He arrived in Huarez at 6:19 am and it's a 10 minute walk to the hostel. The hostel check starts at 7 am so we know forsure he did not go straight to the hostel. From the pictures, it looks like there are only three bedrooms, with a total of 5 single beds and 1 double bed. I think it's important to find out if he reserved a shared or private room because he could have potentially met other people planning to hike or wanting to hike along with him. He could have met people and explained he was leaving the next day to hike on his own and his roommates may have decided to steal from him or something once he was out in the mountains. If he were abducted like some articles are saying, it would require more than one person since he seems quite strong.
https://youtu.be/n-Z8PL3a5DI?t=6960 This is a screenshot of a text Jesse sent to a friend saying "Ripping this 4 day solo on Friday." I think he sent this to his friend sometime before Thurs. Sept. 28 because he might be more likely to say "tomorrow" rather than saying "on Friday." So with this time frame in mind, he may have decided to go with a guided tour, but I don't believe he registered with one.
Alisa also said he texted her around 7am on Sept. 28 saying he would be unreachable for the next four days. Does that mean starting from that day or the next day on the 29th?
The Santa Cruz Trek also takes about 4 days and he had a return ticket for Oct. 2 (I'm not sure what time it was for) which means he would be very rushed for time. He may have decided to start on trek on the 28th to make sure he wouldn't miss his Oct. 2 ticket back.
I know that his friends and family say they stopped receiving texts from him on the 29th but does that mean his last text was on the 28th or the 29th? If he was still going according to his initial plan of doing it on his own and leaving on the 29th, it seems odd if he didn't text anyone in the morning before leaving saying something about starting the trek.
If he did go on his own, he would need the proper equipment like a tent, sleeping bag, water purifier, enough food etc. I doubt he would bring all of this with him from Lima so he could have been shopping for these things on the 28th and maybe encountered a dangerous situation during the day.
This hiking guide (
http://www.cleverhiker.com/blog/santa-cruz-trek-peru-a-guide-to-hiking-in-the-cordillera-blanca) says you should spend 1-2 nights (but they recommend 2) in Huarez to allow enough time to acclimatize to the high altitude. It also says to allow for another night once the hike is over because a lot of people regret going straight from a 4 day trek to a night bus. I've seen quite a bit of documentaries about Everest and although the altitude is much higher, nobody knows how their body will react to high altitude and it can come out of nowhere and the situation can become critical fairly quickly. It's possible he was hiking alone or during the night sometime and he started experiencing symptoms of cerebral edema, like an altered mental state, loss of consciousness, nausea, vomiting etc. and it's basically the brain swelling from high altitude. This mixed with a concussion seems very dangerous, especially if he's alone. Maybe he went off the trail a bit, being unfamiliar with the route and started experiencing something like this and didn't have a satellite radio to contact help.
In the Youtube video linked above, I think they say luminol was sprayed throughout the hostel and although it's been quite awhile since the 28th, there was no blood evidence. Many of the reviews say it's "dirty and smell" so it seems fairly unlikely they would have been able to clean up every trace evidence of blood if something happened in the hostel.
Another thing that is a bit confusing is the date on the missing person's report is Oct. 17 [video=twitter;921404841649426437]https://twitter.com/helpusfindjesse/status/921404841649426437[/video] but this article says "On October 14, Clamen filed a missing persons report, and then flew down to Peru on October 17 to aid in the search."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5012189/Canadian-student-22-missing-nearly-month-Peru.html
Jesse is from the same city as me and I am constantly thinking and worrying about him and I cannot imagine what his friends and family are going through. I hope more information will surface asap and that his loved ones find out what happened to him.
