Jay Slater's best friend Lucy breaks her silence to share new photo of the missing teenager, 19, almost three weeks after he vanished in Tenerife

Jay Slater's best friend has broken her silence to share a new photo of the missing teenager almost three weeks after he vanished in Tenerife.

Lucy Law posted a photo on social media of the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer, who was last seen at around 8am on June 17.

The photo showed Jay and Lucy sitting together posing for a selfie and was posted with a crying face and a blue heart emoji.

Lucy was one of the last people to hear from Jay before he disappeared. They had been to a rave party together in Playa de las Americas before Jay returned to a £40-a-night Airbnb cottage in the remote village of Masca with two older British men.

As he attempted to walk 11 hours back to his hotel, Jay called Lucy to tell her he was lost, desperate for water and his phone battery was at 1%.

Spanish police have focused their search on the mountainous village and Rural National Park of Teno, in northwest Tenerife, where his phone last beeped.

But on June 30, the search and rescue mission was dramatically called off after nearly 14 days, leaving his family desperate “in the dark.”

Jay's family were asked to fund an independent search team after the Tenerife Civil Guard “prematurely” ended their search.

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Juan Garcia, an army reservist and private investigator, is among those who advise Jay's mother on how to pursue a private investigation.

Speaking to The Times, he said that “two weeks is too premature to end the search.”

'[Slater] “There could be someone alive somewhere, someone could drink the rainwater and eat plants. The family must not lose hope,” he said.

Jay had taken part in a three-day NRG festival which ended on Sunday 16th June at the Papagayo beach club in the south of Tenerife.

His friend Lucy, who had accompanied him to the festival, said Jay had gone to stay with people he had met after a night out.

She received a phone call from Jay around 8am on Monday, saying he had missed his bus and was trying to walk home but was lost, needed a drink and had only 1% battery left on his phone. The call was then disconnected.

The teenager's phone died at around 8:50 a.m., with his last known location recorded in the remote Rural de Teno park, more than 16 kilometers from the popular resort of Guía de Isora.

Jay was reported missing around 9am the same day and police launched a mountain rescue operation.

Until this afternoon, mountain rescue teams and sniffer dogs were scouring the mountainous area of ​​northwest Tenerife in search of the 19-year-old.

But suddenly police attention was drawn to the tourist sites of Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas in southern Tenerife after a false sighting of him getting out of a taxi.

The report later turned out to be false and police, having lost valuable time in the scorching 27°C heat, were forced to turn their attention back to their original site.

The 19-year-old had returned to his isolated home in the village of Masca with two Britons in the early hours of Monday morning after a rave in Playa de las Americas on June 17.

Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, left the £40-a-night two-bedroom property called Casa Abuela Tina at 7.30am and posted two pictures on Snapchat.

Spanish police dramatically called off the search for Jay on Monday but said their investigation into his disappearance was ongoing.