The 22-year-old from Newcastle vanished while heading to Cairns for a boys trip to celebrate New Year’s Eve last year — but he never made it to his destination.

Now, his mum has revealed the strange moment which set alarms bells off her mind.

Rachel Penno told 9 News her son had phoned her on Friday December 29, 2017 moments before he and his friend, Lucas Tattersall, reached the Queensland border — saying the 19-hour drive, so far, had “been good”.

“He said he’s looking forward to his holiday. He seemed good. He said he’ll ring me at his next stop,” Ms Penno said.

Just days later, Mr Penno-Tompsett and Mr Tattersall were 1800km away from their Newcastle homes when stopped at a service station at Charters Towers — where grainy CCTV footage of Mr Penno-Tompsett was captured — early on December 31.

The footage was taken before the pair got into an argument. Mr Penno-Tompsett walked off while Mr Tattersall drove away.

He hasn’t been seen or heard from since and hasn’t touched his bank accounts.

Concerned, Ms Penno had called and texted her son on Saturday December 30, 2017 to ask if he was safe, but her calls went straight to voicemail.

However, that same day, a single-word text message appeared on her phone with the word

“Yeah” — which Ms Penno thought was strange.

“He normally would have elaborated. He would have said ‘Yeah, I’m at blah blah’ or ‘Yeah, I’ll call you later’. It was the last I heard from him,” she told Nine.

Ms Penno said there were rumours of a Snapchat message sent from Jayden’s phone on 1 January, but said none of his mates had heard from him.

Ms Penno still has questions regarding the timeline of events that she wants answered. There was a delay by Jayden’s mates in reporting him missing, and another gap between when that happened and Ms Penno heard the news.

“I’m not even angry — I was at first. You don’t just leave your mate in the middle of nowhere and take off with all his belongings,” Ms Penno told news.com.au earlier this year. “But now I’m devastated. I struggle every day not knowing.”

There had been conflicting accounts from the start. “Everything was confusing, right down to where he lost him, to if he had his phone or not. Everything.”

Ms Penno told news.com.au she was running on empty.

“The hardest thing was hearing [he was missing] the second hardest thing is leaving the site. Especially with no news. I can’t cry anymore ... I just don’t know what to do,” she said.

Seeing how unforgiving the area her son is thought to be lost in was came as a terrible shock.

“I had no idea, how hard it is, how hot it was ... I couldn’t imagine being able to cope with that with no clothes, no water, no money, no nothing. I just don’t get it. I don’t get why there have been no reported sightings. I don’t understand how nothing concrete has come through.”

He would never stay away this long without speaking to a family member or a friend. Knowing this was the hardest part because it meant her mind wandered to each of the different scenarios that could have happened. And they aren’t good.

“I have all those fears, I have all the worst fears. Then I think ‘no stop thinking that’. And we go back to having no news. And hoping he is at backpackers somewhere,” she said.

She begged anyone who had any information maybe had picked him up to come forward quickly.

“Just anything, anyone who has helped him or offered him any assistance to contact us. We just need to know that he is okay, so we can help him.”

Mr Tattersall has defended himself in a series of Facebook posts, upset at accusations he should have done more to help.

“I’m sorry to tell you but if someone wants to just up and leave and f*** off then that’s what they are gonna do. [You] don’t understand how hard I tried to help Jayden when I with him and calm him down so we can sort this out.”

He said he was heartbroken about what had happened.

“He is my mate and I’m hurt too please stop making out I’m just some heartless prick that left him out there to die,” he said.

Asked why he drove off and continued on to Cairns as planned, he said he was “owed money” there that he needed to fix his car. He said the vehicle was “on the verge of breaking down”.

“I had to wait about 4/5 days until I could get it fixed. Otherwise if I didn’t do what I did I’d be stuck in Charters Towers with no money or nothing myself.”

Mr Tattersall said the only details he could remember about the location he last saw Mr Penno-Tompsett, somewhere close to Charters Towers, was that it was a rural property on an unsealed road with a red steel fence. He said there was a skull of a bull on a post near a set of yards with silver coloured fencing.

Extensive searches of the area around Stockroute Rd, which a member of the public thought could be the mystery location, came to nothing.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or Queensland Police’s Policelink line on 131 444.