Two students from the small Dutch town of Amersfoort, Chris Kremers and Lisanne Frone, have long wanted to visit Latin America. Their choice ultimately fell on Panama. They planned a six-week trip: the first two weeks of a beach vacation in the resort province of Bocas del Toro, and for the remaining four weeks they go inland, to the small town of Boquette, where there is a Spanish language school aimed at tourists from Europe.
Teaching Spanish had to take place in a practice mode, in other words, the girls had to do various social work with local schoolchildren. On February 15, 2014, the girlfriends arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The parents who accompanied the girls took pictures of them goodbye. Leesanne and Chris went through customs and disappeared behind the doors of the waiting room. More parents of children will not see.
Little is known about the girls themselves. Chris Kremers was to become an art critic upon graduation. 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, working as a waitress at a local restaurant, where she met Lisanne. Was a fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Lisanne studied to be a psychologist. She dreamed of working abroad, in 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 spent as planned in Bocas del Toro.
Lisanne has photographed at sea and posted rave comments about Panama on social media.
Promotional video:
Chris posted on her Facebook page photos from Bocas, with a standard resort theme: beach, sea, starfish.
In the evenings we visited restaurants:
On March 29th, as planned, Chris and Leesanne move to Bocchete.
Despite the fact that Bocchete is located far from the sea, it is still a major tourist center in Panama. Main attraction: more than three kilometers volcanic mountain - Baru. Weather permitting, Panama's highest peak is visible from both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Although Baru is a rather gentle mountain, climbing a three-kilometer height is naturally associated with certain difficulties, therefore, 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 viewing 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 to look at the jungle with at least one eye. Formally, they begin immediately after leaving Boquette, in fact, the town itself lies in the middle of the jungle, however, on the slopes from the city side, the jungle is quite civilized, one might even say “fake”, with paved hiking trails, or even just small roadside cafes. for the convenience of tired tourists. This is how the jungle looks like three kilometers from Boquette.
But in order to appreciate the real beauty of the rainforest, you need to go to the outer slopes of the city. At 6-7 six kilometers from the city, the jungle looks like this:
The first surprise awaits the girls in Boquette: the Spanish course is postponed until April 8th. This gave Lisanne and Chris a whole week of free time. It was decided to devote it to the study of local attractions and surroundings. Fortunately, the choice of one-day tourist routes around Boquette is truly impressive.
Starting the story about the criminal component of this story, it should 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 inconsistency of the testimony with some facts, which will become known 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 press.
March 29, 2014, Saturday
Lisanne and Chris arrive at Boquette. By prior arrangement, they rent a room in the annex of the house from a woman named Miriam. She hands it over under a contract with a Spanish language school. The room seems to have a separate entrance. The 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. Miriam did not notice anything unusual or the presence of third persons with the girls.
March 31, 2014, Monday
The girls leave early in the morning for the language school, where they receive the news that the practice will begin one week later than the planned date. According to some reports, the girls, especially Lisanne, were upset. At school, they talk to the school manager and then the local guide, Feliciano Gonzalez. They order an 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 are fine. We'll talk later.”That was Lisanne's last message.
1/04/2014, 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 testimony of 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 to see the girls in Boquette.
13.30-13.40 Taxi driver Leonardo Mastina sees girls voting on the road, not far from the Spanish language school. He drives them for five dollars to the start of the El Pianista hiking trail.
Before 15.00 Giovani, the owner of the cafe at the start of the El Pianista 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 the route and gives them his dog "Blue" as a guide. According to the wife of the owner of the cafe, Doris, in an hour the dog will come back alone.
17.00? Someone Pedro Capon, possibly the owner of one of the cafes or shops near the "El Pianista", sees two girls returning from the route. They ask him how they can get back to the city. He shows the place where you can catch a taxi or take a bus. But in which direction the girls went, Pedro did not see.
17.00? An American living near the start of El Pianista sees two girls returning from the route. They talk to the owner of one of the cafes, apparently asking how to get to the city.
Guide Feliciano Gonzalez. He repeatedly criticized the local police for the lack of activity of 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 huts and dugouts that are not marked anywhere on the maps. Whether someone lives there or not is unknown even to him.
The taxi driver Leonardo Arturo Gonzalez Martinez, who allegedly gave a lift to the girls on April 1st before the start of El Pianista, will die a year after the events described. Not suspicious, but a very ridiculous death. A young, thirty-four-year-old man, will feel bad, will fall into a pond and drown.
On April 2, Chris and Lisanne had an appointment with Feliciano Gonzalez. His services have already been paid for. But the girls did not show up for the appointment. During the day, the guide made inquiries at the Spanish language school and at the place of residence of the family where the girls were staying. And by the evening of the same day he reported his suspicions to the police. On the morning of April 3rd, the Panama police began search activities. Searches were carried out in the Spanish language school and the apartment where the girls lived. Two laptops belonging to Chris and Lisanne were found in the room. After examining the data, the police found that in the early morning of April 1, the girls made numerous searches on Internet search engines about hiking trails in the Boquette area. They were especially interested in the El Pianista route.
On the same day, a search and rescue operation began.
By April 5th, police and rescuers are finishing their search on El Pianista and nearby tourist routes. Then go beyond them, check out 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 the search, but for the coordination of rescue teams. The focus on 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 incidence of robberies.
On April 8, the search begins with the help of helicopters. Panama police said the search operation for Chris and Lisanne was the largest in the country's history. Chris's parents arrive in Panama on April 10. The active part of the operation will be completed by April 14th. All search activities were left without results. Neither the girls themselves, nor their remains, nor traces of blood were found. Usually left lost, various markers on trees or scrawled arrows on stones were also not found.
On April 30th, a reward of $ 30,000 was established for the whereabouts of Chris and Lisanne. Later, one of the Panamanian television channels added another ten thousand to this amount.
At the end of May, a detachment of the Dutch police departs to help the 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 around El Pianista. It is clear that the police did not have any legal rights to such actions, however, according to the police: "the majority of local residents with whom they dealt, agreed to inspect their premises."
One of the main versions of the disappearance of the girls was the assumption that Chris and Leesann could have gotten lost. The El Pianista route started 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 runs along coffee plantations, small groves, along a fairly calm landscape. The ascent on this section is only about 200 meters. Further, the trail narrows, becomes more "wild" and, having risen to a height of about 500 meters, after four and a half kilometers of length, ends with a small observation deck, in Spanish "mirador", at an altitude of 1890 meters above sea level. At this stage, the so-called official route, indicated in Google Earth and some other "conservative" guidebooks, ends. The path continues further,going down the side of the mountain to the "Caribbean side" of Panama. Let's designate this unofficial part of the route as the "Caribbean descent". It leads to a sparsely populated area with an autonomous Indian government and the complex name of Ngobe Bugle. The area is inhabited by two Indian tribes: Ngobe and Bugle. The relief of this area, initially somewhat rugged, and then mostly flat, is divided by the Rio Caldera River and its tributary called the Culebra.
For a long time it seemed that the details of this story would remain forever unclear. However, two and a half months later, on June 14, 2014, an unexpected turn occurred in the case. A local Indian living on the "Caribbean side" of Panama, while working in a rice field, discovered a blue backpack in a shallow bed of a nearby river. The contents of the backpack were as follows:
- - International passport in the name of Chris Kremers
- - Insurance medical card in the name of Lisanne Frone (according to some information, cards of both girls)
- - $ 83
- - Two pairs of cheap sunglasses
- - Two mobile phones
- - Two bras
- - Water bottle
- - Canon SX270 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 was brought in by the current.
By the way, the pictures of the girls' things showed how different the approach to the coverage of this drama in the media can be. The fact that the photographs appeared in the Panamanian press without any agreement with the girls' parents provoked violent protests from the Dutch justice. The Panamanian side did not understand the objections of its European colleagues, stating that such cooperation between the investigation and the media is absolutely normal practice. True, later, in many Panamanian and Dutch newspapers there was information that the photograph of things was not taken by the police at all, but by the Indian himself at home, immediately after he discovered this find.
As a result of various examinations, the following was revealed:
- On the backpack itself, traces of the DNA of two unknown women were found, as well as two slightly incomplete "male" DNA. Nevertheless, one of the men will be able to be identified, but who it is and how he left his genetic imprint on the girls' backpack, the police will not tell.
“According to official data,“more than a dozen”of various fingerprints were found on the girls' mobile phones. Unofficial - thirty-six. Three fingerprint prints from those found on the phones were also found on the camera. One of these "duplicate prints" aroused the suspicions of the Panamanian police and entered the wanted criminals database.
- The police did not report anything about the condition and technical serviceability of mobile phones and a camera. However, the data from mobile phones and cameras were subsequently deciphered and published. Most likely the camera's SD card was slightly damaged after all.
- The remains of soil and plant material were found on the backpack. According to Dutch police, the material has never been compared to the soil composition of the area in which the backpack was found.
A new search operation was launched along the channel of the Kulebra. During the second search operation, the following were found:
- Black boot. Discovered June 16. It belonged to Lisanne. The shoe was not far from the river bed, behind a tree. Part of Lisanne's leg was found in the boot. According to the police, she 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 dermal material showed the first stage of decomposition, leading the police to the conclusion 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 streaks that are traces of hemoglobin from the muscles.
- The hip bone. More precisely, part of it. Was found nearby also on June 16. Subsequent DNA analysis revealed that the bone belonged to Chris Kremers. No signs of decomposition were found on the bone. Police speculated that the bone was gnawed off by predators, although no obvious traces of animal fangs were found on it.
-Blue boot. It was discovered on June 18th. Police initially believed that this boot 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 wore different shoes on this day.
- Denim shorts that 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 3 August, more than fifteen kilometers (in a straight line) from the start of El Pianista, new bone remains will be discovered. Most of them belonged to animals, but one piece of bone material turned out to be Chris Kremers' rib. Even on visual inspection, the experts noticed an unusual completely white bone color. During subsequent analysis, a large amount of phosphates were found on the rib of Chris Kremers, as a result of which the rib received this color.
The complexity of the landscape of the area where the girls' belongings and remains were found can be judged by the fact that the trip there of the investigator of the Panama Prosecutor's Office Batsaida Pitti lasted about ten hours, and at the end of this "business trip" she was hospitalized due to dehydration.
After these terrible finds, the Panama police announced a version according to which the girls could become victims of predators. The main suspect looked like this:
However, the cougar was not the only suspect from the Panamanian fauna. Many local media outlets noted that reptiles could pose a much greater danger to girls who went into the jungle. For example, the bushmaster (Lachesis muta) is the largest venomous snake in South and Central America. Individual individuals can reach a length of four meters. Despite its impressive size, the bushmaster is a very "shy" snake that avoids meeting a person and settles, as a rule, far from its habitat. 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 will be established, the police naturally pinned on the data from mobile phones and a camera found in the backpack. However, these hopes were not destined to come true. On the contrary, photographs and printouts of mobile data have completely confused the drama, 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, the camera's SD card was damaged by a long stay in the water and / or for some other reason. Therefore, the data had to be restored. Secondly, after studying the photographic material, the police handed the photographs over to the girls' parents, and the latter, naturally, did not want to make a photo gallery out of this material, having published only some of the pictures. And thirdly, the time and serial numbers of the photographs published in the Panamanian press were partially confirmed only by the words of the girls' parents. But the data from the mobile phones of Chris and Lizan were published by newspapers around the world, they were referred to by the Dutch police and therefore the probability of error in them is minimal.
So fast forward again to the beginning.
2014-01-04
The time when the pictures were taken contradicts all witness statements. According to the photographs, the girls began their journey to the "El Pianista" not after 14.00, but much earlier, at approximately 10.45.
The first of the published photos of IMG_491, taken at 12:03:08, somewhere halfway to the Mirador. In the photo, Chris, in her hands, is holding 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, the girls by that moment had already been at El Pianista for about two hours. Apparently, this hiking route did not cause much emotion in them, since they took only three photographs in two hours of the hike. The photo shows one of the canyons, in Spanish "barranco", located somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the observation deck. This is apparently one of the recovered photographs. Its place in the general chronology causes heated debate among the researchers of this case. The fact is that in the video of the parents there are no canyons to the Mirador (later, parents Chris and Lisanne will go along this route, filming the path on a video camera). In addition, many people pay attention that the photo is slightly blurred, as if it was taken while running.
The next photo is IMG_499, taken at 13:01:44. Everything is simple here - Lisanne is on 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 cloudiness are frankly surprising.
IMG_XXX, around 13:00, exact time unknown. The only photo taken with a mobile. Or the only one published. 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 can be seen 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. There are two of them on the "Caribbean descent". This is the first one.
IMG_508, taken at 13:54:58. Eight seconds after the previous photo, Chris is photographed on the other side of the stream. Both the police and the parents of the girls have repeatedly confirmed that this is the last picture dated the first of April.
What the girls did over the next two hours is unknown. But at 4:39 pm Chris will try to reach 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 her friend's example, also dialing 112 on his Samsung.
The telephone number of the rescue service in Panama is 911. However, the fact that the girls tried to call their more usual number 112 was not a mistake, since the cellular operators automatically turn on the forwarding to the rescue service number of the country in which the owner of the phone is currently. The real problem was that there was no connection where the girls were calling from. They made no such attempts more than April 1.
2014-02-04
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 13:56. Now she dials not only 112, but also 911.
2014-03-04
At 09:33, Chris tries to call 911 again. However, the network coverage was insufficient to establish a connection this time. This was the last 911 call. During the day, the girls turned on their phones a couple more times, but made no attempts to call or send a text message.
2014-04-04
Chris turns on his mobile twice, at 10:16 and 13:42. On Lisanne's phone, no activity was recorded that day.
2014-05-04
Mobile Lisanne turns on at night at 04:50 and remains on for 10 minutes, as a result of which it completely discharges and turns off. Chris's phone switches on twice at 10:50 and 13:37.
2014-06-04
At 10:26, Chris's iPhone turns on again, but for the first time, the one turned on does not dial the pin. Next switching on at 13:37.
According to information aired on the RTL TV channel, from April 7th to 10th, Chris's phone was switched on a total of 77 times.
On April 11, Chris's 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 dropped to 20-24 degrees Celsius. The only downpour with thunderstorms began on the evening of April 3rd, at 17:00 and ended on the night of April 4th, at about 2:00. Thunderstorms also rained on April 8th, but briefly, from 18:00 to 19:00. On other days, precipitation was not observed.
And on the night of April 8, someone will suddenly turn on the camera and take exactly 90 pictures on it within three hours. That is, on average, one shot per two minutes. Unfortunately 87 of them will be taken in absolute darkness, without flash. Dutch police will say that despite the fact that the pictures were certainly taken with the lens open, it is impossible to see or recognize anything on them. Of the three pictures taken with the flash, only two will initially be published.
This is IMG_542, at 01:38:12
The next "resulting" photo is IMG_550, taken at 01:39:54
In February 2015, the Dutch police will publish a report on the research they carried out into the deaths of Lisanne Frone and Chris Kremers. The meaning of the report is, of course, not an attempt to prove this or that version of the death of the girls, but rather an attempt to determine the most probable 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 leg of the El Pianisto route (meaning“Caribbean descent”, and the last kilometers) show that an accident is the most possible cause of subsequent death Lisanne and Chris.
The opinions of experts on this report were naturally absolutely polar opposite, and many have subjected it to serious criticism. A word from Panamanian forensic scientist Octavio Calderon: “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, 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 later, Chris Kremers' parents still decided to show the last, "third" photo. The photo was shown in one of the programs on Dutch television.
The girls' remains 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.
Finds map:
1) Why does the timing of the photographs contradict all the evidence?
Officially, neither Panamanian nor Dutch police give an answer to this question. Doesn't match, that's all.
Knowing that the way to the Mirador takes at least 2 hours, and the girls took pictures on it at noon or so, it means they went on the route at about 10 am. Why do the witnesses claim that they saw them leaving for the route around 14: 00-14: 30? And at about 17:00 at least two people claim that they have returned from the route, although this is impossible, if only on the basis that at about this time there was an attempt to call the rescue service from phones located on the other side of the Mirador, on "Caribbean descent".
Did the witnesses confuse them with other European girls? Or deliberately deceive, misleading the investigation? But then again, why?
The more people cheat and participate in a conspiracy (and here there are about six people), the more likely it is to let slip or make a discrepancy with the testimony of another person. If there was intent and there was a criminal background, it would be much easier to say that “I saw nothing and heard nothing”.
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 Central American countries, in addition to the drug trade, the sex slave trade is also flourishing. Many girls are kidnapped or tricked into this area. It is quite possible that interested persons could pay attention to foreign girls, different from local ones.
2) Why did the girls only call the rescue service, never trying to get through to relatives or friends?
On the one hand, the logical explanation for this is the following: seeing the futility of attempts to contact 911 and 112, they did not want to waste the battery. But it is also perplexing that not a single 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 battery power was not yet saved. There is always a possibility (and considerable) that in the absence of a network, SMS "hangs" on the sending, and then, upon receiving the minimum signal, it still leaves. Moreover, it is sent even when it is impossible to get through. However, the girls might not have known about this, since they lived in a place where cellular communication is always stable.
Also, for some reason, there are no entries 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 photograph shedding light on what happened. Not in the phone, not in the camera.
3) The time of switching on the phones, and attempts to get through.
For several days, from April 2 to April 6, the girls turn on their phones at the same time intervals - between 10-11 and 13-14.
Why such selectivity, and timing?
By the way, iPhone Chris "lasted" 11 days. It’s a very good time for a modern smartphone, even taking into account the fact that it was turned off some of the time. When turned on, the mobile phone tries to find the network, and if it is not there, or if it is weak, a lot of energy is spent on finding and holding the network.
4) Chris shorts.
The shorts found during the search operation added another mystery to this case. According to a Panamanian police report, the shorts lay neatly on a large rock near the stream bed. There were no traces of tears, or any other damage, on them. The police said no blood was found on them.
In fact, the question is: why take off your shorts in the jungle and leave them on the stone?
Versions that were put forward by users of the forums (both Russian-speaking and Dutch):
a) The shorts got dirty with dirt, 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 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 dirt, and the owner had “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 the plain water of a mountain stream, without detergents, blood cannot be washed off. 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.
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 really swim in that stream. This is a stream, not a river. He's 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 the shorts, Chris was also wearing a T-shirt.
c) Chris took off her shorts because she was hot and decided to get rid of them.
It is difficult to imagine a person walking of their own free will in their underwear through the jungle. Moreover, it would be more rational to put the shorts in a backpack that the girls had with them.
d) The shorts were removed because Chris was injured.
Why then carefully lay them out on the stone? Isn't it easier to just put it in your backpack? Moreover, if the injury was open, then there would be blood on the shorts. If closed (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 shoe was not far from the river bed, behind a tree. A part of the leg was found in the boot. 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 dermal material showed the first stage of decomposition, with the result that 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 the incident. 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 marks that must have remained on the joint during the separation, as a result of which the origin of the injury would be clear. And how does the find made very close by - "small bone remains", on which the skin, which was in the first stage of decomposition, remain? How can a leg decompose, to the point of destruction of the joint, and the skin remains virtually intact? In what refrigerator were these bone remains lying, who brought them to the shoe and threw them?
b) Part of Chris's hipbone, near Lisanne's boot. No signs of decomposition were found on the bone. Police speculated that the bone was gnawed off by predators, although no obvious traces of animal fangs were found on it.
The police did not put forward any versions (at least officially) how the pelvic bone could have 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 vivo, one had to fall from a very great height, and extremely unsuccessfully - on the back or on the side. The version about gnawing by predators does not stand up to criticism. Predators of the cat family (cougar), bones do not gnaw. A wolf or a hyena could have done this, but they do not live in this area. And according to the police, there were no teeth marks on the bones.
If we assume that this place was still the place of death of the girls, then how could their backpack end up much further, downstream of the stream? Who brought it there?
c) On the 3rd of August, more than fifteen kilometers (in a straight line) from the start of the "El Pianista" Chris Kremers' rib will be discovered. Even during a visual examination, the experts noticed the absolutely white color of the bone. During the subsequent analysis, a large amount of phosphates was 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, the hydrochloric acid in the stomach does not precipitate any phosphates on the surface of the bone, quite the opposite, it dissolves the inorganic, as a result of which the bone becomes soft and digested.
6) A backpack found in the bed of a stream with things.
Some surprise is the good safety of the backpack, as well as the safety of the things in it. It is unclear whether the girls themselves left him there, or did he go with the flow? During the 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, hurled against stones, then how to explain the safety? If the girls left him, how did their remains get upstream? Or did they return?
It is also strange that telephones and a 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, the last time Chris turned on the iPhone, the girl doing it (Chris or Lisanne) was clearly in a state close to insane (as indicated by 77 phone on / off switches). A person in such a state will clearly not pack neatly into a backpack.
Jack London has a very powerful story called "Love of Life". It very well describes the behavior and state of a person 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 utmost reliability. 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 on them that can shed light on what happened.
7) Night photos on April 8.
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 being put forward: someone fell asleep, resting his head on a backpack with a camera and periodically pressing the "start" button; an attempt to scare off a predator in the dark with the sound of a shutter.
But if the camera was in a backpack and took pictures there by itself from accidental clicks, then how did it 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 "photo shoot". Lie with your head on your backpack, sleep, and then wake up in the middle of the night and start filming? Very unlikely. If this was a deliberate shooting, 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 be intimidating. And in the pictures with the flash, there are no predators.
It is possible that the button was pressed by a person who was in stagnation, poorly aware of what he was doing at the moment.
8) Three night flash shots
These images were microscopically examined by many forum users. They were both enlarged and lightened, and what was not done 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, you can really see it there.
The second photo of a branch with something red is also controversial. The red things are plastic bags. Such bags were found in the girls' room and can be seen in the photograph. It is possible that they wrapped something in these bags and put it in a backpack when going for a walk. Why did they just put them on a branch? There are two explanations: they waved a branch to the rescue helicopter, and the bags were to attract attention, or they hung them on the 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 has anything to do with what is happening.
By the way, it was not possible to establish the localization of this night "photo session".
The third photo, which shows Chris's hair, is the most controversial photo.
His parents did not initially want to show the girls, and in the end they showed it only six months later, and then, in a TV show, where there is another photo on top of it, hiding part. The full photo has never been published, and it is unknown whether by accident or intentionally part of the photo was hidden. If intentionally, then what is depicted there?
Many people say that Chris's hair looks clean, which is strange for the eighth day of wandering in the jungle, opponents tell them that this is a flash effect, in which even dirty hair can look relatively clean. There have even been experiments (amateur) to support this statement. Well, who is right, and whether the hair in the photo is clean or not, is unknown.
Someone thinks that a hand with painted nails holds the head:
Later, there was information that there is also a fourth shot with a flash. The edge of the cliff is visible on it. Although initially, in the primary sources, it was said about three pictures. It is possible that this picture was also not shown by the parents at first, and then they made it 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 enter the treasury of unsolved tragedies and incidents is still unknown.
ps. Already entered.
