A man following the Jay Slater case in Tenerife has been left with one unanswered question.
Jay Slater vanished without a trace after setting off on an 11-hour walk back to his accommodation through rugged and remote mountainside on Monday, June 17.
He had gone back to the Masca Airbnb of two Brits he had met at a rave the night before.
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After calling his pal Lucy to say he was thirsty, lost and had 1% phone battery left, the 19-year-old disappeared.
(Image: Men Media)
The month-long search for the lad from Lancashire came to a tragic end on Monday, July 15, as Spanish police recovered his body from a deep “inaccessible” ravine near where his phone last pinged.
In a case riddled with mystery and unanswered questions, many have wondered why Jay left without charging his phone or waiting for the bus that was supposed to come.
However, for journalist Fred Kelly, who has walked Jay’s final journey, there’s an even more pressing question.
(Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Writing for MailOnline, he said: “Perhaps most puzzling of all, it remains a mystery why Jay – on the way back to his accommodation at around 8am – chose to leave the tarmac road and head cross-country down towards the sea.
“Having walked extensively in Jay’s footsteps down the ravine where his body was found, I know just how difficult the terrain is.”
The journo added that the volcanic rock “crumbles immediately” when trod on, which makes every step “a hazard”.
Adding to this, he said when the instinct kicks in to grab onto something when slipping, there’s only “prickly cacti or thin air” to hold on to.
(Image: Facebook)
He continued: “Indeed, in the penultimate phone call Jay made during his ill-fated trek, he told Lucy that he had slashed his leg on a cactus.
“The question one cannot help but ask, is why did he not turn back in the face of such danger?”
Canary Islands locals have expressed confusion over Jay’s decision to stray off path as well.
Helena Gomes, 35, said: “You see how bad it is, we don’t even walk there, so if someone gets into trouble it is going to be hard for anyone to find the body.
(Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
“…Why he was there is a mystery, he should never have been going that way, maybe he saw the ocean and thought it was the best way.”
Leader of volunteer search and rescue group Signi Zoekhondon, Esther van Neerbos described the area where Jay was found as “difficult and dangerous”.
She added that she thought the rescue workers did a “very good job” to find him and that Jay did “very well” to get as far as he got.
“The place where he was found is a very dry, small valley, very difficult to get into,” she said.
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