On October 28, 2015, a 21-year-old medical student from Amsterdam named Sophia Koetsier disappeared while walking to the bathroom at Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda. Two days later, her belongings were found along a riverbank. Nobody knows exactly what happened to her.
Sophia had traveled to Uganda for an eight-week internship at a hospital in Kampala. When the internship was over, she and her two friends decided to take a two-week trip around the country before returning home to Europe.
Her friends noticed that she had been acting strange since the beginning of the trip. Sophia had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and she became more manic as the trip went on.
One morning, her friends woke up to find her missing. When Sophia finally turned up, she told them that she had spent part of the night in a lookout tower at the park they were visiting, just to see if she could do it.
The next day, they traveled to Murchison Falls National Park for a boat ride along the Nile River. At one point, Sophia wandered away for a bathroom break, but she did not return. Eventually, her friends found her talking to a mother and child.
On the boat, Sophia continued behaving strangely. She kept messing with the boat equipment and spent much of the time in the bathroom. Her friends decided to call her parents that evening.
They arrived at their lodging at the national park at around 6 p.m. on October 28, 2015. Shortly after their arrival, Sophia went to the bathroom.
Her friends called her mother, but while they were on the phone, the tour guide asked them if they had seen Sophia anywhere. Within 15 minutes, the park rangers had launched a search for her.
There was no trace of her until the next morning. A plastic bottle that Sophia was using as a trash can was found at a nearby river. The day after that, her other belongings were strewn along the riverbank.
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Her pants had been seemingly torn into strips, and the pieces of fabric were tied onto branches. In addition, her underwear was hanging high in a tree.
Search dogs, drones, and helicopters were used to aid in the search, but Sophia was never found. To this day, her disappearance is still a mystery.
Investigators initially assumed that Sophia had been attacked by a wild animal. But there were no signs of struggle or blood on the ground.
A wild animal attack also wouldn’t explain why strips of fabric were tied to branches. Another theory was that she had fallen into the river and drowned.
Eventually, they came to the conclusion that the scene had been manipulated. Her belongings may have been planted at the riverbank. An analysis of her clothing revealed male DNA that was unrelated to the Ugandan police or the search party.
Over 10 years later, a tourism official named Stephen Nyadru has testified against Michael Kijjambu, a man who was working as an unlicensed tour guide at the time Sophia went missing.
Stephen had been alarmed by Sophia’s erratic behavior and advised Michael to take her to Lacor Hospital in Gulu for medical evaluation.
The prosecution states that Michael had no valid license to act as a tour guide. His negligence contributed to Sophia’s disappearance. Many questions are still left unanswered.
You can view the website that Sophia’s loved ones created to raise awareness about her disappearance here.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
