The dog Blue/Azul
We’ve lost count of how many times this misconception has been repeated. Countless podcasts, YouTube videos, and articles claim that the dog Blue/Azul supposedly accompanied Kris and Lisanne on the Pianista Trail. In these stories, the dog sometimes belongs to the restaurant owner Giovanni (which is true), and other times to the host family where the two Dutch women were staying (which is, of course, false).
To put this rumor to rest once and for all: There is no evidence that the dog Azul (or Blue, as he was also called, since Azul is the Spanish word for Blue) was with the two women. I spoke with the owner, and he told me that Blue occasionally walked part of the trail with tourists, but he doesn’t recall him doing so on that day. Furthermore, there were no photos of the dog on Lisanne’s camera. We can imagine they would have taken pictures of him if he had been there.
By the way, Blue has since passed away. His successor is named Lucky, also a Husky, but a reddish-brown one. You can see him in the photo from the Person register.
Emergency call dialed 77 times
The false information that Kris and Lisanne made 77 emergency calls was widespread, especially at the beginning. Fortunately, it’s slowly fading away. In reality, they made only eight emergency calls between April 1 and April 3, 2014 – five to the European emergency number 112 and three to the American number 911. From April 4 onward, there were no more emergency call attempts.
You can find an overview of the emergency calls and other activities here.
Water damage to the cell phones
Speaking of the phones: We often notice in forums that people who follow the case assume there was water damage to the phones. Well, the forensic report doesn’t state that there wasn’t any, but it also doesn’t mention that the forensic team found any. In fact, the report doesn't mention water at all, except for this: Water had entered the battery of Lisanne’s phone, which is why the Panamanian authorities sent a replacement battery to the Dutch forensic team. Other than that, no water damage was recorded for the phones.
We believe the authorities would have documented any damage to the phones if they had found any. After all, such details are essential to a forensic analysis. Since they didn’t, we assume there was no water damage to either of the phones.
Cannibals
The rumor about cannibals allegedly capturing and killing Kris and Lisanne in Panama mainly comes from those who have only a superficial understanding of the case – and, in our opinion, from those who don’t know much about Indigenous peoples of Latin America or other Indigenous societies.
The idea of cannibalism primarily arose from racist motives, aimed at devaluing Indigenous peoples who, from a Western perspective, were seen as less developed, and to create fear of them. European colonizers, in particular, spread such horror stories to justify the exploitation and subjugation of Indigenous populations.
Sure, there have been cases of cannibalism in various parts of the world. But according to research, these acts were usually carried out for ritual reasons after the death of highly valued individuals or as a form of psychological warfare. There is no evidence to suggest that Indigenous people randomly or out of hunger eat other humans.
The swimming photo
The swimming photo is one of the biggest mysteries in the case of Kris and Lisanne in Panama and has caused a lot of wild speculations. We delved deeply into the leading theories, especially the one accusing a local youth gang of being responsible for the women’s deaths. I immersed myself in the alleged circles of this gang to investigate the allegations. In doing so, I uncovered who took the photo and, more importantly, who is actually in it. I spoke with all the remaining individuals of the photo, allowing us to reveal the circumstances of the photo's creation and its tragic connection to the case.
We also discovered that the photo was circulated by Juan, a YouTuber who has been vocal about the youth gang theory, although there is no evidence. To this day, it remains unclear how Juan obtained the swimming photo, which misled thousands. His theory, which is also promoted by one of the most popular podcasts on the case, will not be discussed here in detail, as it would go beyond the scope.
Another common misconception we want to clarify is that the famous swimming photo was not taken in Caldera, but rather at Chiriquicito, approximately seven kilometers away. Moreover, it was not taken on April 1, 2014, but a few days later.
All these findings are not only based on the statements of the people directly involved with the photo – just like all of our research, it was important to us to independently verify this information through official documents.
If you want to learn the full, hair-raising story, you’ll have to read our book – because we can’t give away all the details for free here.
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