Every Town - Final Frames: The Mysterious Disappearance & Found Camera From Two Young Hikers

Episode Date: February 10, 2024

Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon were young university friends and roommates when they decided to take a well deserved trip over to Panama. It was of course supposed to be a fun time for the girls but it quickly turned into a fight for thier lives and when the details emerged about what they had gone through it was not only terrifying, but also led to a lot of speculation and questions, many of which are still unresolved to this day. 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries 🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT 💀 Exclusive Content & Perks: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries  👁 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg 👁 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald 👁 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial 🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

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We'll see a video, movie, or just be in a situation that will have us playing out an imaginary scenario in our heads where we do something like, defend our family from an animal attack. In another case, maybe we're beating up a group of guys that are trying to mess with us on the street. We could fantasize a story of being able to survive off the land if we were to ever get lost in the wilderness. In all these scenarios, the worst never happens. We always come out the victor and hero without any training whatsoever. We just instinctually knew the right thing to do and we managed to pull it off.

But of course, that's just all in our heads and isn't reality. While sometimes people do pull off incredible, feet, it's rare for an untrained individual to come out on top. The truth is, these situations are very scary and intense, and in 2014, two young women from the Netherlands found themselves dealing with possibly all three of those life-threatening situations mentioned above. They had headed out together on a vacation for once-in-a-lifetime experience, but what transpired for them was nothing short of terrifying. Hey guys, it's Andrew.

Welcome to this week's episode of Everytown. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Chris Kremmer and Lizanne Froon were young university friends and roommates when they decided to take a well-deserved trip over to Panama. It was, of course, supposed to be a fun time for the girls, but it quickly turned into a fight for their lives. When the details emerged about what they had gone through, it was not only terrifying, but also led to a lot of speculation and questions. many of which are still unresolved to this day. So right now, let's head over to Central America and see what we uncover about what exactly happened to these two friends.

Dutch roommates, 21-year-old Chris Kremmers, and 22-year-old Lysam Frum, were more than excited about their trip over to Panama. At home in the Netherlands, they both worked at a restaurant called Inden-Klinhop. They had been saving money for months, so they could go see another part of the world on a six-week trip. While they were sure to have some fun out there exploring the sites, this wasn't strictly just a vacation for them. They wanted to immerse themselves in a totally different culture,

learned Spanish firsthand, and also volunteer with the locals, specifically the children in the area, educate them on life outside of Panama. It was a noble cause, one that was fitting for the pair, as Kremers had recently finished her studies in culture, cultural social education, and Frun had gotten her degree in applied psychology. After planning and saving up for the trip, finally the day came for them to depart. On March 15th of 2014, Kremmers and Froon took the 11-hour flight across the Atlantic and safely touched down in Panama City. From there, they spent the first couple of weeks

in their new surroundings getting the lay of the land, going out on hikes to see the beautiful jungles and mountain ranges and trying the local food, which is much different than what they were used to back home, while always testing their Spanish-speaking skills any chance they got. They called home often, or at the very least, sent text messages every single day, give their parents exciting updates, and tell them about everything they were doing. They were living it up, having a well-deserved time abroad after all their hard work and school had been completed. By March 29th, Kremmers and Fruin had gone to stay with a local host family in Bocet, which is a small mountain town located on the edge of a large national forest.

And there, they planned on spending the next four weeks where they do volunteer work with the kids and also explore on their own. Bocet wasn't a random place they just chose out of the blue. Right next to town, there were some awesome hiking trails and sites, like the lost waterfalls and the barrens. volcano. Must see attractions if you're spending time in the country. And while the landscape is beautiful, much like any place worth seeing, there's always an element of danger. The popular El Pianista Trail runs up along the edge of a volcano, and it can be treacherous at times so it's

not something you do want to win. There are times you need to cross thin, rickety rope bridges that hover above deep canyons. And since the place is a jungle, it's not on common for flash flooding to occur, and if you get caught in it, the waters can wash you down the hillsides. In fact, many of the locals warn against hiking here altogether, if you're inexperienced, because if you can't read Mother Nature's warning, then it can be deadly. With that being said, many tourists still take the hikes, and the girls, perhaps with their judgment clouded by the confidence that comes with being young, decided to take their chances, and unfortunately, they would never return home.

And so, the question then became, did Froon and Kremers get caught up in a set of natural events that ended in a tragic accident? Or was there something or someone else involved? The answer to that has never officially been decided, but you can come to your own conclusion once you hear all the details that were revealed. It was on Tuesday, April 1st, Frune and Kremers, along with the dog that belonged to the host's family, set out that morning at around 11 a.m. They were then seen first in town at a cafe early that afternoon,

as noted by several eyewitnesses, having brunch with two other Dutch men before they headed out into the jungles. But who these men were and whether or not they accompanied them on the hike, it's never been determined. However, it doesn't appear they went with the girls, because during the onset of their hike,

prune and cremars took a couple of selfie photos of themselves. with Fruin holding the camera. If they were with them, likely they would have taken the picture, or even been in the photo with the girls. Froon posted one of the pictures on Facebook with a caption saying that they were headed out to walk around Bocet to see the volcano, but where exactly they were going and what trails they intended to take were not specified. They brought with them a backpack.

The Kremers carried with some general outdoor gear, but nothing that would suggest they were doing anything all that. that intent in terms of hiking. A couple pairs of sunglasses, their telephones, water bottles. It appeared they just planned on a leisurely walk around the area and would likely return within a few hours. But as the early evening set in, their host family began to wonder where the girls were because they still hadn't come back.

But it wasn't anything to be truly alarmed about as these were grown women who didn't need to check in with them by any means. It was very possible they were either still out exploring or back in town for some dinner. But then something odd happened that raised the first of many red flags. The host family's dog, who had been out with the girls, returned home. Only, he was alone. Those calls and texts fruiting Cremmer sent every night to their families back home never came on that April 1st. The following day, and the girls failed to show up for a scheduled guided tour,

All signs started a point to something being seriously wrong. Back in the Netherlands, after trying to reach their daughters, the girls' parents got in contact with the host family, who told them they didn't return from the prior day's trip. The parents then got in touch with the local authorities in Panama as something was definitely not right, and if the girls were lost out there in the woods, then they needed to be found fast.

But from the jump, the Panamanian police didn't seem all that concerned about having any urgency in finding the girls. They, of course, would look, but not in the way the Netherlands would have searched. And sometimes, depending on the country, this can unfortunately be the attitude you come across. A pair of tourists are possibly missing, and the authorities there are slow to make a move. They can be because they're not equipped to handle the situation or don't have enough resources, or maybe just don't want to be told what to do from people outside of their country. So, once it became clear the authorities there were dragging their feet, the froons and cremers

decided to take matters into their own hands, which again was not something that locals tend to appreciate, but with their kids missing, they had to do whatever they could to find them. By April 6th, the parents had touched down in Panama City, and they brought with them a small army. They had police, a few detectives, and police dogs from the Netherlands, plus were offering a 30,000 $1,000 reward for any information that led to the discovery of their daughters. They weren't sure at this point if this was a case of the girls being lost around the volcano on their own accord, or if they had been abducted, but either way the 30K was meant to either get locals out there helping in the search effort or to get someone to talk.

The cell phone signals in the area where the girls were headed was pretty weak. And so hopefully, if they could find a spot where they could call for help, and everyone would already be in the same area, standing by, ready to offer it and get them out. For the next 10 days, a full-scale search effort was underway. Local guides brought around the parents and police from the Netherlands to give them a better idea of places that the girls could have fallen, possibly been injured, or where they could have veered off the beaten path. Coptors flew above, scanning the canopy below, but the landscape is hard to penetrate and prove to be a formidable match and finding any clues. In Panama, there have been links to human trafficking rings,

so some detectives hit the town seeing what they could find on that front, but no one was talking. Although that seemed to be because that's not what happened, and not because they were covering up anything sinister. By the time the end of April neared each day that passed by, the grim reality was setting in, but the two young women may never actually be found. While the families didn't give up hope, of course. The cost of keeping everyone from the Netherlands abroad was immense. Eventually, those who came to help needed to head back home to their lives. It was disheartening, but the truth was nobody had even found a single clue. No sign of a water bottle or an article of clothing. It was like the girls had vanished in the thin air, and maybe they had. It's possible they were taken

somewhere, and this entire search wasn't even taking place in the right area, the correct tent, or even country. With that, the search slowly dwindled. It seemed like the families may never get any answers. Two months later, though, on June 14th, a local woman discovered a backpack and a rice paddy along the banks of a river near her village of Alto Romero,

which is around 12 miles of thick jungle and mountainous terrain away from where the girls have been staying in Bocet. It was Kremmer's backpack she'd been carrying, and so finally, they got a much-needed a clue. Inside the pack was $83 in cash. Frun's passport, a water bottle, two bras, two pairs of sunglasses, Prune's canning camera, as well as both of the women's phones, which, while they were dead at this point were an otherwise good condition. They plugged them in and juice them up.

What they found from there were some terrifying details that painted a picture of what the women had gone through. Kremmer had an iPhone four, and Frum, a Samsung Galaxy S3. Different phones, as you may know, act differently in certain locations. It wasn't long after the girls had set out on their hike and they found themselves in some sort of trouble. Kremmer made the first distress call, just hours after they had begun their journey.

At 4.39 p.m., she tried to dial 112, which is the international emergency number used in the EU. After that, she tried 911, which is the emergency number. number used in Panama. Twelve minutes after that, Prune did the same thing, but none of these calls made it out because there was no reception in the area.

It was like they were living through a real-life horror movie, and over the next three days, it appeared like the girls would manage to move a bit and then try to make another call hoping for a signal. They turned the phones off on multiple occasions to try and save batteries, opening them up just to try and call for help again, only to fail.

There was a moment when a call broke through, but it was only for a brief moment and no connection was actually made. By April 4th, Kremmer's phone had died completely. According to the phone forensics, Fruane turned her phone back on the following day on April 5th when she tried to call for help again. By then, they had dialed the emergency services a total of 77 times. And after April 5th, no more calls were ever made. However, that was. wasn't the end of action on her phone. Between April 5th and April 11th, Froon's phone was turned on and off again several times, but the pin was either not entered or entered incorrectly. This likely meant one of two things. Either Fruin was gone at this point or incapacitated, and Cremers was left with it

trying to use it on her own without knowing the pin, or somebody else altogether had the phone in their hands and was trying to use it. on April 11th at 1156 a.m. The phone was then turned off for the last time with no further activity happening after that, even though there was still a 22% battery left. If those call logs weren't strange and scary enough, the police then worked their way through Froon's cannon camera. There were, of course, pictures taken from earlier in the trip,

but in regards to the disappearance, the first photo taken on April 1st, was of the girls near an overlook, of the continental divide, which meant that most likely they had headed on that trail right after it was taken. There were no more photos after that as the girls were in distress at that point. But then, on the night of April 8th, seven days after they went missing, a flurry of 90 photos were snapped, one after the other. One of them shows a dirt patch, another, a rock mound with some of their belongings spread out over it. There's one with some candy wrappers on a rock that the girls were probably resting on, but many of them were of seemingly nothing.

The jungle is so dark that even with the flash on, it's hard to make them out. But then there is one image that is truly panic-inducing. It's a close-up on the back of Kremmer's head. Her blonde hair disheveled from days out in the jungle, and something about it brings a sense of urgency to anyone who sees it. It's because in this picture we realize, these girls have been out there all alone for seven days at this point, scared to death. The seriousness of that situation is palpable in this photo.

Regardless of the truth behind their actual circumstances, it's terrifying to think about. Either these girls were out there, starving and probably delirious, or they were perhaps being hunted, either by a person or predator like a jaguar, which roams those areas and ambushes its prey when they are weak. There are no other images taken to the girls themselves, whether faces or body parts. I believe they were likely panicking for any one of those reasons mentioned above, and were using the flash of their cameras a way to light their path as they tried to escape. Knowing they needed to conserve the cell phone battery, they chose the camera flash, but everything they tried ultimately failed them. The search continued along the Calubre River,

where the backpack was found, eventually a pair of Krimmer's shorts were discovered on the opposite side of the riverbank a few miles away. After that, two months after the backpack discovery and closer to it than the shorts, a boot was found and inside it, a foot. Looking more around the area,

they then discovered a pelvis bone, and soon 33 widely scattered bones were found all along the riverbank. The DNA was tested, and it was discovered that the bloods those bones along to both frown and cremers. But still, the questions lingered as to what exactly happened to them. When the bones were examined, this only complicated matters. If the girls had died out there of natural causes, so to speak, they starved or were injured and unable to move, which

ultimately led to their demise, then the bones being scattered about would have been caused by animals picking at them and scavenging. It's not an easy or pleasant thing, but After a forensic pathologist examined the bones in detail under magnification, they stated, There are no discernible scratches of any kind on the bones, either of natural nor cultural origin. There are no marks on the bones at all. In other words, if animals were the ones picking over the bodies, you would find teeth marks of some sort. And similarly, if a person had dismembered the bodies, you'd find marks from the tools used. On top of that, Froon's bones seemed to be in a more natural state.

They have pieces of flesh still attached to them, but cremurs were not only completely clean, but had a much whiter color to them, as they appeared to have been bleached. To this day, that's all the evidence that was found, and so an exact cause and sequence of death has simply never been determined. And because of that, lots of speculations and theories have popped up. Ultimately, though, it appears like the girls just got caught in a bad situation that people have sensationalized over the years. There were signs that frowned had inflammation of the bone in her legs, which meant she could

have broken a foot or ankle as they were hiking, fallen down an embankment, and that was just the start of the emergency calls. From there, she may have been unable to climb up, and so the women descended down to the riverbed to follow that as a means to get out. but the thick vegetation and rocky terrain made it near impossible. If the bodies were there for months, they would have been pummeled by water, flash floods, and the river. That could help explain why the bodies were dismembered.

It's frustrating for the families of the girls to not have a clear-cut answer, but beyond all that, the fact that their children are gone is by far the hardest reality to deal with. No one expects a loved one to go out on vacation and never come back, And knowing that these young, vibrant women were out there for days, trying their best to make it out, is a sobering reminder

of just how fragile and tragic life can be. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Go check out this episode in video form over on our YouTube channel called Scary Mysteries. And for more exclusive content from us plus access to an entire library of stuff, check us out on patreon.com

slash scary mysteries. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. But you never know. Maybe your time will be next.