The search for 19-year-old Jay Slater, from Lancashire, is now into its eighth day and investigators are now looking at a possible sighting of him in a Tenerife village four miles from the Airbnb he stayed at
The family of missing teenager Jay Slater have shared a CCTV image showing a possible sighting of him in Tenerife.
The grainy image is understood to have been captured in Santiago del Teide at about 6pm on Monday night – ten hours after he was last confirmed to have been seen in the village of Masca, nearly four miles uphill.
It comes after the 19-year-old’s mum Debbie Duncan, 55, previously claimed a witness has told police they believe they saw Jay in the village of Santiago with two men on Monday night.
Jay’s dad Warren, 58, who put up missing posters inside bus stops there on Sunday, said: “You think, has somebody got him? Because no matter if you were drunk or whatever, you don’t go off that road up there. And there are people up there… you don’t go along that road for more than 20 minutes without somebody stopping you or passing you.
“I knew right from when I went up there that he wouldn’t have gone [off that road]. He isn’t stupid. When I saw the police I asked them, seriously, ‘would you go off that road?’ and I think it woke them up a bit.
“It started out as it being a lad who had gone walking and got lost, or that he may have fallen. But it doesn’t make sense. Nobody would walk off that road. Why would he have gone uphill? It’s dangerous; it’s a massive mountain. It’s not just a hill. It was only when I went up there myself [that I noticed]. People that go out to a party don’t come up here.”
Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, stayed at a remote Airbnb in Masca, a village in the north west of the island which is nestled in vast mountainous terrain having gone there with two men after an NRG music event. He was last seen by the owner of the Airbnb who saw him walk away after asking what time the next bus leaves for the south of Tenerife where he was based with friends.
Now into the eighth day of the search in the Rural de Teno park, involving mountain rescue teams, local police, the Civil Guard and fire crews there are no clear clues over what has happened.
But a grainy CCTV image shows someone that the family believe looks similar to Jay walking through the local church square in Santiago del Teide at 6pm last Monday which they are showing to people in the village along with posters of the missing teen to see if they can jog people’s memories.
While Jay’s mum Debbie said of a possible sighting in Santiago del Teide: “Someone has come forward to say they saw someone who they thought was Jay walking back down the road sat on a bench. He was with two men looking a bit worse for wear, and they were by a church, this guy has come forward and told the police about it and they are looking into it. We don’t know if it was Jay for sure, but it’s a start. They said it was about 6pm which is ten hours after he was seen by the lady in the village. But if it was him what was he doing there and who are these two men?”.
Friend of the family, Rachel Hargreaves told the Manchester Evening News that they are “doing all they can to bring him home”. She also praised mountain rescue teams for their ongoing efforts.
“We have to take each lead and act on it,” she said. “Having been up there [the mountain] ourselves, and after all the searching, we get the impression that he can’t be there. We are (…) doing all we can to bring him home. This morning I told police where the CCTV cameras are around here. We aren’t giving up.
“He’s an intelligent boy; nearly a fully qualified bricklayer. He would’ve stood out like a sore thumb up there and somebody would’ve seen him. They’ve got on foot patrols, drones, helicopters out. The mountain rescue teams have mapped the area out and shown us they’re doing all they can. They had a detailed map and showed us where they were searching.”
