Jay Slater, 19, stayed inside the Airbnb – then named Casa Abuela Tina – before vanishing in the mountains near the remote village of Masca in Tenerife, where his body was found 28 days later
The Airbnb where Jay Slater slept shortly before going missing has been renamed in a bid to distance it from the teenager’s tragic death.
The apprentice bricklayer, 19, stayed inside the holiday let before leaving on foot and vanishing in mountains before his body was eventually discovered after 28 days last summer. Speaking from an upstairs window, a man, believed to be the property’s owner, claimed he could not speak English. When asked if he could come downstairs to speak, he replied ‘no’ and closed the window. A local, who did not give their name, told us: “What happened was very sad, but everyone here just wants to move on.”
The two-bed property, in the remote village of Masca, was named Casa Abuela Tina at the time of Jay’s disappearance. It has now been christened Casa El Turron, which is now emblazoned on a piece of wood fixed to the exterior wall.
In the weeks after Jay’s disappearance, the property became a grim tourist attraction with ghoulish British tourists keen to see the spot where he was last seen alive. Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, disappeared shortly after staying there on June 17 last year.
He had partied at Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas, before leaving with two British men, who drove him 20 miles to the £40-a-night property. Jay later shared a final Snapchat from the Airbnb, showing his hand holding a cigarette while standing in the doorway at 7.30am.
When he tried to walk back to his own accommodation in the south of the island – which would take around 11 hours – the following morning he made video and phone calls to close pals Brad Hargreaves and Lucy Law, who had been with him on the holiday.
In what is believed to have been his final call at 8.30am, Jay told Lucy, 18, he had missed a bus, his phone battery was on 1% and he had cut his leg on a cactus. In an earlier video call, Brad, 19, witnessed Jay slip on some rocks while attempting to walk through Parque Rural de Teno nature reserve in order to reach their apartment in Los Cristianos.
Jay’s disappearance gripped Britain for almost a month, leading to wild speculation and conspiracy theories on social media, including that he had been murdered by gangsters, kidnapped, taken off the island on a boat and even that he was in hiding after running up debts.
Rumours also raged after it was claimed Jay had stolen a £12,000 Rolex watch shortly before his disappearance and that he was scared as he left the rental apartment, which had been rented by convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim and a pal who police ruled were “irrelevant” to their investigation.