Today (June 26), marks the tenth day in the search for missing UK teenager Jay Slater.
The teenager - from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire - had been vacationing with his friends in Tenerife while attending the NRG music festival.
However, on the evening of June 16, Jay separated from his close friend - Lucy Mae Law - and opted to continue the evening with two British men he had met that evening.
The next morning (June 17), Lucy Mae received a Snapchat message from Jaw revealed that he was in the village of Masca near the Rural de Teno Park. In a subsequent phone call, Jay told Lucy Mae that he was lost, thirsty, and was going to attempt to walk back to their shared accommodation - a journey that would have taken him around 10 hours.
Less than an hour later, Lucy Mae reported Jay missing to local authorities.
Despite ongoing major efforts across the rugged terrain of Rural de Teno Park and extensive ongoing inquiries by the Spanish Civil Guard, there remain six pivotal questions confounding family, friend, and investigators...
Why did he leave his friends to stay in the village of Masca?
A critical aspect puzzling both investigators and loved ones is Jay's decision to contniue his evening with two men he'd met that night, rather than return to his shared apartment with friend Lucy Mae.
Last Sunday (June 16), Jay was partying with friend Lucy Mae Law at the Papagayo beach club in the lively resort of Playa de la Americas as part of the NRG festivities.
Speaking to the MailOnline, Lucy Mae says Jay insisted of staying with them that night, despite her best efforts to get him to head back to their holiday apartment. "I just don't understand why he went to their place," she said.
"He'd only just met them and didn't know them at all. Brad [a mutual friend] and I said to come back but he didn't, if he had this wouldn't have happened."
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The teen's stepfather - Andy Watson - has also tried to piece together why Jay would leave his friends.
"Who lives in the mountains? It would be wrong to speculate, but everyone has their own impression in their head," the concerned stepfather told MailOnline. "I wouldn't have gone off with two people I didn't know.
"But he's 19, he's impressionable, isn't he? If someone said there's more drink at our house, he's going to go."
How didn't more people see Jay on the morning he vanished?
Jay supposedly ventured alone uphill into the mountains of Rural de Teno Park on June 17 after staying at a remote Airbnb with two individuals he met at the NRG music festival.
Before this, he spoke with a local woman regarding bus times.
According to the Daily Mail, a woman named Ofelia Medina Hernandez said she saw the teen standing by the bus stop outside the Airbnb. She claimed that he had asked about buses back to Los Cristianos.
Hernandez reportedly explained that the next available bus down the mountain in the Parque Rural de Teno wouldn't arrive for another two hours.
"I held up my fingers on my hands to say 10:00AM as he didn't understand me then I went home briefly before driving up the mountain to Buenavista del Norte, but this time I saw him walking on the road out of the village," she said.
"It was no more than ten or fifteen minutes after I had spoken to him and he was about a kilometre from the house. I drove past him and that's the last I saw him," she added.
However, nobody other than Hernandez has come forward to say they saw Jay that morning, leading to concerns - given Masca's popularity among tourists and its vibrant morning scene at the viewpoint where Jay's phone last pinged around 8:50 am.
"There are people up there, Jay's father told the Manchester Evening News: "You don't go along that road for more than 20 minutes without somebody stopping you or passing you."
The Civil Guard has been tirelessly searching the area ever since the teen was reported missing.
Why didn't he wait for the bus on the morning he disappeared?
Given just how far away Jay was from his vacation apartment - and the fact he didn't know the local area and was quickly running out of phone battery - investigators are still trying to figure out why Jay opted to trek alone through the mountains rather than just wait for the scheduled bus.
Lucy Mae has revealed that Jay told her that he intended to walk back to the apartment, a journey spanning over 30km and approximately 10 hours. She also told Sky News that Jay had "cut his leg on a cactus" - making the teen's decision to go ahead with the walk even more baffling.
"I can't understand why he would come out of the house and then decide he was going to walk," Lucy Mae said. "I think he maybe set off walking with battery and had not realized how far the walk actually is."
Additionally, Jay's stepfather, Andy, has also questioned if and why Jay would decide to make the 10-hour trek back to his apartment, telling MailOnline: "He has me run him down to the hairdressers, 200 yards away - why would he walk eight hours?"
Who were the unknown men he stayed with?
Another critical inquiry revolves around the identities of the two unnamed men Jay lodged with in Masca and his motive for departing from his friends.
According to the MailOnline, Jay and the two unidentified men arrived back at the Airbnb at around 5:00AM.
Around an hour later, neighbours at Casa Abuela Tina report hearing noise from the farmhouse.
In what is believed to be his final social media post, Jay took to Snapchat at around 7:30AM to share the following image of him standing outside the property - its distinctive steps clearly in view.
Details are scant about these individuals - believed to be British - who had reserved the Airbnb in the secluded Rural de Teno Park village - around 19 miles from the NRG music festival venue where Jay partied the night before his disappearance.
Thanks to Jay's last Snapchat message from the Airbnb, Lucy Mae revealed that she was able to locate the property and spoke with the two men after reporting Jay missing.
"They seemed startled and surprised that I had found them, and I asked them where Jay was," she said. "They said he had gone out to try and look for cigarettes and then come back and said he was leaving to try and get a bus back into town.
"They just seemed shocked that I had managed to find them and I know the police have spoken to them but I've since found out they have left the country. They need to be spoken to properly."
The two men were originally supposed to leave the property on June 17, but were able to stay on another night due to Spanish authorities wanting to speak with them.
Both men have since returned to the UK, but the Spanish Civil Guard has confirmed that their information - including their names and passport details - have been noted.
Is there a third party involved?
Jay's distraught loved ones have repeatedly shared their fears and suspicions regarding potential third-party involvement in the teen's disappearance.
Speaking to the MailOnline, mom Debbie has said: "If anyone does have him, just let him go, he's not a bad person, maybe he's got in with some strangers who've befriended him."
Jay's father also expressed to the Manchester Evening News: "You think, has somebody got him? Because no matter if you were drunk or whatever, you don't go off that road up there."
Investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas - who has flown out to Tenerife to work on the case on behalf of Jay's family - says he will be able to ascertain any third-party role "within three days".
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Williams-Thomas - a famed television investigator - has also claimed he will find out the identities of the two men Jay stayed with the evening prior to going missing. "I would quickly be able to do establish whether or not there are suspicious circumstances - but I'd need total access to everything and to speak to all the witnesses involved," he told the Manchester Evening News.
However, Spanish authorities have confirmed that they have the men's details and are yet to affirm any external involvement in the teenager's disappearance.
Was the CCTV sighting truly Jay Slater?
Circulated CCTV footage captures a man traversing a church square in Santiago del Teide village around 6:00PM on the day Jay went missing - roughly 10 hours after his reported disappearance.
The footage came about after Jay's family revealed that somebody had "come forward" claiming they saw somebody who resembled Jay on June 17.
In a statement to the MailOnline, concerned mom Debbie said: "Someone has come forward to say they saw someone who they thought was Jay walking back down the road sat on a bench.
“He was with two men looking a bit worse for wear, and they were by a church, this guy has come forward and told the police about it and they are looking into it. We don’t know if it was Jay for sure, but it’s a start."
The village lies approximately 7km from the Airbnb where Jay spent the evening prior.
The Civil Guard in Tenerife have yet to confirm the validity of this lead as a credible possibility, but a spokesperson has said, per LBC: "Nothing has been ruled out and nothing has been ruled."
