Lisanne, 22 and Kris, 22 both grew up in Amersfoot in the Netherlands. Lisanne had graduated with a degree in Applied Sciences and Kris had just completed her studies in Cultural social education. A few weeks before their trip the girls had moved in together. They both saved up money for 6 months in order to go to Panama together and learn Spanish as well as helping out locals. The girls headed off on the 15th of March 2014.
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(This is a photograph of them at the airport)
The toured Panama for two weeks before arriving in Boquete on March 29th to live with a local family for a month while they volunteered with children. On April 1st the girls went hiking with their hosts' dog near the Baru Volcano.
The posted on facebook that they're in to walk around Boquete. Witnesses reported seeing them having brunch with two young Dutch men before beginning their hike. The hosts became worried when their dog returned home at night without the women.
Lisanne's parents stopped receiving texts which both girls had been sending to their families daily. The next morning April 2nd they missed an appointment with a local guide. On April 3rd, authorities aerial searches and the locals began on foot. On April 6th the girls' parents arrived in Panama along with the police, dog units and detectives from the Netherlands, in order to conduct a full scale research of the forest for 10 days. They also offered a $30,000 reward.
10 weeks later a woman found Lisanne's backpack in a rice paddy by a riverbank in her village of Alto Romero, she was sure it was not there the day before. The backpack contained two pairs of sunglasses, $83 , Lisanne's passport, water bottle, Lisanne's camera, two bras and both girls phones. All dry and in good condition.
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(A picture of the back and the items in it)
The women's phones tell a worrying story. The first call came from Kris just hours into their hike, she attempted to call emergency services. Shortly after, Lisanne tried to make a call to 911 too. None of the calls went through due to the lack of service. The girls made 3 attempts to phone 911 on the next day.
On April 3rd, the girls made four calls. One of them went through but only lasted a little over a second before breaking up.
On the 4th of April, Kris' phone was turned on twice to check for signal. Lisanne's showed no activity. On the 5th of April, Kris checked twice for signal again, Lisanne checked once, this was Lisanne's last use of her phone.
On the 6th of April, Kris turned on her phone twice to check for signal, after this date multiple attempts were made to get into Kris' phone using the wrong pin code. It never received the correct code again. Between the 7th and 10th 77 attempts to contact 911 were made.
On the 11th of April, the signal on Kris' phone was checked again, her phone was turned off around 11:56am and never switched on again.
