Jay’s dad Warren, 58, older brother Zak, 24, and uncle Glen Duncan, 41, are among a group of nine family members who are not giving up on looking for the 19-year-old
The devastated family of missing teenager Jay Slater have spoken of their “torture” as they return to a treacherous gorge in rural Tenerife in hopes of finding him.
Jay’s dad Warren, 58, older brother Zak, 24, and uncle Glen Duncan, 41, are among a group of nine family members who are not giving up on looking for the 19-year-old, despite Spanish police officially ending their search a week ago.
The apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire vanished on June 17 while holidaying at a three-day music festival with friends. On the final day, Jay had left his pals to travel to a quiet Airbnb with two other partygoers in the early hours of the Monday morning.
His uncle, Glen Duncan, says Jay’s disappearance has been “just torture” for the family, but they have vowed to continue searching. Jay’s family and a group of local volunteers scoured the paths and slopes of Barranco Juan Lopez, a gorge near the spot the teenager’s phone last pinged.
The area was previously searched by authorities using helicopters and drones, but a local hiker, Juan Garcia, who continues to lead searches with his dog Caperucita, said the area was a “labyrinth” and “like looking for a needle in a haystack”.
Jay’s uncle spoke of the area’s “treacherous” conditions as the group returned from another search in scorching heat. He said: “It’s easy to get lost” but believes if Jay had fallen, he would’ve been found by now. Mr Duncan added that he is close to his nephew Jay, who he described as a “typical, normal 19-year-old lad” who was family-oriented with a large circle of male and female friends.
“He’s just a typical great young lad with a massive circle of friends and was looking forward to coming here,” he added. Asked how the family are coping, he said: “It’s just torture.”
But Mr Duncan says they are not giving up hope, and that Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan “is not going anywhere”. He continued: “You’ve got to cling on because we don’t know. He’s not been found so you’ve got to cling on. I’m sure Madeleine McCann’s parents still cling on after all these years that she’ll be found somewhere on the other side of the world.”
Disappointed by the lack of communication from Spanish police, Mr Duncan said: “It’s getting to the point where you’re becoming angry. Who knows what the police are doing out here. They don’t give anything away.”
He added that he hopes authorities are “following every single lead”, but asked: “What are they actively doing? Because they’re not here. “Are they making door to door enquiries, are they studying CCTV footage? I don’t know.”
Jay was on holiday with his pals Lucy Law, 18, and Brad Hargreaves, 19, and had previously been partying at the Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas, before leaving the event with two British men to go back to a rented Airbnb. His last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island – which he attempted to make an 11-hour walk from, back to his accommodation.
According to his friend Lucy, Jay had called her at around 8:50am and said he was disoriented, needed water, and that his phone was only one percent charged. It later emerged that the apprentice bricklayer had bragged on Snapchat about allegedly stealing a £12,000 Rolex just hours before he went missing.
But despite an extrensive search operation, which saw Spanish police deploy helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs across mountainous areas of the island, Jay has not yet been found.
