Cops give major update on Jay Slater search & say they still hope to find teen alive through ‘several lines of inquiry’
SPANISH cops insist they still have hope of finding missing teenager Jay Slater with “several lines of inquiry” being pursued in the investigation.
They released the dramatic update as the search for the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer is now in its fourth week.
Jay vanished into thin air on June 17 whilst on holiday in Tenerife with his pals Lucy Mae Law and Brad Hargreaves.
Jay had attended the NRG music festival before going back to an Airbnb in the town of Masca with two “new friends”.
He then is said to have left the cottage early in the morning and has not been seen or heard from since a final phonecall with Lucy.
Spanish Guardia Civil insist their investigation continues at pace – despite Jay’s family questioning the search and probe.
A spokesman told The Sun: “The investigation is ongoing and several lines of inquiry are being pursued.”
A source close to the probe went further and said they were still hopeful of finding the teenager alive.
They insisted that the investigation had not yet classed Jay as “missing feared dead”.
It comes as The Sun revealed that British police still cannot get involved despite emotional pleas from Jay’s dad Warren.
Jay vanished after returning to a £40-a-night Airbnb with convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, 31, and another as yet unidentified male.
Both men have been ruled as “not relevant” by police – and Ayub has protested he has “nothing to hide”.
Jay left after spending the night at the remote cottage in Masca – apparently saying he was “hungry”.
He is believed to have tried to get a bus, before deciding to try and make the 11 hour walk back.
He then telephoned friend Lucy, 18, to say he was “lost in the middle of nowhere”, with no water and only one per cent left on his phone battery.
Spanish police searched for 12 days but called it off last weekend with no trace of Jay.
His family are now leading fresh attempts to find him within the rugged terrain high up in the mountains overlooking the party island.
The bricklayer, Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, has been missing for almost three weeks after going missing in the early hours three weeks ago.
He was attending the NRG music festival in Tenerife on his first “lads holiday” – before leaving the night out with two men.
He returned with them to their Airbnb in the mountain village of Masca.
The following morning Jay is believed to have tried to get back to his accommodation in Los Cristianos.
He then made his final phonecall to Lucy before vanishing.
The search has been the subject of intense interest – and many questions remain over what happened to Jay on his night out.
Both men have been ruled out of the investigation.
Other mysteries around the case focus Jay allegedly admitting he stole a “Rolex watch” worth £12,000 on the night he disappeared.
But the case has also sprung up countless conspiracy theories and become an obsession for online sleuths.
Hundreds of thousands of Facebook detectives have signed up to various chat groups as they pour over every detail.
Cops used sniffer dogs, drones, a helicopter, dozens of volunteers and mountain rescue experts but to no avail.
The case remains a mystery – with no concrete clues or sighting of Jay.
However, Jay’s family refuse to give up hope – and are increasingly worried about a “third party” being involved in the disappearance.
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF JAY SLATER
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 8 marks three weeks since Jay Slater, a 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished in Tenerife.
The apprentice bricklayer, who flew out to the popular holiday island for a rave festival with friends Lucy Law and Brad Page, has made headlines around the country.
On Sunday June 16 the three of them headed off to one of the events at Papagayo nightclub.
In the early hours of Monday 17 – Lucy and Brad were ready to head back to their hotel, but Jay wanted to keep partying.
It was then that he left the south of the island and headed to an Airbnb in the northwest with two British men.
The Sun revealed the identity of one of them – convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, who spent nine years behind bars in the UK.
For days it was thought that the second mystery man went by the name ‘Johnny Vegas’.
On Sunday former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who is out in Tenerife investigating, said Qassim told him he is in fact the man behind the nickname ‘Johnny Vegas’.
We don’t yet know the identity of the second man – who remains a key part of the puzzle in Jay’s mysterious disappearance.
Qassim claims he drove Jay and the friend back to their accommodation and said they all went to sleep.
In the morning he offered to drive the teen back to the Los Cristianos resort after a nap, but Jay, hungry and tired, said he wanted to leave immediately.
Lucy, the last person to speak to Jay, claims she had a panicked call from him soon after he left the holiday let, telling her he was lost and thirsty, his phone was about to die and that he’d been cut by a cactus.
Jay had been seen by the owner of the Airbnb that morning wandering around near the Rural de Teno park – a mountainous region close-by.
He is believed to have been attempting the 11-hour trek back to his hotel, despite the alleged offer of a lift and more buses scheduled for the day.
It was there that his phone last pinged – and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Mark Williams-Thomas has claimed he left the Airbnb quickly, and was “scared”.
Bizarrely, Qassim says he was woken up that morning by a phone call from an unnamed friend of Jay, saying he was “in a ditch” somewhere and had been “cut by a cactus”.
Jay’s friend Lucy claimed to have “tracked down” the two men in the Airbnb after he vanished – quizzing them on the morning of Jay’s disappearance.
Some reports have suggested Lucy knew the two men, although it is not clear how.
She has dubbed his disappearance “weird and suspicious”.
Both men were questioned by Spanish cops on June 17 but quickly deemed “irrelevant” to the investigation and cleared to fly back to the UK.
Police spent almost two weeks searching for Jay in the Tenerife mountains, scouring a 2,000ft ravine, before calling it off on Sunday June 30.
Jay’s family have repeatedly slammed the Spanish investigation into his bizarre disappearance.
His uncle, Glen Duncan, is convinced of “third party involvement”.
And the teen’s devastated dad, Warren Slater, says “everything stinks”
He told The Sun: “My starting position, I’ve said this from day one, ask the two men who’ve taken him – and then start from there.”
A number of unanswered questions remain, over why Jay would have travelled so far with two older men he didn’t know, why said men would have taken him in, and why he braved the Tenerife mountains with no phone battery, water or heat protection for a day-long walk.