Eventually, the relationship between the European residents on Floreana deteriorated. The Wittmers and Ritters suspected that Wagner-Bosquet was going through their mail and spreading lies about them to passing ships, while Wagner-Bosquet had turned on Lorenz. Her other boyfriend Philippson physically abused him on a regular basis once she turned on him, which led to Lorenz taking refuge at the Wittmer home. Life on the island had become intolerable for most of the residents at this point. On March 27, 1934, Wagner-Bosquet and Philippson disappeared. According to Margret Wittmer, they had boarded a passing yacht headed for Tahiti. Her story is believed to be suspicious, since there was no record of such a yacht entering Galápagos at that time, and since they never turned up in Tahiti or anywhere else. After their disappearance, Lorenz attempted to get back to Germany. He hired a Norwegian fisherman to take him to the Galápagos's San Cristóbal Island, where he could catch a ferry to South America. They also disappeared, until their mummified bodies were discovered months later on an uninhabited part of the archipelago, Marchena Island. in November 1934, Friedrich Ritter died, seemingly of food poisoning, after eating poorly preserved chicken. According to the Wittmers, he claimed before dying that it was Dore Strauch who had poisoned him. Strauch denied this, and she returned to Germany not long afterwards. The disappearance of Wagner-Bosquet and Philippson and the death of Lorenz remain unsolved. Dore Strauch went on to write a book about her experiences on the Galápagos Islands.
