Jay Slater: Residents urged to check these specific locations near where teen went missing – World News

Residents of a remote area of ​​Tenerife are urged to inspect buildings and grounds by an investigator searching for missing Jay Slater.

The 19-year-old has been missing for more than two weeks and a major search operation in mountainous terrain in the northwest of the Spanish island was called off by police last Sunday.

Jay, from Lancashire, went missing after leaving an Airbnb in the village of Masca, where he had been staying with two men after leaving a nightclub in southern Tenerife. He spoke to a friend, Lucy Law, on his mobile phone on the day he disappeared to say he was trying to walk back south, a journey that would have taken around 11 hours, before his phone battery died.

Lucy said Jay told her he was “in the middle of nowhere, trying to get home with no water and 1% battery on his phone”. And now a former British police detective, Mark Williams-Thomas, who is helping Jay's family, has called on people in the area near Masca to check for signs of Jay.

“I would like to appeal to landowners in the rural park area to check all outbuildings and land they own in the hope that further searches will continue by volunteers in the area not yet searched,” he said, adding that he had “spoken to a significant number of witnesses, both here in the UK and in Tenerife, including Jay's friends who are fully engaged with us.”

Jay's family, including his mother Debbie Duncan, father Warren Slater and older brother Zak, are still in Tenerife as they continue to search for answers to his disappearance. In a social media post, Mr Williams-Thomas raised questions about why Jay had not returned to the Airbnb to charge his phone or get water and also said the teenager had “posted a Snapchat saying he had stolen a £12,000 Rolex from a person”.

He continued: “We have received information that suggests Jay left the rental in fear and would not return to the rental, even though that would have been the most reasonable course of action.” In the video, he stressed: “We have not been able to validate this in terms of a reported theft” but added: “However, Jay's friends have said he would not make this up and the watch was the subject of a subsequent conversation between the friends.”

Detailing Jay's movements on the day he disappeared, Mr Williams-Thomas, who has investigated a series of high-profile missing persons cases, said: “The evidence shows that Jay set off in the hire car, walked for about 30 minutes and then sent his location at 8.49am and 8.50am. And we know that at that stage he was on a path off the road with loose stones.”

His mother Debbie spoke of the family's “agony” in a statement released through the UK charity LBT Global for people missing abroad. She said: “We are a close-knit family and are absolutely devastated by his loss. Words cannot describe the pain and agony we feel. He is our beautiful boy, he has his whole life ahead of him and we just want to find him.”

She added: “Jay is a normal man who is in his third year of apprenticeship, and he is a very popular young man with a wide circle of friends. We have no information on his whereabouts. The Guardia Civil have been working tirelessly in the mountains where Jay's last phone call was traced. They have conducted a 12-day search on the ground, mobilising all the resources at their disposal.

“Although the on-site search has ended, the Spanish police have continued their investigations to determine why Jay had travelled to this location so far from his home. We extend our sincere thanks to the Spanish authorities who continue to follow up on the leads in the investigation.”