The desperate search for missing British teenager Jay Slater in Tenerife continues today, almost four weeks after he vanished – with “several lines of enquiry” being pursued by police.
Jay, 19, has gone missing on the Spanish island on the morning of June 17. The apprentice bricklayer was on holiday with friends Lucy Law, 18, and Brad Hargreaves, 19, and had been partying at Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas the night before he disappeared.
He left the club with two British men, one named Ayub Qassim, 31, known as “Johnny Vegas”, and a second unnamed man, to head to their Airbnb rental near the remote village of Masca in the north of the island.
Jay Slater has been missing since June 17(Image: Family Document/LBT Global/PA)
Spanish police have ruled that neither he nor the other unnamed man are relevant to the investigation into the disappearance. Around 8:30 a.m. on the morning of his disappearance, Jay called Lucy to tell her he was in the middle of nowhere trying to get home with no water and 1% battery on his phone.
His last known location was in the Teno Rural Park in the north of the Canary Islands, about an 11-hour walk from his home in Los Cristianos.
The search has continued on the island ever since. On Friday morning (12 July), Mark Williams-Thomas, a former police officer with Tenerife Metropolitan Police, said he had received “significant new information” about the teenager’s disappearance, which he had passed on to British and Spanish authorities. Williams-Thomas had previously said the disappearance in Tenerife was linked to an “established criminal network”. Read what he said in full here.
The Manchester Evening News has a reporter in Tenerife reporting directly from the research site. Updates will be posted on our live blog below.
Spanish police focused their search on the ravines and mountainous terrain of the Teno Rural Park, with the help of mountain rescuers. On June 30, police suspended the search on the ground. But on July 9, Police insisted that several lines of investigation were still ongoing. A source close to the case insisted that investigators were not working on the basis that Jay was “missing and presumed dead.” The Mirror reports.
Jay Slater’s parents, Warren Slater and Debbie Duncan in Tenerife(Image: Stan Kujawa)
On Tuesday (July 9), Jay’s friends were forced to leave Tenerife and return to the UK after a three-week search. His mother Debbie, father Warren and brother Zak have remained on the island as they desperately search for answers to Jay’s disappearance.
Residents living in houses on the outskirts of Masca told the Manchester New Nights on saturday they I don’t think Jay is in the area and that they fear ‘Something weird’ The Lancashire teenager once walked out of the Airbnb rather than wait for a bus. There is a bus stop right outside Casa Abuela Tina.
Wednesday, a new investigation from our sister site The Express revealed a link between Jay’s case and the Tenerife cannabis club network – via Qassim. Read it in full here.
Follow our live blog below for all the latest updates and developments.
10:57Imogen Clyde-Smith
Recap of this week’s key events
Family and friends are today continuing a desperate search for missing teenager Jay Slater in Tenerife, almost four weeks after he vanished.
Here’s a recap of this week’s key events:
On Monday, Jay Slater’s father and brother were spotted in a new area on the outskirts of Masca, suggesting they have expanded their search. here.
On Tuesday, an expert searching for Jay Slater said he had stumbled upon a new “clue” and believed he knew the poignant reason why search teams may have missed the teenager. here.
On Wednesday it was announced that the two friends Jay had travelled to Tenerife with had returned home. here.
