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National Park After Dark

What Happened to Sophia Koetsier? Murchison Falls National Park

National Park After Dark

Danielle LaRock & Cassandra Yahnian

True Crime, Places & Travel, History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2026

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In October of 2015, 21 year old Dutch medical student Sophia Koetsier vanished inside Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda, a place with strong river currents and dangerous wildlife. When Sophia’s belongings were found along the Nile River, investigators were quick to jump to an explanation, but many argue that the scene left more questions than answers.  If you have any information regard Sophia’s disappearance please email tip@peterrdevries.nl and visit https://www.findsophia.org For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at: Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to the week’s partners!IM8: Follow our link and use code NPAD for a Free Welcome Kit, five free travel sachets plus 10% off your order.Naked Wines: To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to NakedWines.com/NPAD and use code NPAD for both the code AND PASSWORD.Blueland: Use our link to get 15% off your first order.IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda is beautiful, but it's not safe.

0:06.0

The landscape is massive and unforgiving.

0:09.0

The Victoria Nile runs straight through the park, its current strong enough to pull anything under.

0:14.0

Along the riverbank lives some of the most dangerous wildlife in Africa.

0:18.0

Their Nile crocodiles have a bite so strong they can easily crush a car.

0:23.2

Their hippos may look docile, but are responsible for more human deaths than most predators.

0:29.7

They have lions that move quietly through tall grass and dense woodlands.

0:33.9

The scale of the park is part of the risk.

0:36.5

Dense vegetation limit infrastructure.

0:39.2

There's long distances between people.

0:41.9

It's easy to underestimate how quickly something can go wrong

0:45.3

and how difficult it can be to find answers once it does.

0:49.3

In a place like this, it's easy to assume the environment is responsible.

0:53.6

The river, the animals, the terrain,

0:55.9

but sometimes the story is not that simple. In October of 2015, Sophia Coatsier was here and then

1:04.1

she was gone. The place where she was last seen raised more questions than it answered. The

1:09.8

environment offered an easy explanation,

1:12.4

but the scene itself was never properly secured. There were no clear signs of an animal attack,

1:18.1

personal belongings were left behind, details that did not fit neatly into a single conclusion.

1:24.2

So the question remains, what really happened to Sophia Coatsier? Welcome to National Park After Dark. I'm Danielle.

1:57.6

I'm Cassie.

1:58.6

And this park scarred me for life when you talked about it last time. I know. I was thinking about this last episode. And I actually was looking at it. I was like, what did I title it? And it's an adventure worth dying for. And I told the story of Henry Coatsy. Yes. And the parallels with the... I know.

...

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