RR walked away from his friends and declined assistance from the witness. It sounds like he wanted to be on his own.
I think the interaction between R and the witness would be interesting to know more about (also, was it 1 person? Or 2? The news article just says 'a witness' and 'they'). What was the assistance offered? A headlamp? A cup of tea? An offer to sleep in their tent? (If they were actually camping in a tent there, I have no idea), a lift in the morning? (If the person had a car, etc?). There's many possibilities of what the assistance offered could have been. R might have just wanted to be left alone, might have wanted a lift now and not in the morning, might have felt unsafe to accept help from the witness for whatever reason, who knows. Did R actually leave and continue walking after this interaction?
(Read in the thread there was no interaction. Witnesses in a car stopped to offer assistance after spotting R walking with no headlamp but they could not see him again)
I also wonder if Police releasing the revised time of R leaving the campsite not only alerts possible witnesses of R but also puts pressure on the story being told by the friends. May or may not be anything sinister, they may be hiding something unrelated or may feel bad if there had been an argument or 'banter' etc. I would like to know more about the atmosphere and friendships that night.
"The phone signal was in the vicinity of where the potential sighting was so I can also now confirm it was Reece seen at 2330 hours on the 18th March. This means Reece left the campsite a lot earlier than initially advised."
MOO