well, who is right, and whether the hair in the photo is clean or not, is unknown.

Later, there was information that there is also a fourth shot with a flash. It shows the edge of the cliff. Although initially, in the primary sources, it was said about three pictures. It is possible that this picture was also not shown to the parents at first, and then they posted it to the public.

There are many more mysteries in this story than answers, and whether it will be known what actually happened in the jungles of Panama in April 2014, or whether this case will be included in the treasury of unsolved tragedies and incidents is still unknown.

A group of young people disappears without a trace in the dense wilderness, leaving behind only a camera with amateur footage, on which we see the devilry gradually rising ... Does it look like a Hollywood horror movie in the pseudo-documentary genre? Alas, for two girls in the Central American jungle, the now fashionable movie plot has become a terrible reality. And although this drama played out more than two years ago, new details are still emerging. And on the Internet, entire communities of those who are trying to investigate the tragedy are being created. Over the past week, history has again been actively discussed around the world.

Dashing Panama

Lisanna Fron was 22 years old, her best friend Chris Kremers was 21. Open and friendly girls lived in the Dutch city of Amersfoort. Lisanna studied psychology, dreamed of helping people in local war zones, and played in the student volleyball team. Chris was preparing to become an art critic. Both wanted to learn Spanish and in February 2014

went to language practice in distant Panama. The journey was to last two months. The first weeks of the girlfriend were spent on seaside resort Bocas del Toro, hung out with the guys, posted on Facebook beach pictures taken with an iPhone and an amateur camera. In the future, these two devices will become "key witnesses" of the fatal drama.

On March 29, the girls moved inland, to the town of Boquete on the slopes of the Cordillera. Even by the standards of small Central America, this is a real backyard, the jungle begins already beyond the outskirts. In 2009, 29-year-old English tourist Alex Humphrey disappeared here. I just left the hotel and sank into the water. And impassable thickets, according to rumors, were chosen for caches by smugglers and the drug mafia. But what a nature! Tourists are attracted by dizzying trails along the mountain slopes, clear streams and the mysterious tropical jungle.

Upon arrival in Boquete, it turns out that classes at the language school, where the friends were sent, have been postponed for a week. Lisanna and Chris rejoice: there is time for hiking! They are especially interested in not the easiest route called "El Piano", where after climbing through the jungle and mountain paths, you can enjoy the view from the observation deck at an altitude of almost two thousand meters. The daily temperature is over 30 degrees, the girls are lightly dressed: T-shirts, shorts, a swimsuit in a backpack, documents, some money.

90 photos in the dark

On March 31, Lisanna sends her last message to her parents: "It's okay, we'll talk later." On the morning of April 1, tourists are seen in one of the cafes in the company of young people. Around 15.00 on the same day, souvenir sellers notice the friends at the starting point of the El Piano route. This time, Fron and Kremers are just the two of them, carefree and cheerful, with a camera in their hands. Then the weirdness starts. Several local residents said that at 17.00 they observed girls who had already returned from the route at the same place, who allegedly got into either a taxi or a bus and left for the city. True, further facts completely refute such evidence.

On April 2, when it became clear that the Dutch women were missing, a search operation began, which became the largest in the history of the country. At the end of May, a team of 12 Dutch criminologists, equipped with the latest technology, flew to Panama. European detectives interviewed hundreds of local residents, searched dozens of houses on both sides of the Cordillera. But the girls perished in the jungle. True, as it turned out two months later, not without a trace.

In June 2014, 20 kilometers from the starting point of the route, on the other side of the Cordillera Range, on the banks of a mountain river locals found the same backpack with the girls' things. It is unlikely that it was brought by the current - a camera, two mobile phones, money (83 US dollars) and documents remained untouched. By the way, more than a dozen fingerprints of various people were found on the phones. Casual acquaintances whom the girls asked to help take a selfie? .. And in August, upstream along the riverbed, investigators found fragments of bones and shoes with the feet of tourists. Then the contents of the memory of gadgets were made public.

Here are the pictures taken by the girls on the route on April 1st. Both of them admire the scenery with smiles. There is nothing criminal in the pictures. And on phones? It turns out that from April 2 to April 6, someone (most likely the housewives) turned on their mobile phones for a short time every day, trying to dial the rescue service. But in vain - the signal was not caught in the mountains, then the tubes simply ran out. Then, on the night of April 8, someone clicked exactly 90 shots on the camera with an interval of two minutes for three hours. They could provide a clue, but 87 of these shots were taken in complete darkness and without flash. Even the police examination could not distinguish anything. In the remaining three frames, there was still a flash, but it did not shed light on the causes of the tragedy. In the first photo - not a rock, not a grotto, pink plastic bags on branches. (Did they collect rainwater in them for drinking?) In the second photo - stony soil with thickets lost in the dark. On the third, most mysterious, something similar to those taken close-up red hair Chris. And… everything.

Questions without answers

Who or what could be the killer? Predatory animals - cougars, poisonous snakes? Local gangsters who decided to dismantle travelers for organs, as in the Hollywood thriller "Turistas"? Or maybe an accident? The police are still shaking hands.

It is also unclear why the girls called the rescue service without trying to send SMS to their relatives? What did the strange night photos mean? If trouble struck and communication was lost, why didn't the Dutch women leave notes or video messages on their smartphones? By the way, what kind of young people were sitting in a cafe with tourists shortly before the disappearance? And if the girls were killed, why didn’t they touch the money and equipment in the backpack? Who owned the numerous fingerprints on smartphones? Who neatly put all the things in a backpack and why was he found miles away from the body fragments? And finally, how could the residents of the town see the returned Dutch women on the afternoon of April 1, if, judging by the time of the photographs, at that moment the friends were still far away in the mountains? .. In this case, each new question only multiplies the next.

And all remain unanswered.

EXPERT OPINION

Mikhail FRIBEN, specialist in solving non-standard situations: A combination of natural factors could have killed them

Remember the verses of Korney Chukovsky: "Do not go, children, to walk in Africa"? In this case, the continent is different, but the rules are the same. Two European women go to the rainforest without medicines, warm clothes, a supply of water and food in case the trip drags on for more than a day. Although the dangers in such thickets lurk at every turn: extreme heat, wild animals, poisonous plants. And most importantly - a specific combination of natural factors that can cause hallucinations. The jungle has a bad effect on the psyche of a city dweller: there is disorientation in space, the brain begins to look for a system in disparate sounds, extraneous steps, voices seem to be ... Perhaps, at some point, someone or something frightened the tourists, Chris and Lisanna rushed to run, and one (or both) were injured. The Dutch women had not protected their hands and feet, and in the tropical thickets the slightest scratch threatens to turn into a non-healing wound. All this, combined with stress, dehydration and heat stroke from the 30-degree heat, could cause a temporary clouding of the mind, in which the girls snapped strange photos. And after their death from starvation and the consequences of injuries, wild animals could pull away body fragments very far from the backpack found by the stream.

June 23, 2017, 12:19

A post about these girls was already on Gossip in 2015. Here he is:

But then the search was not over yet and they planned a new search expedition. Also, new facts constantly surfaced. I then remembered about this story and decided to find out the news.

Let me remind you briefly. In the spring of 2014, two Dutch students went missing in Panama. They went on a hike without a guide and did not return. Later, a backpack with their belongings and some remains were found. The full picture of what happened has not been restored. And the search continued.

The girls decided to go along the "piano path" to the Baru volcano. The trail leads from Boke to the Baru volcano (height 3474 m.), highest point country, although it does not reach it. The guides usually end their trip along the "piano player's path" at the observation deck at an altitude of about 1900 m above sea level, although the path continues further and passes from the eastern slope of the volcano to the western one. The route is characterized by elevation changes and very picturesque views - mountains, rivers, tropical forest, in general, flora, fauna, fresh mountain air and exotic in one bottle. No special equipment or preparation is required for the hike along the pianist's path. It is impossible to get lost on the "pianist's path", it is visually well defined, you simply do not need to leave it. That is why the escort of the conductor is not required. You can complete the route in both directions in one day, its length is slightly more than 6 km. (the straight line is shorter, but the trail winds a lot).

According to the version of events originally voiced by the Panamanian authorities, the girls were supposed to meet the guide Feliciano Gonzalez there, however, they did not meet. Only much later it turned out that there could not have been any meeting - the day before, Lisenne and Chris had already seen him and had not agreed on anything.

For a long time this guide was one of the suspects. And it would have been bad for poor fellow Gonzalez in the end, if not for one detail, which the Panamanian authorities also did not report for a long time. It's about the fact that Chris Kremers kept a diary that fell into the hands of the police. In it, Chris left a note in which she said that the agreement with the conductor was canceled. This detail, on the one hand, explained why the meeting with Gonzalez did not take place, and on the other hand, it made me suspect that the guide had informed some third parties about wealthy Dutch tourists who would go hiking unaccompanied.

Tourists took to the mountains a husky dog ​​named Blue, who lived with the owner of the cafe, located at the very beginning of the "piano path". The owner spoke to Chris and Frunn and allowed them to take the dog on the road. About an hour later the dog came back, but the girls did not.

Since the skulls of the missing tourists could not be found, this served as one of the arguments of the supporters of the criminal version of their death in favor of the massacre perpetrated by some intruders. It should be noted that the policy of confidentiality and defaults adopted by the Panamanian law enforcement agencies to a certain extent contributed to the invention of conspiracy theories.

What is this about? Law enforcement agencies with the sanction of prosecutor Pitti stubbornly concealed or distorted important information, namely:

Having declared the discovery of a backpack with the things of the missing tourists, the representatives of the investigation did not report complete list things found in it. In particular, they hid the fact that Lizen and Chris had cash in their backpack and a camera with a large number of saved photos;

For a long time it was reported that the missing took pictures with their phones, although in fact they had a Canon Powershot SX270 camera at their disposal, on which the vast majority of the pictures were taken.

The existence of the camera was hidden, but when it became known to journalists, law enforcement agencies said that its memory card was damaged and the photographs could not be read. This was not true, the memory card was unharmed, and from the very moment of discovery, everything necessary for investigating what had happened was available.

Although almost from the very moment the phones and the camera were discovered, it was known that they contained a large number- many dozens - photographs, only a small part of them was presented to the public. The exact number of photographs taken by the missing, the representatives of the investigation do not even now (that is, after 2.5 years have passed since the incident). The vast majority of these photographs are still secret.

When it was necessary to explain where the investigation periodically got more and more new photographs, a rather awkward explanation appeared that some experts managed to "read" the damaged memory card of the camera and gradually extract the saved frames from it.

The investigating authorities concealed the fact of the existence of the diary of Chris Kremers, although the relatives of the victims were informed about its presence and content.

The logic in the actions of the Panamanian prosecutor's office, of course, was present. By hiding significant information, the investigating authorities retained the ability to assess the integrity of witnesses and to distinguish possible self-incrimination from true confessions. In addition, in the event that tourists became victims of a crime, there was a chance that the perpetrator would somehow declare himself in the calculation of receiving the promised bonus of $30,000.

The Dutch search engines, who visited Panama in May, could not find anything, because. at one of the exits into the forest, the local wasps were badly bitten, the dogs almost died after their attack. In addition, the Dutch search area did not extend beyond the restrictive sign at the observation deck. All search engines a priori believed that the missing tourists would not go further, but should have turned back to Boke. Meanwhile, the belongings and bones of the disappeared were found for almost 11 km. along a small river called Serpent west of this boundary sign.

The path, by the way, did not end with him, but continued further west. And therefore it was logical to assume that Lisanne and Chris continued to move along it. Why and why they decided to undertake this fatal campaign is not clear, but there can be no doubt that they acted of their own free will without any coercion.

Photographs from the camera of the dead tourists, which came into the possession of Jeremy Kryt, a journalist for the American "The Daily Beast", allow us to assert this without any doubt.

First of all, raindrops are clearly visible in some of the night photos. Although the rainy season formally begins in Panama on April 1, in 2014 in the Boke region, the first spring downpour came in the late evening of April 8. The same date was set on the camera's timer.

But this is not the most interesting. Upon careful examination of previously unknown photographs, it became clear that the tourists in distress (or at least one of them) were taking rescue measures. They laid out the abbreviation "SOS" with toilet paper on a large stone, and put a mirror in the center. The flashes of a triggered camera in the dark were supposed to attract the attention of the loitering in the area extinct volcano helicopter. These flights began just in the afternoon of 8 April.

It is obvious that the criminals who kidnapped Lysanne and Chris - if there really were any - would not have had to engage in such tricks. This was done by the tourists themselves.

Most likely, one of the girls was either already dead by that time, or was somewhere off to the side, because she did not get into the frame.

When processing one of the photographs taken at night, straight horizontal lines that go into the distance drew attention to themselves. It was difficult to explain their origin by natural causes, since such constructions are almost never found in wildlife. It has been suggested that this is one of two aerial cableways across the Serpent River to the west of the lookout.

When The Daily Beast journalists, accompanied by guides from Boke, arrived to inspect these crossings, their attention was involuntarily attracted by a large flat stone, which perfectly matched the one on which the installation with toilet paper and a mirror was arranged.

Basically, Jeremy Crete's findings perfectly explain what happened to Lisanne and Chris. It is clear why the Dutch search engines did not find them, it is clear why their things ended up on the opposite slope of the volcano ... Finally, it is completely clear why the things and remains of tourists were found along the Serpent River downstream of the suspension bridge - they were carried there by the current during the rainy season April-May 2014 Everything converges.

How exactly young women died, we are unlikely to ever know, but there can be many such reasons, ranging from snake bites or wasps mentioned above, to, say, a trivial fall on stones in a river. What, someone will seriously say that it is impossible to kill oneself on such stones, falling from a height of 1.5-2 m? Yes, it’s elementary - an uncontrolled fall (even without serious fractures or bruises), shock, reflex inhalation, choking ... If in a minute you don’t pull a person ashore and do artificial respiration, then you don’t even have to try to save. Are you sure that one of the tourists could pull another out of a mountain river in a minute?

If some intruders kidnapped the Dutch tourists from the observation deck on the eastern slope of the Baru volcano and forcibly took them further along the "pianist's path", then the captives would obviously lose their things. With them there would be no camera, no phones.

When we travel, we are often careless. I don’t want to be paranoid, but it’s a fact: documents are often stolen, a wallet is snatched from hands, and life itself can be in danger. Over the past 20 years, the world has become less safe place for tourists traveling abroad or even in their own country. We remembered 15 shocking and sometimes ridiculous cases of the disappearance of tourists. Unfortunately, these guys were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

1. Chris and Lisa

Dutch tourists Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon, aged 21 and 22 respectively, went missing in Panama in April 2014. The girls went to Panama with a humanitarian mission - social work with local kids. Once they went hiking through a dense forest near the border with Costa Rica, and went missing.
Rescuers found their belongings in the forest. Among other things, they found mobile phones with numerous attempts to call 911. The phones also contained many photos taken between 1:00 and 4:00 am, about a photo every two minutes; the girls probably used the flash to see anything in the pitch darkness of the forest.
Almost two weeks after that, fragments of human bones were found in the forest, DNA examination confirmed that they were Dutch girls. So far, there is no definitive explanation of what happened to them, but most likely, before they could leave the forest before dark, they panicked and fell off one of the many steep cliffs that are abundant in that area. Their complete remains have never been found.

14. Amber Tucarro

The case of the missing Amber Tucarro was later reclassified as a murder investigation. This is one of the worst cases of kidnapping.
A girl was driving from her home in Fort McMurray, Canada to Edmonton with her friend and 14-month-old son on August 18, 2012. They planned to stay overnight on the outskirts of Edmonton to save money on a hotel and visit the city the next day.
But for some reason, Amber suddenly decided to hitchhike to Edmonton alone that night, leaving her son to her friend. She was picked up by an unknown driver and was not seen again until her body was found almost two weeks later.
While she thought she was being taken to the city, Amber called her brother, who was in the Edmonton Correctional Facility, more precisely, in the pre-trial detention center, and there all telephone conversations are recorded.
After the discovery of Amber's body, the police released a record of a minute-long telephone conversation, hoping that someone would recognize the voice of the perpetrator. It turned out that during a telephone conversation, Amber realized that she seemed to have been kidnapped and taken somewhere in the wrong place, she got scared and started asking the driver where he was going. He says a few phrases in response, his voice is heard quite clearly. However, to this day, no one has been arrested for the murder of Amber Tucarro, and the killer is still at large.

13. Lars

A German citizen, Lars Mittank, 28, was on holiday in Bulgaria, where he got into a scuffle on the beach and was hit hard in the head. He was taken to the hospital, where a ruptured eardrum was diagnosed and a prescription for medication was issued. Doctors ordered Lars to stay off the plane for the next few days, and he told his friends to fly home without him. Lars himself remained in Bulgaria, waiting for his condition to improve.
Then some inexplicable series of events begins: Lars called his mother from a hotel room, in a panic claiming that four men were following him. He asked me to call the bank and block him credit card. He spoke confusedly and chaotically: he believed that the drugs prescribed for him were doing something wrong with him, affecting his ability to think clearly.
The last time Lars was captured by security cameras at the airport. He fled the airport building into a nearby forest, leaving his luggage behind; he was never seen again, and his body was never found either.

12. Volume

Tom Billing, a 22-year-old British hiker, went missing in the North Shore mountains on November 25, 2013. Billings planned an 8-week tour of North America, but his plans were cut short by a fatal accident while attempting to climb a dangerous route.
Billings told two fellow travelers that he planned to follow a perilous and difficult path to national park Lynn Headwaters.
Tom was not reported missing for a week, and the alarm was only sounded when he failed to arrive at his next destination.
His body was found almost three years later, in April 2016. Apparently, he died of natural causes (for example, such as exhaustion or dehydration).

11. Yuri and Natalia

On one of the beaches in Fiji pacific ocean found human remains. It soon became clear that the parts of the bodies belonged to people from Ryazan who moved to the island five years ago - Yuri Shipulin and Natalya Gerasimova.

On the Fijian beach of Natadola Beach, the police found the remains of the Russians - body parts were scattered along the shore. Local media wrote that the remains were washed ashore by the surf, where the killers could have thrown them after the massacre. A number of publications also draw attention to the fact that a chainsaw seems to have disappeared from the house of the murdered. According to journalists, it was she who could become the murder weapon.

The killers were not arrested in connection with this double murder, and some fragments of the spouses' bodies have not yet been found.

The Fiji authorities are worried that the reputation of their paradise could be greatly affected by such a brutal murder, because crime on the island is very low and such cases are very rare.

PS: what does travel and dangers for tourists have to do with it, the source does not explain.

10. Eliza

On January 26, 2013, Columbia University student Eliza Lam, originally from Vancouver, walked out of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles and went missing. After 18 days, her body was found under strange circumstances. The girl was going on tour West Coast, planned to visit Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Diego and San Francisco. Her trip seemed to go smoothly, judging by the photos Eliza posted on social media.
Everything was fine before coming to Hotel Cecil. This is something like a hostel, where she settled in a room with several neighbors, who immediately began to complain to the hotel administration about the strange, chaotic behavior of the girl, and the manager moved her to another room.
CCTV footage from February 1 shows Eliza huddled in a corner in the hotel elevator, peeks out into the hallway, and quickly returns to the elevator as if she is hiding and afraid. In fact, this is the last thing known about her.
Eighteen days later, her body was found in a water tank on the roof of a hotel, the cause of death being drowning. It is still unknown how she got on the roof (the door was locked), or under what circumstances she drowned. Her disappearance and death were hotly debated in the media and social networks, everyone puzzled and theorized, but there is no definitive explanation to this day.

9. Gareth Crow

In February 2016, a 36-year-old British tourist, Gareth Crow from Scotland, died while riding an elephant in Thailand. Crowe was on vacation with his family when the misfortune happened.
Crowe and his 16-year-old stepdaughter, Eilid Hughes, were riding an elephant, and the mahout came down to photograph them. The elephant began to ignore his commands, and then threw Crowe and Hughes off his back and trampled them. Then he ran away. The girl was taken to the hospital, and her stepfather died.
The driver blamed the incident on Crowe, saying he teased and angered the animal. After hearing these accusations, Hughes completely denied them - there was no such thing!
A spokesman for the charity World Animal Welfare said the tragedy was a reminder that elephants were never meant to be ridden. Animals are tamed for the entertainment of tourists, but they are often under great stress, both physically and mentally. The owners of the elephant caught him, but did not decide what to do with him. Hopefully it won't take tourists anymore.

8. Ann

Chicago television producer, Ann Swaney, 37, was visiting a farm in Belize while on vacation in January 2016, where she was murdered. This was Annie's second visit to the farm, where she rode horses, and the owner of the farm described her as a very sweet and friendly person.
That day, Ann went down to the nearest river to do yoga. When she did not return to the hotel, after a while the hotel staff notified the police of her absence, and then her personal belongings were found by the river.
Her body was found the next morning and an autopsy showed that she had been strangled. Police say the motive for the attack is unclear. This place is about a mile away from the border with Guatemala, perhaps the perpetrator killed the girl and fled to Guatemala (the border is open there).
The number of murders in Belize is considered the third in the world, although this particular area, where Annie was killed, is not considered too criminally dangerous. The killer has not yet been found.

7. Max Mendoza

American citizen and Arizona State University alumnus Max Mendoza visited Brazil in July 2014 to "cheer" at the World Cup.
The investigation claims that Mendoza and two of his friends went on a hike to the world-famous statue of Christ the Savior, and their path ran through the forests. At some point, Mendoza separated from his friends and disappeared. The body was discovered by the Brazilian police near the Waterfall of Souls: Max fell from a great height. How and why this happened - no one will ever know.
The police notified the US embassy, ​​the body was quickly identified by things. No signs of violent death were found, officially recognized - it was an accident.
Max was very loved by his friends, in social media they expressed their condolences in connection with the tragedy.

6. Denis

An Arizona woman, Denis Pikka Thiem, went missing on April 5, 2015. She quit her job to travel. Denis visited many countries such as the Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore and Vietnam, and then decided to go to Europe, on a pilgrimage - from El Camino de Santiago. Tens of thousands of people pass this test of physical endurance and religious spirit every year.
Before and after Thiem's ​​disappearance, numerous tourists and locals reported that they were disturbed by a strange girl who had strayed from her pilgrimage path. And then she disappeared.
Miguel Angel Muñoz, aged 39, a hermit who lived in a shack on the pilgrimage route, was detained on suspicion of Denis's murder. After being taken into custody and charged with Thiem's ​​murder, Muñoz led the police to her remains. Why he killed the American is not reported.

5. John and Robert

Back in September 2015, Canadian tourists John Riedel and Robert Hall were captured. Under the threat of the use of weapons, they were captured by the Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf.
Riedel and Hall vacationed at the Oceanview resort, which is located on Samal Island in the southern Philippines.
The Philippine military said it was not an accident and the foreigners were the target of the Islamist organization's raid. The Abu Sayyaf terrorists demanded a ransom for each captive, threatening reprisals if their demands were not met. They posted several heartbreaking videos of the captives pleading online, and the Canadians turned to their government and the leadership of the Philippines. But no one was going to buy them.
Unfortunately, a few months later, in April 2016, Canadian authorities confirmed that John Riedel was dead and his family mourned this senseless death. In turn, almost a year after their capture, in June 2016, Robert Hall was also executed.

4. Bo Solomon

Study abroad programs are highly valued, prestigious education in top universities peace is a great choice. However, overseas education for Bo Solomon ended badly. He went to Rome to study at John Cabot University.
In July 2016, 19-year-old Solomon from Wisconsin went missing shortly after arriving in Rome.
His roommate reported the absence of the American, and officials began looking for him. Three days later, Solomon was found dead in the Tiber River. CCTV footage helped identify the three men who brought Solomon to shore after they robbed him. The criminals are wanted, but young Bo cannot be returned.

3. Spouses from the Czech Republic

On July 26, 2016, a young couple from the Czech Republic set out on a twenty-mile trekking trip that usually takes about three days. The trekking took place in an area that is famous as a tourist attraction, but in harsh winters, as a rule, only experienced, properly equipped climbers go there.
On the second day of the campaign, the man died after falling down a steep slope. The woman, frightened and confused, held out in the cold for three nights, and then found a hut. She suffered minor injuries and frostbite and decided it was best to stay in the hut rather than try to find help.
Almost a month passed before the abandoned car of the spouses was found and the alarm was raised and they began to search for them. And the woman lived this month in fear and loneliness, eating what she found in the hut.

2. Lane

This tragedy shocked the whole world. On June 14, 2016, the world-famous Disneyland park in Orlando caused creepy headlines around the world over the death of 2-year-old Lyne Graves from Nebraska. The boy was standing about knee-deep in water, at a shallow depth, when he was attacked by an alligator, which instantly dragged him under the water. Graves' father tried but failed to save the boy, sustaining hand injuries.
The boy's body was not found until two days later.
The investigation found his body completely intact, with minor wounds, and concluded that drowning was the cause of death.
Alligators are not uncommon in the area, but attacks on humans in Orlando have never happened before. This story served as a terrible lesson for both the park administration and all parents.

1. Madeleine

Four-year-old Briton Madeleine McCann disappeared in Portugal in 2007 under strange circumstances. Her parents put her to bed in a hotel room, and they themselves went to a party with friends. When they returned, they did not find their daughter on the spot, while the other two children were in their beds and did not hear anything.
At first, the parents searched on their own, then contacted the police. A few months later, the first suspects were arrested, allegedly associated with a gang of pedophiles. However, there was no evidence against them. The detainees were released, and suspicions fell on the parents themselves. But soon the Portuguese police again admitted that there was no evidence.
At the same time, various private detectives began to speculate on the incident, now and then declaring their own investigations, the threads of which lead to various secret societies of pedophiles: Belgian, French and even pan-European.
Recently, there have been reports in the media that in the Australian city of Wynark, the remains of the most wanted girl on earth, baby McCann, were allegedly found. But no confirmation has yet been made public.
The search for the child has taken on a truly global scale. Various celebrities (for example, David Beckham), writers and musicians joined the cause. However, to no avail, and the Madeleine McCann case remains open to this day.
Madeleine has a special sign: the pupil of her right eye, as it were, "flows" onto the iris. Her parents do not lose hope - someday there will be a baby.

1278

Well, did you miss the continuation of yesterday's story about the girls who decided to visit Panama? Although, most likely, you have already read everything on other resources. Okay, I will hope that there are those who were waiting for the continuation and did not watch anything on purpose.
Last time we settled on the fact that the Panamanian police decided to attribute everything to predators. But the case was not closed, since the examination of the data from the camera and mobile phones of the girls was not yet ready.
When the data was received, it turned out that the time when the pictures were taken contradicted all the witness statements. According to the photographic material, the girls started their journey to El Pianist not after 2 pm, but much earlier, approximately at 10.45 am.

The first photo of IMG_491 was taken at 12:03:08 somewhere halfway to Mirador. In the photo, Chris is holding something that looks like a plastic bottle in her hands, which will later be found in a backpack.

The next published photo of IMG_493 was taken at 12:22:45 pm, by this time the girls had already been on the El Pianista for about two hours. The photo shows one of the canyons, located somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the observation deck. The place of the photo in the general chronology causes heated debate among the researchers of this case. The fact is that there are no canyons to the mirador on the parents' video (later, parents Chris and Lisanne will go along this route, filming the path on a video camera). In addition, many people notice that the photo is slightly smeared, as if taken on the run.

The next photo is IMG_499, taken at 13:01:44. Everything is simple here - Lisanne on the mirador.

IMG_500, taken at 13:01:50. 6 seconds after the previous photo, Lisanne is photographed with a view of the opposite side from the mirador. Very surprising differences in cloud cover.

IMG_XXX, around 13:00, exact time unknown, taken on mobile. Chris on Mirador.

IMG_505, taken at 13:20:33. The beginning of the "Caribbean descent". Chris in the "steering wheel". The number of photographs is increasing dramatically. Based on the numbering and time, it is clear that in 19 minutes the girls took 5 photos.

IMG_507, taken at 13:54:50. This is the so-called "Kverbada". Crossing the stream. In total, there are two of them on the "Caribbean descent". This is the first one.

IMG_508, taken 13:54:58. Eight seconds after the previous photo, Chris is photographed on the other side of the stream. Both the police and the girls' parents have repeatedly confirmed that this is the last picture, dating from the first of April.

What the girls did for the next two hours is unknown. But at 4:39 pm, Chris tried to contact the emergency services by dialing 112. This is an emergency number for Holland and many other European countries. Twelve minutes later, at 16:51, and Lisanne will follow the example of her friend, also dialing 112 on her Samsung.

02/04/2014
This time, at 06:58, Lisanne was the first to call. At 08:14, Chris also makes an unsuccessful attempt and no longer uses his iPhone that day. Lisanne tries to call again at 10:53 and at 13:56. Now she dials not only 112, but also 911.

03/04/2014
At 09:33, Chris tries to contact 911 again. However, the network did not catch. This was the last call to 911. During the day, the girls turned on their phones a couple more times, but did not attempt to call or send a text message.

04/04/2014
Chris turns on his mobile twice, at 10:16 and 13:42. On Lisanne's phone, no activity was recorded that day.

05/04/2014
Mobile Lysanne turns on at night, at 04:50 and remains on for 10 minutes, as a result of which it is completely discharged and turned off. Chris' phone turns on twice at 10:50 and 13:37.

06/04/2014
At 10:26, Chris' iPhone turns on again, but for the first time, the person who turns it on does not dial the pin. The next inclusion at 13:37.

According to RTL, from April 7th to 10th, Chris' phone turned on a total of 77 times.

On April 11, Chris' phone will be turned on first at 10:51, again without a pin. And then at 11:56 and after about an hour it will turn off.

Weather conditions for eleven days were approximately the same. During the day, the thermometer rose to 30-36 degrees, and at night it dropped to 20-24 degrees Celsius. The only downpour with thunderstorms began on the evening of the third of April, at 17:00 and ended on the night of the fourth, at about two o'clock. Rain with a thunderstorm was also on April 8th, but not for long, from 18:00 to 19:00. No precipitation was observed on other days.

And on the night of April 8, someone suddenly turns on the camera and takes exactly 90 pictures on it within three hours. That is, on average, one picture per two minutes. Unfortunately 87 of them will be taken in absolute darkness, without flash. According to the Dutch police, despite the fact that the pictures were certainly taken with an open lens, it is impossible to see or recognize anything in them. Of the three pictures taken with flash, only two will be published initially.

This is IMG_542, at 01:38:12

The next "resulted" photo IMG_550, taken at 01:39:54

In February 2015, the Dutch police will publish a report on the investigation they have carried out into the deaths of Lysanne Frohn and Chris Kremers. The meaning of the report is, of course, not in an attempt to prove one or another version of the death of the girls, but rather, is an attempt to determine the most likely cause. So, according to the Dutch police, the girls died as a result of an accident: “First of all, the geographical conditions on the last segment of the route “El Piano” (meaning “Caribbean descent”, and the last kilometers) show that an accident is the most possible cause the subsequent deaths of Lysanne and Chris.

As a result, the remains of the girls were handed over to their parents, but that's not all.

The police never gave answers to many questions:

1) Why does the time of the photographs contradict all the testimonies?

Officially, neither the Panamanian nor the Dutch police answered this question.

Knowing that the way to the "mirador" takes at least 2 hours, and the girls on it were photographed at noon, or thereabouts, it means that they set out on the route at about 10 o'clock in the morning. Why do witnesses claim that they saw them leaving for the route around 14:00-14:30? And around 17:00 at least two people claim that they returned from the route, although this is impossible, if only on the basis of the fact that around this time there was an attempt to call the rescue service from phones located on the other side of the Mirador, on "Caribbean descent".

Witnesses confused them with other European girls? Or are they deliberately deceiving, misleading the investigation? But again, why?

The more people deceive and collude (and here there are about six people), the more likely it is to let it slip or allow inconsistencies with the testimony of another person.

In fact, although the official version says that the girls died in an accident, crime is more than possible here. In Panama, as in many countries of Central America, in addition to the drug trade, the sex slave trade also flourishes. Many girls are kidnapped or lured into this area by fraud. It is quite possible that interested parties could pay attention to foreign girls who are different from local ones.

2) Why did the girls only call the rescue service, never once trying to get through to relatives or friends?

Also, for some reason, there are no records in the phones, no photos of the incident. At least eleven days the girls were alive (one for sure, anyway), and not a single phone has a record of what happened (neither voice nor text), and not a single photo shedding light on what happened. Not on the phone, not on the camera.

3) The time of turning on the phones, and trying to get through.

For several days, from the second to the sixth of April, the girls turn on their phones at the same time intervals - between 10-11 and 13-14.
Whence such selectivity, and a binding to time?
By the way, iPhone Chris "stretched" 11 days. A very good time for a modern smartphone, even if it was turned off part of the time. When turned on, the mobile phone tries to find a network, and if it is not there, or it is weak, a lot of energy is spent on finding and maintaining the network.

4) Shorts Chris.

The shorts found during the search operation added another mystery to this case. According to the Panamanian police report, the shorts were neatly placed on a large rock near a stream bed. There were no signs of tearing or any other damage. Police said there were no traces of blood on them.

In fact, the question is: why take off your shorts in the jungle and leave them on a stone?

Versions that were put forward by forum users (both Russian-speaking and Dutch):

a) The shorts got dirty, they were taken off to wash, put to dry on a stone, but something frightened the girls, they ran away and did not return.

It is quite possible, but it is unlikely that soiled shorts are washed in such a situation. Well, they got dirty, so what? This is not a city where everyone is looking at you. In the jungle, values ​​and priorities are somewhat different.

Alternatively, the shorts were not soiled with mud, and the owner began to have “critical days”. In such a situation, washing is quite logical, but the police officially stated that no traces of blood were found on them, and in plain water of a mountain stream, without detergents, it is impossible to wash off the blood. However, the examination easily determines the nature of the blood, and the investigation could bashfully keep silent about such an intimate fact, considering it irrelevant to the case.

b) The girls wanted to swim in the stream, undressed, but something frightened the girls, they ran away and did not return.

You don't swim much in that stream. It's a stream, not a river. He is small. You can drink from it, wash your hands, but swim? Moreover, why then only shorts remained? What about the rest of the clothes? In addition to shorts, Chris was also wearing a T-shirt.

c) Chris took off her shorts because she was hot and she decided to get rid of them.

It is difficult to imagine a person walking voluntarily in his underwear through the jungle. Moreover, it would have been more rational to put the shorts in the backpack that the girls had with them.

d) The shorts were taken off because Chris was injured.

Why then carefully lay them out on the stone? Isn't it easier to just put it in a backpack? Moreover, if the injury was open, then there would be blood on the shorts. If it was closed (a fracture or dislocation of the hip joint), then Chris would not have gone far from the shorts. The body would have been found nearby.

5) The remains of the girls, found at a considerable distance from each other, and their condition.

a) Lisanne's shoe. The boot was near the riverbed, behind a tree. Part of a leg was found in the shoe. According to the police, she was separated as a result of "natural processes". Subsequently, not far from this place, smaller bone remains (it is not specified which ones) will be found, on which the skin will be found. The skin material showed the first stage of decomposition, leading the police to conclude that it had been stored in a shady, cool place at low temperatures.

These findings speak in favor of the criminal component of what happened. As a result of what "natural" processes, the foot could separate from the lower leg? Ligaments will not rot even in such a hot climate in three months. Also, the police do not say anything about the traces that must have been left on the joint during separation, as a result of which the origin of the injury would be clear. And how does the find made very close by correlate with this - “small bone remains”, on which the skin, which was in the first stage of decomposition, was preserved? How can a leg decompose, to the point of destruction of the joint, and the skin remain virtually intact? In what refrigerator did these bone remains lie, who brought them to the boot and threw them up?

b) Part of Chris' hip bone, near Lisanne's boot. The bones showed no signs of decomposition. The police assumed that the bone had been chewed off by predators, although no obvious traces of animal fangs were found on it.

The police did not put forward any versions (in any case, officially) of how the pelvic bone could burst, and what character the fracture line had, by which it was possible to judge the nature of the injury. To break the pelvic bone in his lifetime, it was necessary to fall from a very high height, and extremely unsuccessfully - on his back or on his side. The version about nibbling by predators does not stand up to criticism. Predators of the cat family (puma), do not gnaw bones. This could be done by a wolf or a hyena, but they do not live in this area. And according to the police, there were no traces of teeth on the bones.

Assuming that this place was still the place where the girls died, how could their backpack be so much further downstream of the stream? Who brought him there?

c) On the 3rd of August, more than fifteen kilometers (in a straight line) from the start of the El Pianist, the rib of Chris Kremers will be discovered. Even during a visual examination, the experts drew attention to the absolutely white color of the bone. During subsequent analysis, a large amount of phosphates were found on the rib, as a result of which the rib received such a color.

Where did the phosphates on the rib come from? According to the police, it was in the stomach of a predator. But first, what kind of predator was it that could swallow a rib whole? And secondly, how could this rib leave the stomach without being digested and pass through the intestinal tract? By the way, hydrochloric acid, which is in the stomach, does not precipitate any phosphates on the surface of the bone, on the contrary, it dissolves inorganics, as a result of which the bone becomes soft and digested.

6) A backpack found in a stream bed with things.

Some surprise is the good safety of the backpack, as well as the safety of the things in it. It is not clear, the girls themselves left him there, or did he swim with the flow? During rain, the water could rise and, theoretically, a backpack left above could be brought to this place by a stream, but if it was carried by a mountain stream, throwing it against stones, then how to explain the safety? If the girls left him, then how did their remains end up upstream? Or did they return?

It is also strange that the phones and the camera are well preserved. And in general, the very fact of their presence in a backpack is surprising. By the tragic denouement on April 11, when Chris' iPhone was last turned on, the girl doing it (Chris or Lisanne) was clearly in a state close to insane (as indicated by 77 phone on/off). A person in this state obviously will not neatly pack things in a backpack.

Jack London has a very powerful story called "The Love of Life". It describes very well the behavior and condition of a person who is desperately fighting for his life, and about the change in his preferences, values ​​and priorities in the process of struggle. Although the story is fictional, everything is described with the utmost authenticity. Being on the verge of death, the girl is unlikely to pack phones and a camera in a backpack, especially since there is no information that can shed light on what happened on them.

A series of 87 photographs taken with a camera in complete darkness without a flash, and three with a flash.

Various versions of the origin of these photos are put forward: someone fell asleep with his head on a backpack with a camera and periodically pressed the “start” button; an attempt to scare away a predator in the dark with the sound of a shutter.

But if the camera was in a backpack and took photos there by itself from accidental clicks, then how did he then end up outside and take three more pictures with a flash? All these 90 shots (87 in the dark, and 3 with flash) are one "photoshoot". Lie with your head on a backpack, sleep, and then wake up in the dead of night and start filming? Extremely unlikely. If it was conscious photography, then why was it necessary to click the darkness for several hours, and then at the end, take pictures with a flash? Scare off a predator? The shutter sound (or simulated shutter sound) is quiet enough to scare them away. Yes, and in the pictures with a flash, there are no predators.

It is quite possible that the button was pressed by a person who is in stagnation, poorly understanding what he is doing at the moment.

8) Three night shots with flash

These pictures were examined microscopically by many users of the forums. They were enlarged, and clarified, and what they didn’t do with them, trying to understand what exactly was photographed on them, and most importantly, why.
In the first picture, for example, some saw a leg.

With due imagination, in principle, it can really be seen there.

The second photo of a branch with something red is also controversial. Red things are plastic bags. Such packages were found in the girls' room, and they can be seen in the photo. It is possible that they wrapped something in these bags and put them in a backpack when they went for a walk. Why did they just put them on a branch? There are two explanations: they waved a branch to a rescue helicopter, and the bags were to attract attention, or they hung them on branches to collect rainwater or morning dew for drinking.
Also, it is not clear what kind of piece of paper lies near the branch, and what is written on it, and whether it is related to what is happening.
By the way, the localization of this night “photo shoot” has not been established.

The third photo, which shows Chris's hair, causes the most controversy.

Many comment that Chris's hair looks clean, which is strange for an eighth day of wandering through the jungle, opponents answer them that this is a flash effect, in which even dirty hair can look relatively clean. There were even experiments (amateur) confirming this statement. Well, who is right, and whether the hair in the photo is clean or not, is unknown.

Someone believes that a hand with painted nails holds the head:

Later, there was information that there is also a fourth shot with a flash. It shows the edge of the cliff. Although initially, in the primary sources, it was said about three pictures. It is possible that this picture was also not shown to the parents at first, and then they posted it to the public.

There are more mysteries in this story than answers. Whether it will be known what actually happened in the jungles of Panama in April 2014 or whether this case will be included in the treasury of unsolved tragedies and incidents is still unknown.