Yahoo News Six key questions over Jay Slater's baffling disappearance in Tenerife
The search for missing British teenager Jay Slater in Tenerife has now entered its second week. Rescue teams are tirelessly searching a mountainous area in the north west of the Spanish Canary island.
Jay, 19, was last heard from on Monday, June 17. He was holidaying with friends and disappeared after attending the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas.
The apprentice bricklayer is believed to have travelled over 30km with two men he met at the festival before staying at a rental property in the rural village of Masca. It's thought his phone died in the middle of a vast ravine shortly after he called a friend to say he had missed a bus and was attempting the 11-hour trek back to his accommodation on foot.
Major efforts are now underway across the 'treacherous' Rural de Teno Park, with police enquiries into Jay's whereabouts ongoing. However, there are six key questions that are puzzling loved ones and leading investigators about the case, as reported by the MEN.
Why did he stay in the rural village of Masca?
Another key question in the ongoing investigation, is why Jay chose to stay in the village of Masca the night before he vanished.
The tiny village is home to 90 residents and is off the beaten track. There are very few accommodation options, with only three hotels in the nearby area.
Bar staff in the resort of Playa de las Americas said that tourists rarely stay there if they are partying in the south of the island, and that it is mainly only popular with hikers. They described the area as 'dangerous' to those who are inexperienced.
Search teams are continuing to scour the mountainous and 'treacherous' landscape - but questions have been raised about why missing Jay stayed there. It is over 30km from the resort he was staying in with friends, in Los Cristianos.
The drive takes anything between an hour to 90 minutes, costs over 100 euros in a taxi, and is only reached by battling challenging and steep roads that run adjacent to a towering cliff edge.
Why didn't he wait for the bus on the morning he disappeared?
Police will also be probing why Jay opted to walk alone through the mountains instead of waiting for the bus on the morning he vanished.
Jay reportedly decided against waiting two hours for a bus that would have taken him back into town. The Airbnb owner Ophelia Hernandez said she saw the teenager at around 8am standing by a bus stop just outside of the village of Masca. She said he had asked her about buses back to Los Cristianos and that she told him it would arrive at 10am.
Instead, it is claimed he then walked uphill further north of the island along the only road in the area and told his friend he would attempt the walk back to the apartment. This trek would take around 11 hours and is over 30km.
Who are the unknown men he stayed with - and why did he leave his friends?
Another key question in the case is who the two unknown men were that Jay stayed with - and why he chose to go with them to Masca, leaving his friends behind on the night before he vanished.
Little is known about the two men, thought to be British, who had booked the Airbnb rental in the remote village, in the Rural de Teno Park.
The only light that has been shed on the two men he was with on the Sunday evening at the Casa Abuela Tina, was from a woman named only as Araceli, who works in the business adjoining the rental property.
She said: “I never saw the missing boy, but I know people saw him walking on his own. I saw the two British men who stayed here. They came in for cafe con leche a couple of times. One was aged about 40. The other one was slightly younger.
“The police have spoken to them both. They arrived on Saturday and we’re due to stay until Monday, but they left on Tuesday.”
Is there a third party involved?
Jay's heartbroken family have repeatedly questioned whether a third party was involved in Jay's disappearance. They are struggling to believe he vanished, alone, in the mountains of rural Masca.
Leading TV investigator Mark Williams-Thomas, who has since flown out to the Spanish island to 'get answers for Jay's family', has claimed he will establish whether there was any third party involvement and uncover the identity of the unknown men 'in three days'.
While police have are yet to confirm any third-party involvement in Jay's disappearance, his mum Debbie and dad Warren believe he may have been taken, or that somebody would have seen him on the day he vanished.
"You think, has somebody got him? Because no matter if you were drunk or whatever, you don't go off that road up there," Warren previously said to the MEN.
And devastated mum Debbie previously told the Daily Mail: "If he's got himself mixed up with any trouble, just let him go, just let him go."
The Civil Guard has said they are keeping an open mind and following up every possible lead in the case as the major search continues.
Was the other CCTV sighting really missing Jay?
CCTV footage of a man walking through a church square in the village of Santiago del Teide at around 6pm on Monday - the evening of the day Jay went missing - has been shared by his family and friends.
They believe it could possibly be him, and claimed that the Civil Guard are investigating it. The village the footage was captured in, is around 7km away from the Airbnb Jay is thought to have stayed at the night before he vanished.
It shows a man, who Jay's dad said was similar to his son's height and build, walking past one of the many cameras in the area.
Police in Tenerife have not yet confirmed whether the lead is being looked to as a credible possibility.
