JEREMY KRYT
UNSOLVED MYSTERIES
07.29.16 11:15 PM ET
The Last Man To See The Lost Girls of Panama Alive
The title of this second article in the series is misleading, as the writer did not even get an interview with the unnamed guide thought to be “the last man to see the lost girls of Panama alive.” And then the writer says in the article that this local rancher/part-time guide was “one of” the last people to see the women alive.
Other questions/inconsistencies that have surfaced in this latest installment from The Daily Beast:
- “the pulverized remains weren’t sufficient to determine the cause of death”
- “Witnesses say this same guide met with Kris and Lisanne less than 24 hours before they disappeared, on the campus of an all-inclusive language school called Spanish by the River, where the women were staying in Boquete.”- What witnesses? When were the girls last seen by the school/hostel? Why is there no interview of the staff of this small school/hostel?
- “Early the next morning, Kris and Lisanne set out to climb up to the Continental Divide on their own.”- How is it known they were on their own?
- “Contradictory testimony from eyewitnesses also hampered rescue attempts. It would be months before investigators confirmed Kris and Lisanne had in fact set out on April 1, instead of the day before.”- Again, what eyewitnesses? When were they last seen?
- “The pack was wedged into a mess of flotsam on the bank, the Ngobe woman said, and she was sure it hadn’t been there the day before.”- So the backpack had just recently washed up, after over two months in the elements, but in good condition, with cash, phone, and cheap sunglasses intact?
- “By the end of August, a total of 33 skeletal fragments had been linked to the missing women using DNA tests. Twenty-eight of the recovered bones were the small metatarsals of Lisanne’s left foot, still in its boot and sock, and reportedly found behind a tree near the river.”- We are not anatomists, but according to Wikipedia, the human foot has 5 metatarsals, and a total of 26 bones. Further, we remember seeing photos and reading at the time of a complete foot, undecayed in the boot, which was a shock to the examiner conducting the autopsy. There was reported at the time a part of a pelvis found and identified, why no mention of that? And finally this journalist does not bring up the fact as stated by La Estrella de Panama at the time that Kris was wearing brown boots as was apparently Lisanne, yet the empty blue boot that came forward as evidence was assigned to Kris, without DNA testing.
- “‘If it was really an accident why couldn’t they find more remains?’ says guide Tornblom. ‘Where are all the big bones? Where are the skulls? There are no animals up there that would eat a skull.’”- Good questions. If you were finding “pulverized” bone “fragments,” why wouldn’t you also be finding large bones?
- “At some later point, the same guide who first invited the women up to the Divide became involved in the search for the girls. ‘He’s the last guy to see them alive—and then he’s the one who finds their bones,’ says fellow guide Tornblom. ‘Something about that just feels wrong to me.’”- So is this unnamed guide in question thought to have led the Ngobe search workers to the bone fragments they then collected and submitted?? And how exactly does anyone find bone fragments washed up on a riverbank? And if they were submitted by the Ngobe in a bag to authorities, how does anyone know they came from the riverbank?
This writer has a lot of questions to answer, and in a short amount of time/space….
Replies
If this journalist is going to focus on a guide, who according to “witnesses” met with the girls concerning a hike to his ranch, as the “last man” to see them and a possible suspect (really these theories are not explained clearly at all in the article), then why did he completely ignore at least two others in national/international news reports from the time who saw them after that?
- One, taxi driver Leonardo Arturo Gonzalez, who died under strange circumstances on a river in Gualaca in March, 2015, and was headlined by the Panamanian news as having been investigated for having transported Lisanne and Kris to the Pianista trail. (Fallece taxista investigado en caso de las holandesas, tvn-2.com , 03/03/2015 - 7:54 AM, also in elsiglo.com, critica.com, and laestrella.com)
- Two, “an inn keeper” who saw them on April 1, “when the women asked him for directions for their hike. Tired, they later returned to the man and asked for help getting back to town. Police said the man advised them to take a taxi, but he said he didn't see whether the women returned to town or went back to the mountain.” (Dutch Police Hint at Criminal Activity in Women's Disappearance, NBCNews.com, Apr 22 2014, 11:47 pm ET)
But sadly enough, the parents were compelled to accept the lost and accident scenario because they did not get any support by the Dutch authorities. There are many discrepancies in this case that could still be tackled.
From: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/07/the-lost-girls-of-...
Sez who? The author is reporting an opinion as fact. A Boqueteño source reports a different opinion while stressing that it is but one point of view. See https://es-la.facebook.com/Clan-Chumico-1522276637985067/
"según cuentan" = "the way I heard it"
3rd part :
The Lost Girls of Panama: The Camera, the Jungle, and the Bones
If the two young women were at the river crossings, than that alone is proof for them not being lost. The crossings in question are found on the main path.
Why would the two women want to cross at night? How sneaky. Why not in daytime?
"According to the official necropsy reports, those fractures could only have been caused by a “fall from a high place,” likely while Lisanne was still alive." The same forensic expert who examined the bones and who worked on that report, Van der Goot, says that those fractures don't have to be caused by such a fall: http://programma.bnn.nl/breakfree/media/355481
The fractures can easily be caused by long distance hiking. "every year we see such injuries in hikers".
In all accounts about hikes on the Pianista trail, there are encounters with others on the trail. Regardless the weather conditions, rainy or not, muddy or not, there is always someone else on the trail. The trail serves as a pedestrian highway between Bocas and Chiriquí.
So why should two beautiful young ladies be the only ones not to have encountered anybody on this trail? On a warm, sunny and dry day without any mud on the way?
Here are some recorded encounters:
http://www.telemetro.com/nacionales/reportajes/ruta-holandesas-ulti...
https://vimeo.com/104789019
http://programma.bnn.nl/breakfree/media/355481
In the Break Free report, we can see that the girls were making many selfies up to the top, the mirador. It seems as though there has been a turning point soon after reaching the mirador. That is when they supposedly suddenly stopped making photo's and selfies.
You can find more recorded encounters along the Pianista trail in internet. For instance the most recent one, the Colombian lady who went missing. She supposedly bumped into her saviour Aristides.
We recognize there were many people locally and internationally who gave their best to try to find these girls. It is just such a tragedy they were not. But since this is again being examined and hypotheses/conclusions being proposed, anyone who saw or knows something should come forward and be heard, at least on these internet forums if no one else will listen.
If you mean the interview with the Indian explaining how they found a shoe (not the blue one), I have the impression that it has been removed.
Personally, I would not consider it accurate to say that someone is always on the trail. In the half a dozen times we've hiked Pianista, I've only come across one other person, and that was a farmer working off the trail in the land before reaching the actual trailhead (there is a significant hike from parking to the actual trailhead).
How far on the trail did you get? Did you cross the CD?
One of the links I posted, shows an encounter with 1 person behind the mirador so at the bocas side.
We would only go to the CD and turn back. However, since the search on Pianista, we no longer hike this trail.
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