Jay Slater: Search for missing man in Tenerife continues for week

Lina Portman2 weeks ago

2 4 minutes read

Legend, A firefighter searching for Jay Slater near the village of Masca, north Tenerife

Author, Adam Durbin
Role, BBC News
2 hours ago

A search operation in Tenerife to find a missing British teenager has entered its seventh day.

Jay Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, disappeared last week after attending a music festival on the Spanish island.

Specialized dog teams are looking for the 19-year-old young man, who has not been heard from since he called a friend on Monday, telling him he was lost and needed water.

Spanish police declined to comment when asked on Saturday about reports of a sighting of Mr Slater later on Monday, after the phone call.

Legend, Jay Slater hasn't been heard from since calling a friend Monday morning

On Saturday, the sixth day of the search operation, police, rescue dog teams and firefighters resumed combing the mountainous terrain of Teno Rural National Park – Mr Slater's last known location.

Friends and family of the apprentice mason said he had left the group he was traveling with in the tourist area of Playa de las Americas in the south of the island.

After leaving the NRG music festival at the Papagayo nightclub, he got in a car with two men he had met to drive to the national park northwest of Tenerife.

Friday's efforts focused on a mountain road in a ravine north of Tenerife, before moving to a valley in the village of Masca.

Dogs, police and mountain rescuers searched areas including land around Masca's apartment, where Mr Slater is believed to have gone.

Mr Slater's search teams were reported to have been smaller on Saturday compared to previous days. Only a handful of rescue workers were seen in and around Masca.

Firefighters appear to be doing most of the searching in these areas.

Rescue teams, accompanied by sniffer dogs, set out on a steep gravel track in Teno Rural Park on Saturday.

Outside of field search efforts, the administrator of a Facebook page set up to help find Mr. Slater said someone who was not the 19-year-old had logged into his Instagram account .

The people who “hacked” her family's social media accounts were “a headache”, Rachel Louise Harg said.

She also said a fundraising page had been set up to help family and friends staying in Tenerife search for him. Donations on the page have now exceeded £28,000.

Many members of the Oswaldtwistle community have expressed concern for Mr Slater's welfare.

The Revd Matt Smith, of the West End Methodist Church, said a service on Sunday would be “a chance for the community to come together”.

“It will be a normal service and we will offer our prayers for Jay and give people the opportunity to leave messages for him and light candles,” he said.

Specialist officers are continuing to support Mr Slater's family, Lancashire Police said on Saturday.

Police previously said they had offered to help Spanish police search for him, but were told their counterparts in Tenerife believed they had enough resources.

Mr Slater was on his first holiday without family and had gone to the festival with two friends.

Lucy Law, who was reportedly the last person to speak to him, said he told her during their call that he had missed a bus and decided to walk 10 hours home, but he was lost, he needed water and his phone was at 1% battery.

Teno Rural Park is about a 40-minute drive from where Mr Slater and his friends were staying.

A remote and wild national park, it's a world away from Los Cristianos and Playa de las Americas, the seaside resorts on the island's south coast.

Deep ravines and huge, intimidating mountains make the national park a difficult place for Spanish search teams to navigate.

What we know so far

Sunday June 16 – Jay Slater and friends attend the final day of the NRG music festival at Papagayo nightclub in tourist hotspot Playa de las Americas.

Monday June 17 – Between 03:00 and 06:00 BST, Mr Slater got into a car with two men he had met on holiday and left Playa de las Americas.

07:30 – Mr Slater posts a photo on his Snapchat account showing him at the gate of a property, tagged with the location Parque Rural de Teno.

Between 8.30am and 9.00am – Mr Slater calls his friend and tells him he missed a bus back south and was trying to walk the 10 hour journey.

The call is cut off and his phone's last location shows a path in the mountainous Rural Teno National Park, popular with hikers.

Tuesday June 18 – Despite his friends searching the area, no sign of Mr. Slater appears and he does not return to his accommodation

Local police and mountain rescue teams begin a search and his mother and brother board a flight to Tenerife.

Wednesday June 19 – The Spanish Guardia Civil continues the search using drones, dogs and a helicopter but no trace is found

The search briefly moved to the Los Cristianos area, in the south of the island, due to a potential sighting, but police quickly “discounted” this advance and moved the search to the original area.

Thursday June 20 – The Guardia Civil, mountain rescue, firefighters and volunteers return to explore the national park

Friday June 21 – Lancashire Police confirm they have offered to help with the search, but say Spanish police are “pleased to have the resources they need”.