Final days of friends who vanished on hike following sobering theory on their disappearance

Back in 2014, a pair of friends vanished on a hike with a sobering theory behind their disappearance.

Kris Kremers, 21, and Lisanne Froon, 22, arrived in the town of Boquete, Panama, in March 2014, starting their mega trip through the Central American nation.

The Dutch graduates had plans to volunteer at a local school and were going to immerse themselves in the culture out there. However, their story turned into a chilling missing persons case early on with conspiracies developing since.

On 1 April, they set off for a hike along the picturesque Pianista Trail, one that takes an average of three and a half hours to complete.

However, concerns soon began when they did not return in the evening, and more so when they missed an appointment the next day with a local guide.

Bizarre snaps were found on their camera. (TVN2)

And unfortunately, these ended up being the friends’ final days.

By 6 April, Kremers and Froon’s parents had arrived in Panama with a widespread search underway as Dutch investigators also became involved.

Two months passed by with no results to explain their disappearance before a blue backpack was discovered.

Found by a local woman, it was Froon’s bag and spotted in a river near Alto Romero – far from where they were last seen on the day of their hike.

The findings in this backpack appeared to outline the final days of their lives and contributed to sobering theories about what happened to them.

Inside the backpack was the women’s sunglasses, phones, cash, a water bottle and Froon’s digital camera.

It was revealed that the friends had tried to make a number of calls between 1 and 3 April but these did not go through due to a lack of signal. And the final signal check came from Kremers’ phone on 11 April.

But it was the camera that gave the most chilling idea of the women’s final days, going as far as seven days after they disappeared.

A photo showing the women's belongings laid out on a rock (TVN2)

The majority of images seemed to have been taken at nighttime, with snaps including their belongings and the back of Kremers’ head.

And so, true crime enthusiasts have suggested theories that the women had been stalked, kidnapped and murdered on the hike.

But no evidence has been presented to warrant an investigation into if they were murdered or not.

Another two months after the backpack was found, investigators combing the region came across partial human remains along the banks of the Culubre River, which included a foot still inside a hiking boot and part of a pelvis. Further searches recovered 33 additional bone fragments with Kremers and Froon identified among them.

The minimal remains meant that a cause of death could not be determined, however, the most likely theories suggest the women either suffered an accident or got lost and died of exposure.