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JAY Slater’s desperate family hope tonight’s Euros final could trigger a key breakthrough in the hunt for the missing teenager.
Pubs, bars and clubs in Tenerife are set to be crowded with thousands of tourists cheering on England.
Jay, 19, was last seen on June 17 walking uphill in the remote village of Tenerife
Jay Slater’s dad Warren, brother Zak and uncle Glen have been searching the area near where the teen’s phone last pinged
Jay is a big football fan, here dressed in his kit in 2011
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Locals are also expected to be out in force to watch Spain in and around the area Jay was last seen on June 17.
Businesses in the holiday hotspot are predicting it will be the “busiest and wildest” weekend of the summer so far.
Now a source close to the search for Jay has told The Sun they believe this could provide a much-needed opportunity to get new evidence in their hunt.
The insider said: “There will be more people out in Tenerife this weekend than there have been all summer.
“It will be heaving in the bars and clubs for the England game.
“And the volunteers involved in the search for Jay think it can present an opportunity to raise awareness of the work they are doing to try and find Jay.
“It’s a chance to underline how they are still desperately in need of information.
“They are particularly keen to reach locals who might not have been following the case that intently. Someone might have a clue or lead that would change everything.”
Jay, 19, was last seen leaving an Airbnb in the remote, mountainous area of Masca on the island’s northwest almost a month ago.
In a final call to friend Lucy, he said he was lost, needed water and only had one per cent battery as he attempted the 11-hour trek back to his hotel.
Football-mad Jay has not been seen or heard from since and an extensive search failed to find any trace of him.
The desolate area has just a small population – and many do not have a television and could be unaware Jay is missing.
Jay’s family remains convinced someone, somewhere will have information.
The source added: “They will be asking bar owners to put up posters and volunteers will be on the ground in and around the busiest areas trying to speak to people as well in their search for answers.
Reuters
Jay’s dad Warren Slater has called for more help to be flown out for the search
Jay with his mum Debbie Duncan and older brother Zak Slater“They are just desperate for new clues and information.
“They’ve not given up hope but with each passing day it does become obviously harder to stay positive. They just want Jay home.”
Apprentice bricklayer Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, is a die-hard football fan, and was due to watch the Euros with his loved ones.
Sweet childhood snaps showed a seven-year-old Jay beaming after winning his first match.
The source said: “There’s a real poignancy to this weekend for Jay’s family. He is football-mad.
“And they’d all have been together watching the England game on Sunday night for sure.”
They are particularly keen to reach locals who might not have been following the case that intently. Someone might have a clue or lead that would change everything
Source inside searchJay’s devastated mum Debbie Duncan, 55, dad Warren Slater and brother Zak still remain on the island as they wait for answers.
They have continued to scour the remote Masca ravine for any sign of Jay since the official search was called off two weeks ago.
The Sun yesterday revealed they are looking for a more permanent base after vowing to remain in Tenerife until they know what happened to Jay.
Spanish police, although not actively searching, are still investigating his disappearance.
They this week confirmed Jay is not yet deemed “missing presumed dead”.
Jay’s family are hopeful he is still alive, but are concerned that he has not been in touch.
Dad Warren, 58, told The Sun he “needed the Army” as he searched through Masca’s rocky terrain with son Zak, 24.
Warren said: “We are still out looking. What more can we possibly do?
“I’ve said before, I need an army to help me. People don’t understand the vastness of it.
“I’d love to be able to fly a drone and sit here all day scouring the whole area. Why would you go down there? Why leave the road?”
The distraught dad believes someone must have seen his son as he walked up the road from the village of Masca.
He added: “When we came on Monday we must have passed 200 cars going up those hills.”
The mysterious case of Jay Slater, four weeks on
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 15 marks five 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.
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Ian Whittaker
English (US)