People close to missing British teenager Jay Slater have urged the UK and Spanish police to call for reinforcements to aid the search after the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire went missing on Monday morning in Spain’s Tenerife.
A report by the Guardian said that his friends have resorted to hunting for evidence and are speaking to potential witnesses themselves.
Tenerife police have launched a probe to locate the teenager who disappeared in Rural de Teno nature reserve. They have deployed drones and a helicopter but the Guardian report highlighted that the area where Jay Slater disappeared is vast and rugged, because of which the teenager’s friends have called for special teams to be roped in to locate him.
Lucy, Slater’s friend and who accompanied him on the holiday, was among those pressing UK police to assist in the search.
She reported Slater missing after receiving a call from him around 8:15 a.m. (local time) on the morning of his disappearance.
During the call, Slater mentioned he was lost, thirsty, and had only 1% battery left on his phone.
“I just think they need to get as much help as they can out here. There’s no helicopters here now. He’s been missing for that long now, what are they actually doing?,” Lucy was quoted as saying by the Guardian.
She told the newspaper that the search operation needed to be much more intensive while welcoming the support from local police. She said that there was nobody there to help find missing Jay.
Last Known Movements of Jay Slater
On the first day she reported Jay missing, Lucy returned to his last known location. She stayed there until dark but was eventually told to leave. Lucy noted that no one else was present at the site the entire day.
“I was here literally until it was dark, and I was told I needed to come away. That full day not one person was here,” Lucy was quoted as saying.
In their efforts to locate him, friends have identified the residence Slater returned to after meeting people at a music festival the night before he vanished. They traced the house through social media videos and gathered from villagers that the men Slater befriended had already departed back to the UK.
Slater’s friends are concerned that these individuals may possess crucial information about his last movements but do not believe they were interviewed by the police before leaving the island.
They have extensively searched the dense undergrowth, uncovering bags, clothing and various discarded items likely left by tourists. The landscape is characterised by caves, rocks, cacti and banana plants.
They have gathered and preserved items like cigarette butts, in hope that it will help in the police probe.
On Thursday afternoon, police and search and rescue personnel were present in the vicinity where Slater was last seen, but there was no indication of a comprehensive search operation underway, the newspaper said citing Slater’s friends.
Another family friend remarked, “Even with 30,000 people here, it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack.” She mentioned that they spent 12 hours on Wednesday combing through all the paths around Slater’s last known whereabouts.
Lucy said that it was important that the matter was taken seriously, suggesting that UK police might possess specialised resources that could assist local authorities.
“I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. I just want my baby back. Please just anybody who can help – look for him. It’s a massive area up there. He’s out there somewhere or somebody knows where he is. I wish I hadn’t encouraged him to go to this. I should have said: ‘Don’t go to Tenerife’,” Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, told UK-based broadcaster ITV.
Authorities’ Response to Jay Slater’s Disappearance
A member of the emergency services at the national park site stated that search teams were still hopeful, with personnel positioned along all major paths in the vicinity. He appeared optimistic about the possibility of someone surviving under the current conditions, the newspaper said.
Spanish rescue teams were searching an area around the Masca Ravine in Tenerife island’s remote national park since Thursday. The investigation showed the teenager, aged 19, was probably somewhere in the wild, forested area located above the island’s shore, she said.
A rescue officer told Reuters a relative received a message from the teenager before he went missing saying he had suffered a leg injury.
A report by UK news media outlet The Independent said that he was captured on camera making his way through a crowded nightclub a day before his disappearance and the UK citizens who met him there and rented the property said he was seen walking alone in the Tenerife mountains.
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