Years passed while the disappearance of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon remained a mystery, and photos subsequently found gave the story an additional, puzzling twist.
Before going missing on April 1, 2014, Kris Kremers, 21, and Lisanne Froon, 22, had been organizing a trekking excursion through the Panamanian forest for months.
The two are thought to have gone on a trip in 2014 through a jungle close to the Baru volcano in Boquete, Panama, but they were never heard from again.
On social media, the question of what precisely happened to the two women has continued to generate discussion, with many users speculating about what might have happened to their friends.
A rucksack containing their phones, cameras, cash, and clothes washed ashore by the Culebra River shortly after the two vanished.
The phones had remained working for some time after their disappearance, with police discovering the two friends had made a total of 77 calls to emergency services, to no avail.
Photos found on their camera, meanwhile, provided few answers but added more context to the incident.
Upon examining the camera, a number of virtually entirely black images that were obviously taken at night were found.
Some of the pictures show the women’s belongings spread out on some rocks next to a plastic bag and wrappers, while another appeared to show the back of Kremers’ head.
Other have suggested that the two young women had been involved in an accident and Kremers had died when trying to get help for herself and Froon.
When pieces of the women’s bone were discovered later that year, this theory gained even more support.
While Froon’s bones seemed to have decomposed naturally, strangely Kremers’ appeared to have been bleached due to their stark white appearance.
Jürgen Snoeren and Marja West, two Dutch writers, asserted that their book Lost in the Jungle provided the answer.
West said: “Our conclusion had to be that it was an accident. It took us quite some time to get there.
“Once we had the files, we could understand where people outside the investigation got sidetracked and why.
“The police were inundated by tips, each had to be checked out, losing them valuable time. It became a hell of a job.”
Lack of evidence has prevented an official cause of death from being determined.
