Lisanne Froon

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Panamanian National System Of Civil Protection Sinaproc Public Prosecutors Office Of (PANAMA)

Death Location:

Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama

Summary:

Lisanne Froon was a 22-year-old Dutch student who disappeared on 1 April 2014, while hiking the El Pianista trail in Panama. Her cause of death could not be determined definitively; Dutch authorities working with forensic and search-rescue investigators initially thought it likely the students had accidentally fallen from a cliff after becoming lost. After an extensive search, portions of her body were found a few months later.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Death:

Lisanne Froon and her roommate Kris Kremers arrived in Boquete, Chiriquí, on 29 March to live with a local family for a month while volunteering with children. On 1 April around 11 am, they went hiking near the clouded forests that surrounded the Baru volcano, on the El Pianista trail, not far from Boquete. Some sources say they took with them a dog that belonged to the owners of the Il Pianista restaurant. Their dog had returned, safe and sound, but alone — the girls were nowhere to be found. The host family searched the area around their home but decided to wait until morning to alert the authorities. On April 2, Kremers and Froon missed an appointment with a local tour guide who was supposed to take them on a private walking tour of Boquete, which prompted the host family to alert authorities. A forensic search of the cell phones revealed that the girls attempted to call 112, the international emergency number, and 911, the emergency number for Panama beginning on April 1, the day they left on their hike. Over the next few days, there were numerous calls placed to emergency services. Due to poor reception in the jungle, only one call is believed to have connected, which was only for one second. On June 14, their blue backpack with a Canon PowerShot camera inside was discovered on a riverbank by a local from the village of Alto Romero. For 10 days, phone data showed Froon's Samsung Galaxy S III and Kremers' iPhone 4 were powered on and off, along with attempts to call emergency numbers to no avail with no reception. On Day 8, the PowerShot camera revealed 99 strange photos taken between 1 and 3 a.m., mostly of the black night sky, a rock with a stick that appears to have red bags tied to it and one bizarre photo of hair.

Additional Details:

By April 6, their families arrived with Dutch detectives, sniffer dogs, and a $30,000 USD reward, yet initial searches produced no sign of the missing women. Following the backpack's discovery, a local guide, with the help of six native Ngobe people, found bone remains, jeans shorts, and two different shoes along the Rio Culebra shortly before June 19, 2014. The jeans shorts were found fourteen hours of walking distance from the backpack on top of a rock on the opposite bank of the river, at least eight walking hours away from Boquete. Lisanne Froon's left foot was found intact and inside her Wildebeast boot, showing multiple fractures of the metatarsals. DNA tests later confirmed a match. The laces were still tightly laced, and a sock was also inside the boot. The foot still had some skin and flesh on it. As the teams pushed deeper along the rugged riverbanks, they discovered other fragments. 30 additional bones turned up. They were not clustered in one area but spread wide as though the river had spread them over weeks. By November, DNA testing confirmed these belonged to the two women. While parts of Froon's remains still retained some skin, Kremers' bones appeared "bleached," with high phosphorus levels that did not match local soil conditions. A Panamanian forensic anthropologist noted the absence of cuts or marks on the bones, adding another layer of intrigue. On September 24, 2014, the Senior State Prosecutor formally closed the investigation, concluding that the women had died in an accidental fall into a river. By March 2015, however, it was formally closed with the conclusion that both women perished in a hiking accident. In September 2014, Kris and Lisanne's remains were brought home and buried in the Netherlands. Both families, especially the Kremers, were unsatisfied with the result but were glad there was something to hold on to. A small memorial was erected at the Mirador along the El Pianista trail.

Case Last Updated:

Jul 29, 2026