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THE official investigation into Jay Slater is still open with Spanish police sources revealing the teen isn’t “missing feared dead”.
Cops have insisted they still have hope of finding the 19-year-old alive with “several lines of inquiry” remaining active in their hunt to find the missing Brit.
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Doug Seeburg
Ian WhittakerJay has been missing for over three weeks since he vanished while on holiday in Tenerife with his two pals Lucy Mae Law and Brad Hargreaves.
The apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire headed back to an Airbnb hours away from his holiday apartment after a night of partying on June 16 with two “new friends”.
He was reported missing by pal Lucy hours after he left the rented home in Masca as he embarked on a treacherous 11-hour trek through rough and rocky terrain.
The Spanish Guardia Civil deployed a mammoth search party in hopes of finding Jay as his family and friends all flew out to look for him.
After two weeks of intense searching, Spanish cops called off the search – leaving the family to continue by themselves.
Jay’s father Warren Slater, 58, questioned the timing saying that they needed all the help they could get to find him.
Despite the criticism, the Guardia Civil say they are continuing at pace to follow up with numerous leads.
A spokesman told The Sun: “The investigation is ongoing and several lines of inquiry are being pursued.”
The search has been the subject of intense interest – with many new riddles plaguing the case every day over what happened to Jay.
A source close to the probe went even further and said they were still hopeful of finding the teenager alive despite the time that has passed.
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.
Desperate dad Warren, 58, has remained hopeful that they will find Jay but has been vocal about the family’s anguish over the case.
He blasted the search operation as he claimed “everything stinks” amid fears other people are involved in his son’s disappearance.
“It’s just a riddle and I don’t know the outcome,” Warren added.
“We’re going round and round in circles.”
He continued telling the Manchester Evening News: “From the bnb, he’s a fit lad, 25 minutes you can get to the top, to where the cafe is. If he’s followed the road and been where we’ve been today, it’s took him an hour and a half.
“Dozens of cars would have gone past him. We got here at 9am and the 10am bus passed us. And it would have passed him. I’ve been up here three weeks and I’ve never seen as many cars.”
Jay’s uncle Glen Duncan has also angrily hit out at the police investigation – saying he wished he could “burst into the police station” amid fears a “third party” could have been involved.
Yesterday, Warren warned it would take “an army 10 years” to search the whole area as he pleaded with Interpol and British cops to help.
Warren – joined by Glen and older brother Zak – are now searching a town in Tenerife where the teen was allegedly spotted nine hours after he disappeared.
They focused their efforts in the town of Santiago del Teide which made headlines several weeks ago when apparent CCTV footage caught Jay wandering across the road.
It comes as Jay’s best pals have reportedly flown home to the UK as the missing Brit’s family continue their desperate search.
The mysterious case of Jay Slater
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 8 marked 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
Doug Seeburg
Doug Seeburg
English (US)