What really happened to missing teenager Amy Fitzpatrick?

15 year old Amy Fitzpatrick went missing while on vacation in the city of Málaga, Spain on New Year’s Day 2008. Málaga is part of the Costa Del Sol region of Spain and although it’s one of the most populated cities in the Andalusia popular with party-goers the area is lush with nature and bordered by the Mediterranean Sea.  

Fitzpatrick was originally from Coolock in Dublin, Ireland but her mother, Audrey, had moved the family abroad with her new partner, Dave Mahon, in 2004 in order to “start over”.

Amy and her family had plans to spend Christmas in Ireland, but unfortunately for Amy, who disliked living in Spain, those plans fell through. The disappointment of not being able to return home for the holidays and spend time with her dad upset Amy, especially since the family skipped the festivities back home so Audrey could stay in Málaga with Mahon. Amy didn’t know it at the time, but her aunt would later admit to the media that the only reason Christmas in Ireland didn’t happen was due to Amy’s step-dad, Dave, getting himself into trouble in the Costa del sol. On the night she went missing, Amy had been at the home of a friend, Ashley Rose, helping to babysit the girl's little brother.

 Ashley Rose was one of the few friends that Amy had in the area. She lived locally nearby the Las Lomas De Riviera Club apartment complex, where Amy was staying with her mother, brother and step-dad.

At around 10:10pm Amy said her goodbyes and began what should have been a short walk home. (Approximately 10 minutes or so, according to reports)

Amy was never seen again.

She was reported missing two days later on the 3^rd of January.

Various theories pertaining to what happened that night were discussed over the years. The first was that Amy was abducted on her walk home. Or, that she decided to go to a bar before returning to the apartment her family was staying at. People speculated that she may have met someone, an older man perhaps, who kidnapped her.
There was an unconfirmed sighting of Amy at at bar, but as far as I can see, nothing came of it. 

(Source)

Ashley and Amy spent almost every single day together and kept in contact during the rare days they were apart.  Ashley described how Amy would always have her Irish cell phone with her, which she kept her contacts in. She stated that the missing girl was never without her phone and that the pair would always listen to music on it and that she would refer back to it when needing to call someone from Amy’s landline phone at her home. She would also pull up her Dad’s phone number back home in Ireland when they went to internet café’s so she could talk with him. Amy wanted to live with her father back in Ireland, and wasn’t fond of her step dad whom she reportedly said “made her skin crawl”.

(Source)

Both Ashley and her mother are 100% sure that Amy had her phone that night at their home. They saw her using it and both remember clearly. 
They have never doubted that Amy had the phone on her person that night.

Why, then, was the same phone found back at the apartment where her family was staying after investigators searched the property?

What does this mean?

1.       Did Amy make it home that night and go missing afterwards? If so, she never went out without her cell phone, so why would she leave it behind on this occasion?

2.       Did something happen to Amy back at the apartment? If so what?

3.       Did Ashley and her mother misremember- unlikely as they both claim to be 100% certain and have given statements to police confirming this.

The Nokia cellphone became a big issue in the case. Several months later in August 2008 the lawyer working on the case, a (then) 32 year man named Juan José de la Fuente Teixidó had his property burgled. The burglar neglected to take anything of monetary value from his home but took items relating to the missing Fitzpatrick girls case, such as his laptop containing his research and documents. He was sleeping at the time of the robbery and claimed the culprits got through the back entrance of the building.

According to this article in a Spanish newspaper, Juan José de la Fuente Teixidó told reporters that the evidence stolen would not damage the investigation as they were mainly back-up documents.

It is also reported that the Nokia cell phone was stolen.

I found a few reports indicating that the missing 15 year old had been sleeping rough. Apparently she kept a journal where she wrote about living in a cardboard box and fishing for food in trashcans with illustrations of her doing so. She wrote things like “I haven’t showered in 2 years”. People describe Amy as being thin and oftentimes not attending school and sleeping in fields. I read in one report that she wasn’t even enrolled in school, a neglectful act in and of itself on her mother’s part.

Was the journal a metaphor for how much she hated life in Spain or was it simply the cathartic scrawling of a depressed teenager unhappy with her life? 

Ashley Roses mother told reporters that Amy often stayed with them and even borrowed clothes and shoes from her daughter because the clothes she was wearing were falling to pieces. Also we know that Amy's mother and her mother’s partner did not report her missing until January 3^rd. Most parents would panic if their child was even a few hours late coming home, especially in a foreign country, a couple days seems like a long time to wait when there’s a missing teenager. The fact that her primary caregivers didn't report her instantly could give weight to the idea that she really didn't spend much time at home. 

The mother of one of Amy’s school friends actually wrote to the Irish embassy in Spain expressing her concern for the unhappy girl. Eerily she urges the embassy to intervene and warns them if they don’t it will only be a matter of time before she disappears. Amy’s mother Audrey claimed the woman was crazy and was making things up in order to make a profit. From what I can see online, several media outlets have seen this letter.

So later in 2009 Audrey’s mother claimed she received a phone call from an anonymous male who spoke in what she described as an African accent. He claimed that Amy was in Madrid and that he knew where she was and would hand her over in exchange for 500,000 Euros. Amy’s mother agreed. As far as I can find nothing came of it. The calls and texts came from two different phone numbers from pre-paid / disposable cell phones:

- 672 564 681 (calls)

- 672 564 687 (texts)  

Dean Mahon, the step-father that Amy reportedly hated, stabbed her brother Dean to death in 2013. He claimed that Dean ran into a knife he was wielding during an argument and got several years for manslaughter. Amy’s mother, Audrey, continued to stand by the man who murdered her son, saying she had forgiven but not forgotten. She eventually married Dave Mahon. 

What do you think happened to Amy Fitzpatrick?