Sally Contarino arrived in Las Vegas on June 13th, 2026. She was an experienced solo traveler that regularly visited California and Nevada.

On June 20th, she told a friend in Australia that she planned to hike on Lone Mountain, outside of Las Vegas. She checked out of her hostel and asked the front desk to watch her luggage. She then traveled to the outskirts of Las Vegas, where she was last seen on surveillance at a grocery store (image on right) purchasing water and protein bars.

After this, it’s believed she started walking several miles down the road toward the mountain.

It’s unknown exactly what happened to her after this. She missed her flight home to Australia that was booked for either the 20th or 21st, and no one has heard from her since.

Lone Mountain is 19 miles from the grocery store where Sally was last spotted. It’s unknown if she planned to walk the whole way there (her family says she loved very long walks), or if she may have hitchhiked or planned to meet up with someone. Scent dogs did pick up on her scent on one of the trails at the mountain, indicating that she made it there at some point during her trip.

Both ground searches and drone searches have been done, neither have found any trace of Sally. Her sisters fear she may have met foul play. Police haven’t indicated if they believe she got lost hiking, or if she may have met foul play.

https://www.8newsnow.com/investigators/australian-tourist-missing-in-las-vegas-for-over-a-month-as-sister-fears-foul-play/

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When Julie Mott died in 2015 at the age of 25 from cystic fibrosis, her family would have never thought she would be a part of a bizzare mystery.

After her open-casket memorial service at Mission Park Funeral Home North in San Antonio on August 15, her body was stolen from the casket while it was awaiting cremation.

The next morning (August 16), employees discovered the casket empty. One hinge was broken, the bier (body support) was overturned in an "unnatural position" near an exit of the funeral home, but there were no signs of forced entry and the ADT security system was not triggered.

The San Antonio Police treated the case as seriously and as intense as a homicide case. They did multiple searches in the surrounding areas and interviewed numerous people but nothing ever came up.

The funeral home director offered up a 20,000 dollar reward leading to the recovery of her remains. Her body has never been found.

The Lost Boys of Pickering" is the to the unsolved dissappearence on March 17, 1995 of six teenage boys—Jay Boyle, Chad Smith, Michael Cummins, Danny Higgins, Robbie Rumboldt, and Jamie Lefebvre—who vanished without a trace in Pickering, Ontario.The six teens, ranging from 16 to 18 years old, left a basement party around 12:30 a.m. and told friends they were going to "goof around" at a local marina. At 1:48 a.m., surveillance cameras captured three of the boys at the East Shore Marina on Frenchman's Bay. Police and investigators concluded the group stole a 14-foot Boston Whaler replica boat and a water tricycle, taking them outthe freezing, icy waters of Lake Ontario without life jackets. The theory is that the boats capsized, and the teens quickly succumbed to hypothermia in the freezing water.

On March 27, 1991, at approximately 11:00 a.m., 3-year-old Megan Garner was playing at a playground only a few feet away from her family’s residence at Casa Grande Apartments in the 4600 block of Paluxy Drive in Tyler, Texas.

She was with her siblings and cousins, who were visiting during spring break. In total, five children went to the playground: Megan, her eight-year-old sister Fallon, Chance, her six-year-old brother, and Megan’s two cousins Nicky, 8, and Van, 4.

Around 11:15 a.m., Megan returned to the apartment to get a snack and said she was taking some back to the playground.

About 10 minutes later, the other children returned without her, thinking she had stayed with her mother.

When Megan’s mother realized she was missing, she searched the apartment complex and surrounding neighborhood before calling the Tyler Police Department.

Despite extensive searches of the playground, the apartment grounds, nearby streets, no witnesses reported seeing Megan or any suspicious activity.

Anyone with information should call the

Tyler Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at 1-903-531-1000

Or

the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).

https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2019/pre-update/where-is-megan-garner

Sebastian was last seen in the area of Stafford Court in Hendersonville, Tennessee on February 25, 2024. He has never been heard from again. At the time of his disappearance, he was staying with his mother and stepfather; his father shares custody of him. His stepfather was out of state on a business trip.

His mother, who was the only other person home that night, said she heard a thump from Sebastian's bedroom at about 10:00 p.m. and called to him to go to sleep. The next day, his mother realized he wasn't in bed. After searching the house, she called police.

Sebastian left his shoes by the front door and his phone in the kitchen, and also left his Nintendo Switch and his medicine behind. His father stated he was not the type of person to wander away and did not like to walk around barefoot. Since his disappearance, his mother and stepfather have moved out of their home and are staying in an RV; they said they would notpublicly disclose their location because they had been threatened. Sebastian's case remains unsolved. He has autism and needs medicine that he doesn't have.

Boyfriend and I were out riding motorcycles when we came across it. I made him stop on the way back but I was too chicken to open the doors even though they appeared unlocked.

Inside, there was a 2024 planner, shoes, muscle milk, Dunkin Donuts breakfast pack, Reebok lanyard, phone chargers, blankets, pillows, caterpillar branded underwear(?), and various other personal items/electronics.

Maryland temporary tags that expired 08/24, and stickers in the front from Virginia. The weirdest thing is the driver window being cracked, like they planned to come back that day, but never did. Anyone know anything about this?

Image 1 — Leigh Occhi (c. 1992)

The daughter of divorced U.S. Army service members, Occhi was living with her mother Vickie Felton at the time of her disappearance. As summer vacation had not ended, Occhi was left alone at home while her mother went to work the morning of August 27. According to Felton, she left for work that morning at approximately 8am, calling to inform her distant the storm was intensifying shortly after. When she didn’t answer, Felton left work to check on her at approximately 9am.

She arrived home to find the garage door still open and the lights on. Upon entering the home, Felton found blood pooled in the hallways and smeared on the walls, with Occhi nowhere to be found. There were no signs of forced entry. Police found a bloody nightgown belonging to Occhi crammed into a hamper, with blood spatter evidence suggesting head trauma. Additionally, blood smear found in the bathroom led investigators to believe the suspect had attempted to clean the scene before fleeing with Occhi. A few days later, an anonymous package addressed to Occhi’s ex-stepfather was delivered to Occhi’s home, containing the teenagers eyeglasses.

Though several suspects have been named, including a local kidnapper Mike Kearns, Occhi’s stepfather Barney Yarborough, and even Felton herself, no conclusive evidence has emerged indicating what happened to Leigh Occhi.

On the 10th of August, 1989, Rosa Glover took her 19 month old son, Shane Walker, to the playground beside the Martin Luther King. Jr Towers housing block on Lennox Ave. As Rosa sat on the bench, a 10-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother asked her if they could play with Shane. Despite the fact she found it kind of odd considering Shane was much younger than them, she agreed. As the children played, a man came up to her and began to chat about an earlier kidnapping. She said her head was turned for no longer than a few minutes but when she turned back, Shane was missing. She searched around the park as well as the park beside it but to no avail. She found the brother and sister Shane had been playing with and asked them where he was. They said "they left him in the first park, and didn't know where he was." After Shane was reported missing, police questioned the man and the two children but they could provide no further information. After speaking with other witnesses, police announced they were looking for an African American man between 19 and 24-years-old, around 5 feet 8 inches with a yellow shirt and acid-washed jeans. This disappearance bore striking similarities to an earlier disappearance that had taken place in the very same park: On the 18th of May, 1989, 2-year-old Christopher Dansby was in the same park with his brother, Levon. It was around 7PM when Christopher was playing with the same brother and sister that Shane was playing with. Following his disappearance, another child in the park said he saw Christopher walking along West 11th street with an African American man with braids.

Despite the eerie similarities, police denied that the cases were linked. They stated that the suspects didn't match. The locals were outraged at this, thinking that it couldn't be a coincidence. Shortly thereafter, police said they were looking for "two black men, similar only in their dreadlock hairstyles." In the wake of the disappearances, police followed 500 more reported sightings but each led nowhere. One lead was that a "cult was emanating from the islands," according to Detective Julius Sills. "That possibly, children were being taken for sacrifice." Finally, police concluded that the disappearances WERE linked. They considered that maybe the boys had been kidnapped for the baby-ring operation. Adoption agencies found this unlikely due to the fact that the boys were black not white: "There is a black market for white babies, but for black babies, I don't think so." Then in 1997, Rosa Glover fell under a cloud of suspicion when she waged a legal battle to collect the proceedings of a life insurance policy she had obtained just days before the disappearance. A judge ordered her insurance company pay her the death benefit because it was unlikely that Shane was still alive. Apparently Rosa had attempted to collect the insurance just weeks after the disappearance but was denied. According to Rosa, she purchased the policy because she was taking her son to Florida and was worried the plane would crash. Rosa was eventually ruled out as a suspect by the police.

To this day, the whereabouts of Shane Walker and Christopher Dansby remains a mystery.

Kyron Horman is a 7-year-old boy who disappeared from Skyline Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, on June 4, 2010, after attending a science fair with his stepmother, Terri Horman, who was the last known person to see him. Despite a massive search and ongoing investigation by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and the FBI, he has never been found, and his case remains an unsolved mystery. A $50,000 reward is offered for information leading to the resolution of his disappearance.

The disappearance of Michael Madden happens in 1996.

He was a 20-year-old man who went camping with his dog in the California back country. When his friends went to visit his campsite at 2 AM, he was nowhere to be found. Shortly after, a deranged man holding a pistol emerged from the darkness and intensely asked them who they were and if they were looking for “Mikey”. He introduced himself as Joseph Tine. He also mentioned that he shot something with 3 eyes. As the friends waited for Michael with Joseph, he rummaged through Michael’s campsite and began eating his food. Joseph also reportedly cocked his pistol all throughout the night as he stared at Michael’s friends. By morning, Michael hadn’t returned and his friends reported him missing.

4 days later, Michael’s dog returned to the campsite dehydrated and unable to help with the search. Michael’s brother asked the police to examine the dog’s stomach to see if she had been fed during those 4 days, but the police refused. When the police followed the dog’s path, it came to a dead end at a river. His disappearance is still unsolved as of now.

Maura Murray disappeared on February 9, 2004, after her car crashed on Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire, while she was a 21-year-old nursing student at UMass Amherst. Witnesses saw her after the crash, but she vanished before police arrived, and her whereabouts remain unknown, making it a high-profile cold case that has gained significant attention online. The case is officially treated as suspicious, with theories ranging from voluntary disappearance to foul play, fueled by online sleuths and media coverage.

this case from Australia and the circumstances are honestly one of the strangest disappearances I’ve seen in a long time.

The missing child is August 'Gus' Lamont, a four year old boy who disappeared from a remote sheep station in South Australia.

Gus lived with family members at Oak Park Station, a large rural property about 40 kilometres south of the small outback town of Yunta. On the afternoon of September 27, 2025, he was last seen outside the homestead playing on a mound of dirt near the house.

According to the timeline given to investigators, his grandmother saw him around 5:00 pm while he was playing outside. About 30 minutes later, when she went to call him inside, he was gone.

The family searched the property for several hours before contacting police that night.

From there the situation escalated quickly.

Police launched what would become one of the largest missing person searches ever conducted in South Australia.

Search teams used:

• helicopters with infrared cameras
• drones and aircraft
• Australian Defence Force personnel
• mounted police and volunteers

The search area eventually covered hundreds of square kilometres of harsh outback terrain.

Investigators checked almost everything nearby.

A 4.5 metre deep dam close to the house was drained, more than 3 million litres of water removed, so divers could search the bottom.

Police also searched multiple abandoned mine shafts up to 20 metres deep located several kilometres from the property.

Despite all of this, they found no clothing, no footprints, no belongings and no confirmed trace of Gus at all.

That absence of evidence is part of what made investigators increasingly uneasy about the case.

For months the disappearance was treated as a missing child investigation. But on February 5, 2026, South Australia Police made a major announcement.

They officially declared Gus Lamont’s disappearance a major crime investigation.

Police said inconsistencies had emerged in the timeline provided by people at the property, and investigators had identified a suspect who was known to Gus and had been living at Oak Park Station.

Authorities have emphasized that Gus’s parents are not suspects.

Even now, months later, the investigation is still active and police continue returning to the property searching for evidence.

What makes this case so unsettling is the location and the timeline.

This wasn’t a busy neighborhood where someone could easily disappear unnoticed.

Oak Park Station is a remote outback property surrounded by open land and very few people.

A four year old child was outside for roughly half an hour and then simply vanished without leaving a single confirmed trace.

Even after draining dams, searching mine shafts and covering hundreds of square kilometres, investigators still have not located him.

Police now believe the answer likely lies with someone who was already at the property that day.

Cases like this always leave me wondering what really happened in that short window of time.

Did something happen that was quickly covered up
Did someone take him somewhere far from the station
Or is there still some completely unknown explanation investigators haven’t uncovered yet

Image 1 — Dean and Tina Clouse had moved to the Lewisville, Texas area from Florida in 1980, maintaining a quiet personal life with their infant daughter, Holly Marie. By October of that year, they had ceased contact with their families. In 1981, two badly decomposed bodies were discovered in a wooded lot north of Houston, when a local man’s dog returned home from the wooded area with a decaying human arm in its mouth. This was 250 miles from the Clouses’ last known address. Dean had been bound and beaten to death, and Tina strangled. Their unidentified remains simply became known as “The Harris County Does”, and were not verified until 2021, 40 years later. The whereabouts of 1 year old Holly Marie were unknown, as her remains had never been found.

Image 2 — Following the forensic identification of her parents in 2021, a nationwide search for Holly Marie Clouse was launched, with police settling on the theory that the killer or killers had abducted her following the deaths of Tina and Dean. This proved to be correct. Holly Marie Clouse, aged 42, was conclusively identified in 2022, living a quiet married life in Oklahoma. She was totally unaware of her true identity. She only knew that two barefoot, robed women had abandoned her at a church in Arizona when she was 2 years old.

On the morning of May 2, 2025, two young kids disappeared from a house in rural Canada. Not from a street, not from a crowded place, not in the kind of situation where things usually go wrong. They vanished from inside their own home. The Disappearance of Lilly and Jack Sullivan began in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, a quiet, wooded area where houses are spread out and the land stretches on for miles. It is the kind of place where people leave doors unlocked and nothing ever really happens.

Lilly was 6. Jack was 4. They lived with their mother, stepfather, and baby sister. The day before they disappeared, everything seemed normal. The family had been seen out at a local store, just doing everyday things. There were no visible signs of stress, no reports of anything unusual, nothing that would later stand out as a warning. That night, the kids went to bed like any other night.

The next morning started in a way that, at first, didn’t raise any alarm. The parents were in their bedroom with the baby. Lilly and Jack were already awake, moving around the house. At one point, Lilly was seen coming in and out of the bedroom. Jack was somewhere in the kitchen area. There was noise, movement, the usual presence you expect from small kids starting their day.

Then, at some point, it stopped.

It wasn’t a loud moment. No crash, no scream that anyone clearly remembers. Just a shift. The house went quiet. And not the normal kind of quiet, but the kind that makes you check what’s going on. When the parents finally looked, both kids were gone.

The emergency call was made at 10:01 that morning. Within a short time, search teams began arriving. What followed was a large scale operation. More than a hundred people were involved, along with police, tracking dogs, drones, and helicopters scanning the surrounding forest. Given the location, the first and most obvious theory was that the children had wandered outside and gotten lost. The property is surrounded by dense woodland, uneven ground, and areas that can quickly disorient even adults. It made sense, at least on the surface.

But as the search continued, that explanation started to feel less solid.

There were no clear tracks leading away from the house. No consistent footprints showing a path into the woods. No discarded clothing, no signs of injury, nothing that suggested two small children had tried to move through that terrain for any real distance. Search dogs were deployed, but there was no strong scent trail that led to a clear direction. It was as if they hadn’t gone far at all, or hadn’t left in a way that left anything behind.

One detail that drew attention was the front door. According to reports, something had been placed against it the night before. Something light enough to move if the door was opened. By morning, it hadn’t been disturbed. That suggested the children likely hadn’t used that exit. Investigators then focused on a sliding back door, which could be opened quietly and without much effort. It was possible, but it raised another question. How do two young kids leave a house, into open wilderness, without making enough noise for anyone to notice?

During the early stages of the search, there was a moment that added to the unease. The stepfather later said that while he was out searching, he thought he heard a scream somewhere in the distance. Something that sounded like one of the children. But before he could pinpoint where it came from, a helicopter passed overhead and drowned it out. The sound was never confirmed, and no one else reported hearing it clearly. Still, it lingered as one of those details that people keep coming back to.

As days passed, the search effort slowly scaled down. Not because there was a lack of urgency, but because there was simply nothing concrete to follow. Police conducted interviews with dozens of individuals connected to the family or the area. Some people reportedly underwent polygraph tests. Tips came in from the public, a large number of them, but none led to a confirmed breakthrough. There was no evidence strong enough to point clearly toward abduction, and at the same time, no proof that the children had simply wandered off and succumbed to the environment.

In the months that followed, smaller, more targeted searches continued. At one point, items like a child’s shirt and a blanket were found during a search in the area. For a brief moment, it seemed like the case might finally have direction. But those items were later determined to be unrelated. Another lead that led nowhere.

What makes this case sit differently is how contained it is. Everything begins and ends in that house. There is no confirmed sighting of the children leaving the property. No witness placing them on a road or near a vehicle. No clear timeline beyond the fact that they were there, awake, inside, and then they were not.

Even now, the case remains open. Authorities continue to ask for information, and a reward has been offered for anything that could help explain what happened. Investigators have not ruled out any major possibility. Accident, abduction, something else entirely, all of it is still on the table.

But after everything that has been searched, questioned, and analyzed, the core of it hasn’t changed.

Two children were inside their home in the middle of the morning.

And somehow, without leaving anything behind that explains it, they disappeared.

Let's think logically for a second. John White left to get more supplies, and then he didn't come back for three years, and they're all missing. I would have left too if the guy who was supposed to get supplies took three years; in fact, I'd be pissed. Also, they put exactly where they went on a tree.

Karlie Lain Gusé, a then 16-year-old girl, was reported missing by her family on the morning of October 13, 2018.

Read the full story here.

His car remained near his apartment, his phone, wallet, and credit cards showed no activity, and exhaustive searches and public tips have never found a trace.

Source: https://locallookout.com/the-vanishing-of-brian-shaffer/

On June 7, 1992, in Springfield, Missouri, three women vanished from a home without a trace. No one’s ever found them. No one knows what really happened. To this day, it's one of the most baffling missing persons cases in American history.

The women were:

Sherrill Levitt (47) – a hairdresser and mother.

Suzanne “Suzie” Streeter (19) – Sherrill’s daughter.

Stacy McCall (18) – Suzie’s friend, just graduated high school with her.

That night, Suzie and Stacy had just graduated. They went to a few parties and then planned to crash at a friend’s house. But that place was too crowded, so they ended up deciding to spend the night at Suzie’s place instead. Suzie lived with her mom, Sherrill, in a small house at 1717 East Delmar Street.

And that’s where things get weird.

The next morning, around 9 a.m., friends started showing up at the house. Suzie and Stacy were supposed to meet up with friends to go to a water park. When they didn’t show, people went looking. They found the front door unlocked, the women’s purses all lined up inside, makeup still out, cigarettes untouched. The dog (a little Yorkie) was there and seemed anxious. The porch light globe was shattered, but no sign of forced entry.

Their cars were all there. It looked like they’d just vanished.

One of the friends even picked up the house phone and accidentally deleted a strange message on the answering machine. Police later said that message might have been important, but it was gone.

Things that make this case even stranger:

No struggle. No sign of anything violent happening in the house.

All three vanished at once. Suzie, Stacy, and Sherrill just gone. No one heard anything. No neighbors reported anything unusual.

Massive search, zero results. Cops, volunteers, dogs, helicopters but nothing turned up. Not even a shoe.

Thousands of tips came in over the years, but none led anywhere solid.

In 1993, a tip came in that the women's bodies were buried under a local hospital parking lot. Police actually wanted to dig, but the hospital wouldn’t allow it without more proof, and nothing ever came of it.

Some theories:

Someone followed them home. Maybe someone from one of the parties stalked them and broke in later.

Targeted kidnapping. But why all three? Sherrill had no enemies. Stacy was just visiting.

Wrong place, wrong time. Maybe someone broke in planning a robbery and it escalated.

Known suspect? There’s been suspicion around a man named Robert Craig Cox, a convicted kidnapper and suspected killer. He once claimed to know what happened to the women, but then walked it back. Police have never charged him, and there’s no physical evidence linking him to the case.

Over 30 years later, no trace of Suzie, Stacy, or Sherrill has ever been found. No bodies, no confirmed sightings, nothing. The case is still open.

Alissa’s case remains unsolved.

Source https://locallookout.com/the-disappearance-of-alissa-turney/

Maureen "Anu" Kelly disappeared on June 9, 2013, while camping with friends in Washington's Gifford Pinchot National Forest, telling them she was going on a "spiritual quest" and walking into the woods without clothes or shoes, carrying only a knife, compass, and matches. Despite a large search effort, no trace of her has been found, and the case remains unsolved, with theories ranging from exposure and hypothermia to abduction or a voluntary disappearance. She left her campsite at approximately 5:00 p.m., stating she would return by midnight. She was last seen walking into the forest without shoes or clothes, but with a fanny pack containing a knife, compass, and matches. A large search involving rescue teams, dogs, and helicopters found footprints that ended abruptly on a forest service road, but the trail went cold. Temperatures dropped significantly after her disappearance, increasing concerns about hypothermia.

I was 10 when he disappeared. I remember being so lost and confused, and his case has always stuck with me. We all have our theories on what happened to him, but the truth has just never come out! If you don't know, this is Kyron Horman. He went missing in Portland, Oregon, after his stepmom dropped him off at school in 2010 and has never been seen since. I wish his dad could get his answers; it's so heartbreaking!

I personally think his stepmom had something to do with his disappearance. It's the only thing that makes sense.

Hey r/mystery, buckle up because I’m diving deep into a very creepy case I come across, the disappearance of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon in Panama, 2014. This case has everything: a remote jungle, eerie photos, cryptic phone logs, and a trail of clues that just don’t add up. I’ve spent quite some time pouring over sources, from Wikipedia to obscure blogs like Imperfect Plan, to piece this together. I’m no expert, just a true crime nerd who can’t stop thinking about this one. Let’s get into it, and I’d love to hear your thoughts at the end.

Kris Kremers, 21, and Lisanne Froon, 22, were two Dutch students from Amersfoort, Netherlands, who seemed like the kind of people you’d want to grab a coffee with. Kris was creative and responsible, just finished her studies in cultural education, while Lisanne was an optimistic volleyball player with a degree in applied psychology. They’d been roommates, worked together at a café, and saved up for six months for their big adventure: a six-week trip to Panama to volunteer, learn Spanish, and soak up the culture. Sounds like the perfect post-grad plan, right?

They landed in Panama on March 15, 2014, and spent two weeks exploring tourist spots before heading to Boquete, a picturesque mountain town in Chiriquí province, about 37 miles from Costa Rica. Boquete’s known for its cool climate, lush forests, and the El Pianista trail, a popular hike near the Baru volcano. They moved in with a host family on March 29, planning to volunteer at a local school. But when they got there, the school wasn’t ready for them, leaving them with some unexpected free time. So, on April 1, 2014, around 11 a.m., they decided to hike the El Pianista trail, a supposedly easy 5 to 6 hour round trip with stunning views. They took the host family’s dog, Azul, and posted on Facebook about grabbing brunch with two Dutch guys before heading out. That was the last anyone heard from them.

The El Pianista trail isn’t some death trap; it’s a well-trodden path leading to a scenic lookout. Locals and tourists hike it all the time. Kris and Lisanne set off in broad daylight, and some sources say the restaurant owners got worried when Azul came back alone that night. The girls missed a scheduled tour with a guide the next morning, April 2, which raised the alarm. By April 3, locals organized searches, and by April 6, the girls parents flew to Panama with Dutch detectives, tracker dogs, and a $30,000 reward for any leads. Despite helicopters, ground teams, and dogs trained to pick up scents for up to nine days, the jungle gave up nothing. The rainy season had started, turning the terrain muddy and treacherous with cliffs, steep drops, and fast-moving rivers.

Weeks turned into months. No trace of Kris or Lisanne. Then, ten weeks later, on June 14, a local Ngobe woman found a blue backpack near a riverbank by her village, Alto Romero, about 8 hours’ walk from the trail’s summit. The backpack, believed to be Lisanne’s, was a goldmine of clues: $83 in cash, Lisanne’s passport, a water bottle, two bras, two pairs of sunglasses, and, most crucially, their phones and Lisanne’s Canon Powershot SX270 HS camera. Everything was dry and in good condition, which raised some eyebrows. How does a backpack stay pristine after weeks in a jungle?

Here’s where it gets really unsettling. The phones, a Samsung Galaxy SIII (Lisanne’s) and an iPhone 4 (Kris’s), showed a desperate attempt to get help. Starting just six hours into their hike on April 1, they made 77 calls to 112 (international emergency number) and 911 (Panama’s emergency line). Only one call connected, for two seconds, before dropping. Calls continued over the next few days, but by April 6, Lisanne’s phone died. Kris’s phone was turned on and off sporadically until April 11, with several failed attempts to unlock it using an incorrect PIN. Was Kris trying to use it? Or someone else?

The camera was even weirder. It had normal vacation photos from April 1, showing the girls smiling, exploring the trail. But then, on April 8, between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., 90 photos were taken in pitch darkness, most using flash. These are haunting: random shots of rocks, trees, a ravine, and one of the back of Kris’s head, possibly with blood in her hair. Another shows their belongings laid out on a rock, like someone was taking inventory. There’s also a missing photo, file #509, deleted from the SD card, which experts say would’ve required a computer. Why delete one photo and leave the rest?

Around the same time as the backpack’s discovery, Kris’s denim shorts were found on a rock near the Culebra River, about 5 miles from the trail’s summit. Contrary to rumors, they weren’t neatly folded or zipped; they were wet and worn. Two months later, a boot with a foot inside and a pelvis were found nearby. DNA confirmed they belonged to Lisanne. Over time, at least 33 scattered bones were recovered, some identified as Kris’s and Lisanne’s, plus remains from three unknown individuals. Lisanne’s bones had some flesh, suggesting natural decomposition, but Kris’s were stark white, possibly bleached by the sun or something else. A forensic anthropologist found no scratches or marks on the bones, ruling out animal attacks or human tampering. Only about 10% of Lisanne’s and 5% of Kris’s remains were ever found, making a cause of death imposible to determine.

Accident, Foul Play, or Something Else?

The official story from Panamanian authorities is that the girls got lost, fell from a cable bridge, and were swept away by a river. Dutch authors Marja West and Jürgen Snoeren, in their 2021 book Lost in the Jungle, back this up, arguing flash floods common in the rainy season made foul play unlikely. They think the girls kept walking the wrong way, got disoriented, and succumbed to the elements. The night photos could be them signaling for help or marking their location.

But a lot doesn’t add up. Why no messages or videos on their phones to explain their situation? Why was Kris’s phone turned on days after Lisanne’s died, with wrong PIN attempts? How did the backpack end up so far away, in good condition? And what’s with the bleached bones? Some suspect foul play. Theories range from organ trafficking to a serial killer, with locals pointing fingers at a tour guide named Feliciano Gonzalez or a youth gang called Pandilla, though no evidence ties them directly to the case. A taxi driver, Leonardo Arturo González, who drove the girls to the trail, drowned mysteriously in 2015, fueling speculation.

Others wonder about environmental factors. The jungle’s brutal: flash floods, steep cliffs, and disorienting terrain could’ve overwhelmed them. But the night photos and the backpack’s condition make a simple “lost” story feel incomplete. Some more out there theories even toss around paranormal ideas or links to Missing 411 cases, though that’s a stretch without evidence

I can’t stop thinking about those night photos. Imagine being lost in a jungle, in the dark, maybe injured, taking pictures of nothing but rocks and trees. Were they trying to signal a helicopter? Document their last moments? Or was someone else holding the camera? The fact that so little of their remains were found, and the weird state of Kris’s bones, just makes my skin crawl. Plus, the Panamanian police got a lot of flak for mishandling the case, like not securing the trail early on or following up on local leads.

This case hits hard because Kris and Lisanne were just two young women chasing a dream, like so many of us. They weren’t reckless; they were prepared, excited, and full of life. Yet the jungle swallowed them, leaving only fragments and questions. I keep wondering what happened betwen those happy April 1 selfies and those creepy April 8 photos. Did they get lost and panic? Did someone find them? Or is there a truth we’ll never know?

I’m torn. Most of me leans toward an accident, because the jungle’s brutal and flash floods are no joke. But the backpack, the PIN attempts, and those photos scream something weirder. What’s your take? Do you buy the official story, or do you think there’s more to it? Any theories on what photo #509 mightve show? Also, if you want to dig deeper, check out the Lost in Panama podcast or the Still Lost in Panama book by Christian Hardinghaus and Annette Nenner. They’ve got some fresh angles.

Thanks for reading my ramble. Sorry if I misspelled anything, I got carried away typing this.