Heartbroken Debbie Duncan, 55, spoke after spending two and a half hours speaking to officers inside the Guardia Civil police station in Tenerife’s Las Americas district
Jay Slater: Parents of missing teen leave police station in Tenerife
The mum of missing Jay Slater has revealed she is no closer to finding out what has happened to the teenager – 16 days on from his disappearance.
Heartbroken Debbie Duncan, 55, spoke after spending two and a half hours speaking to officers inside the Guardia Civil police station in Tenerife’s Las Americas district on Tuesday afternoon. With Jay’s dad Warren, 58, by her side, the school finance officer said: “It’s a mystery and he’s still missing.”
Debbie also backed the Spanish police investigation and urged the public not to forget about her son. She said: “We don’t know anything about the investigation. We’re leaving it to the police.” She added: “Let’s keep it going, keep it alive. Let them (the police) get on with it, we’ve got to trust in these people.”
Jay’s dad Warren added “they know best” and said both he and Debbie will return to the station to speak to officers again “when they ask us to”. Debbie and Warren, who were both wearing sunglasses to protect their eyes from bright sunshine, entered the station at 1.53pm before leaving again at 4.30pm. Speaking about the Spanish police, Warren added: “Without these, what have we got?”.
The family’s close pal Rachel Hargreaves, whose 19-year-old son Brad was on holiday with Jay when he disappeared, had earlier spent more than two hours inside the same station before leaving at the same time Jay’s parents arrived.
Their visit to the station came 48 hours after officers called off the search for the apprentice bricklayer and 24 hours after they spoke to police by phone in a bid to get answers about their investigation, which remains open and active.
Just hours earlier, two police officers were seen inside the holiday rental apartment in Masca where Jay stayed the night before his disappearance. The men, who were both wearing plain clothes, exited the property shortly after 11am wearing forensic style blue slip-ons over their shoes.
They were then seen taking the slip-ons off before speaking to a local, who had let them into the property with a key. Approached at the property before driving off in an orange-coloured Kia Sportage SUV, one of the men said: “I’m not authorised to talk to you. I’ve been inside. If you want any information speak to the press office in Santa Cruz.”
Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was seen leaving the white-washed home, named Casa Abuela Tina, at around 8am on June 17. He had been partying at the Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas, before leaving the event with two British men to go back to the property, which they had rented.
It is more than 20 miles and 11 hours’ walk from the Los Cristianos apartment where Jay had been staying with close pals Lucy Law, 18, and Brad Hargreaves, 19. Jay posted a photo of himself holding a cigarette outside the holiday rental’s main door early on Monday morning.
And then at 8.30am, he called Lucy to say he was in the middle of nowhere, trying to get home with no water and 1% on his phone battery. Police have said the two British men, who it is understood were spoken to by Spanish police before flying back to the UK days after Jay’s disappearance, have “no relevance” to the investigation.
On Monday, detectives told a judge they have found no evidence of a crime in relation to Jay’s disappearance and are treating it as a missing persons inquiry. As is standard procedure in Spain, the force have reported to a court, which has opened a routine judicial investigation.
Speaking on Monday, a judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There is no evidence of criminality at this stage in this case. That’s not to say things won’t change because the case remains open and investigations are ongoing. But right now that’s the situation.”
