.png)
4 months ago
4
ARTICLE AD BOX
BRITISH tourists in Tenerife have been left feeling “cautious” after Jay Slater disappeared on the island.
Holidaymakers have been switching their phone trackers on as they fear getting lost in the mountains.
Ian Whittaker
Sky News
Doug Seeburg/News Group NewspapeJay, 19, has not been seen or heard from for more than two weeks after vanishing on June 17.
He was on his first holiday abroad with friends to enjoy the three-day NRG festival.
The apprentice bricklayer, from Lancashire, was seen getting into a car with two men in the early hours and heading to their Airbnb near Masca in the northwest.
After sharing a final Snapchat at 7.30am, Jay tried to make his way back to his holiday accommodation – an 11-hour walk away.
But at around 8.50am he made a final frantic call to friend Lucy, telling her he was lost in the “middle of nowhere” with no water and had just one per cent battery on his phone.
His other friend Brad Hargreaves revealed a second call in which Jay told him he had veered off the main path – leading to speculation he may have slid down rocks.
Brad said he could hear the missing teen slipping on rocks during a final video call.
His disappearance sparked a tireless search, but on Sunday cops ditched the hunt after failing to find any trace of him in the two weeks since he vanished.
It has left other British tourists feeling unsafe on the island.
One holidaymaker told Sky News: “I was a little bit more scared coming here and we definitely made sure we had each other’s locations before we came which we wouldn’t have done before all this happened.”
Another added: “I think not less safe but maybe more cautious, more aware.
“We’ve all got our locations on… when we booked this holiday we probably wouldn’t have even considered the safety measures.”
It comes as Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan has said she is “trying to stay positive” as they desperately wait for answers.
His loved ones said they felt “left in the dark” over what will now happen with the investigation.
Jay’s mum Debbie and dad Warren Slater yesterday begged police not to give up looking for their son during a crunch talk.
Debbie said she is “trying to remain positive” despite no trace of Jay being found.
She told Good Morning Britain that she doesn’t want his case “to lose momentum”.
Tenerife 'worst place' to go missing
by Katie Davis
TENERIFE cops were warned over a soaring number of disappearances before Jay Slater vanished.
The Sun can reveal authorities were told two years ago their resources were insufficient and were urged to improve them after repeated failures.
Jay, 19, is one of 11 people who have gone missing in Tenerife in just six months.
The coordinator of SOS Disappeared in Tenerife, Santiago Carlos Martín, told how “families feel abandoned” during hunts for their loved ones.
Mr Martín, who leads a group of around 40 volunteers, said: “There are many who have disappeared in the Canary Islands and the number has increased since the pandemic.”
He and his team have called for more multidisciplinary teams to be on standby to help with searches.
These would include not only the police, but emergency workers, health experts, psychologists and other professionals who could form a more accurate picture of why someone might have gone missing.
Between 2020 and 2023, official data from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior reveals at least 460 adults went missing in that period on the Canary Islands from a population of just 2.2million.
It has the second-highest number of missing people in the whole of Spain.
And that was only behind Span’s biggest region of Andalucia which had 755 missing people in the same period from a population four times larger of 8.5million.
Speaking in 2022 Mr Martin said: “There are many disappeared in the Canary Islands and the number has increased after the pandemic.
“We are at the head of the country, and we are not clear why.
“Perhaps the orography or the social structure have an influence, but we don’t know.”
The most pressing issue, according to Mr Martin, is geolocation.
He said: “One of the big problems is that the police often take time to geolocate the telephone numbers of the disappeared person due to bureaucratic procedures that act as a barrier.
“The time in a disappearance is important and the process is too complex, which wastes many days.
“And they are vulnerable people: elderly, minors, with cognitive problems, mental health or with a history of suicide.”
Distraught Debbie also said it is “important to keep the world watching” despite police ditching the search.
While the on the ground search was stopped on Sunday, police on the island have insisted the case is still very much open.
Detectives have promised to continue investigating and will probe any new tip-offs or information that come in.
Today, however, forensic cops searched the Airbnb apartment where Jay stayed with two men hours before he vanished.
But now crowds of pretend sleuths have flooded the desolate Rural de Teno National Park as they attempt to crack the case themselves.
Among them is TikTok influencer Paul Arnott, who jetted to the island more than a week ago to film himself looking for Jay.
He has shared dozens of clips with his 305,000 followers on his TikTok page “Down The Rapids” – many with shocking clickbait titles such as “body found” in big yellow letters.
Armed with his camera, Paul, from Bedfordshire, has been filming himself walking over mountainous terrain looking for clues.
He claimed in one video he had been welcomed by cops on the island.
But a photo shows Paul storming off after he was ignored by officers at the scene.
Now wannabe detective Paul has revealed he wants to start his own crowdfund appeal to pay for his own hunt.
Self-described explorer Paul said: “What I would be interested in doing is setting up my own fund to pay for a team from Scotland mountain rescue to come out here.”
Former cop Charlie Hedges told The Sun about the risks of online sleuths and amateur detectives trying to solve the case.
He urged the public not to take it upon themselves to help the search as he noted despite their best intentions they may end up causing more trouble.
Doug Seeburg
Tim Stewart
English (US)