The search for 19-year-old Jay Slater, from Lancashire, has now entered its eighth day and a tourist guide in Tenerife has pointed to what is so “strange” about his disappearance
A tour guide from Tenerife has said what is so “strange” about the disappearance of Jay Slater as the search enters a second week.
The 19-year-old, from Lancashire, has not been heard from since last Monday in the Rural de Teno park, in the north west of the island. He had called his friend near the mountainous and rural village of Masca, explaining that he was lost and his phone was on just one per cent.
His last known location was in a vast area around half a mile north from the Airbnb rental he stayed at with two men he met at the NRG music festival. Over the past week, a major search operation including police, fire crews and mountain rescue teams, using drones, helicopters and sniffer dogs, has been deployed in a desperate bid to find him.
The family has claimed that police are now probing a potential, but unconfirmed, further sighting of Jay, walking through a church square in the village of Santiago del Teide, four miles from Masca.
CCTV images appear to show a man walking through the village square at around 6pm last Monday. Jay’s family say police are conducting enquiries but this has not been confirmed by the Civil Guard.
Angel, a Travel Tenerife tour guide based in Santa Cruz, who drives up to the Masca ravine most days with tourists, told the Manchester Evening News: “I know they [police] are looking for him in the mountains but we don’t know anything else. It’s not in the Spanish media but it is here in the Canaries.
“In the south of Tenerife, it is huge, there are tourists from everywhere. Sometimes people disappear for one day, two days, there’s drinking and drugs, if they’re partying for example, but up here, nothing like this has happened before.
“For many days, lost in the middle of the mountains.. no, never, never. People are asking what was he doing in the mountains at 8 o’clock in the morning? It’s so strange, after the disco you wouldn’t finish a party in the mountains. It’s very dangerous. Masca is very famous, people go hiking every day and police have to rescue people, but nobody has disappeared up here in the north.”
A number of missing posters with images of Jay have been plastered on shop fronts around the village. On Sunday, Jay’s heartbroken dad Warren, who was handing out leaflets to passers-by, said his son’s disappearance “doesn’t make sense” as he urged anyone with information to contact the police.
A local shop owner said that the mountainous area where Jay was said to be walking was “extremely dangerous”. She said police had not been asking local businesses any questions about the reported sighting.
“For me, I feel bad. Because, he’s a young guy and what happened, shouldn’t have happened. He should have been a little more aware of the fact that you can’t go [on that walk] alone,” she stated.
On Monday, Jay’s dad Warren along with other family visited the village of Santiago del Teide once again with posters to put up around the area. A number of police cars were seen parked at the bottom of the village, and appeared to be conducting enquiries and asking local business owners questions in relation to his disappearance.
