Cops search Jay Slater’s Tenerife flat for clues after mum sent sickening ‘kidnap’ message as search enters fourth day
POLICE are searching Jay Slater’s accommodation in Tenerife for clues amid family fears that the Brit teen could’ve been kidnapped.
The massive search operation for missing Jay, 19, enters its fourth day today as more than a dozen of his loved ones have flown out to the island to help.
The apprentice bricklayer, from Lancashire, disappeared on Monday morning while on holiday with two friends.
Cops scoured the teen’s hotel room in the tourist resort of Los Cristianos on Wednesday, where his distraught mum Debbie Duncan is waiting for news.
Jay was sharing the room at a three-star apartment complex after flying out with pals Brad and Lucy Law to go to Tenerife’s NGR festival.
He left one of the events on Sunday with two men he’d met that evening – and was last heard from around 8.30am the next day.
It comes as…
- Jay, 19, was first reported missing on Monday after vanishing on his way home from a rave the night before
- Mum Debbie was told by cops at 2am on Tuesday to catch the first flight to Tenerife
- A Coronation Street star with a connection to Jay’s family published an appeal for help to find him
- Jay’s posted a Snapchat the night before he vanished showing him smiling with friends
- His friend Lucy described the teen’s disappearance as “suspicious and weird” as cops vowed to keep an “open mind”
- Jay’s mum was sent a message saying “kiss goodbye to your son” amid family fears he’s been kidnapped
- She gave a tearful plea last night and said “I just want my baby back”
- His family have endured days of bogus theories and sick messages from trolls
- Cops searched the teen’s hotel room in Tenerife for clues on Wednesday
He was seen getting into a car on Sunday and is believed to have travelled to an apartment near the rural de Teno Park, a 10-hour walk from where he was staying.
The people he was with have said they “directed him towards a bus stop” before he left on Monday.
He called his friend Lucy to tell her he’d missed the bus and has not been seen since.
Police, who promised to keep an “open mind” about his disappearance yesterday, have scanned his accommodation for clues.
But Jay’s stricken mum Debbie said there was “nothing untoward there”.
She explained: “Police have been into Jay’s room today. I’ve been in his room as well.
“But everything of Jay’s was neatly hung up, it’s just a normal room and there’s nothing untoward there.”
Yesterday the worried mum shared a twisted Snapchat she was sent as she touched down in Tenerife on Tuesday – telling her to “kiss goodbye to your son”.
Speaking on Wednesday evening Debbie told ITN: “I got a Snapchat about 10 minutes after I got off the plane saying ‘Kiss goodbye to your boy, you’re never going to see him again, he owes me a lot of money.”
She added: “I just think he’s being held against his will. He’s not a stupid lad. He wouldn’t have gone walking down bloody mountains.
“There’s a road there with tourists and buses and properties, He’s not that daft.”
In the three days since Jay vanished his heartbroken family have had to endure an onslaught of sick messages from trolls claiming to have kidnapped the teen.
One even came from a so-called medium who claimed to know where Jay was – and promised to tell his mum if she’d pay for their flights to Tenerife.
Online sleuths have also been posting unverified claims and bogus theories on Facebook, where over 330,000 people have joined the group ‘Jay Slater Missing’.
Timeline of Jay Slater’s disappearance
SUNDAY JUNE 16 – MONDAY 17
Jay goes to a rave at the 2024 NRG music festival in Tenerife, around Arona on the south of the island
8.35pm – Jay posts a smiling Snapchat video of him laughing with friends
He leaves the rave with two men he met that day and is driven back to their accommodation across the island
MONDAY 17
7.30am – Jay posts a Snapchat of a hand holding a cigarette in the area where the accommodation was – near the rural de Teno Park on the north of the island
8.30am – Jay calls his friend Lucy Law and tells her he missed a bus, had one per cent of battery left on his phone and was stuck in the “middle of nowhere”
9am – A missing persons report is filed and the search for Jay begins
TUESDAY 18
2am – Police knock on the door of Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan’s home and tell her to catch the first flight out to Tenerife
7am – She flies out from Manchester Airport alongside her son Zak to help with the search
Debbie is sent a Snapchat message saying “Kiss goodbye to your boy, you’re never going to see him again, he owes me a lot of money.”
WEDNESDAY 19
12.30pm – Police move the search to the south of the island briefly after a false sighting
Cops search his hotel room for clues as his mum says there was “nothing untoward there”
Debbie gives a heart-wrenching interview where she shares fears he has been “taken” and says “I just want my baby back”
THURSDAY 20
Cops begin day four of the massive search for Jay
Apprentice bricklayer Jay, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was booked on a flight back to the UK this morning.
But Debbie, who has now been joined in Tenerife by Jay’s dad Warren Slater, said she has his passport and isn’t expecting him to reappear in time to catch his plane.
Around 15 of Jay’s family and friends have flown out to the Canary Island this week to help with the search.
She has been staying at another apartment in the same complex Jay had booked into although she is due to move to new accommodation on Thursday.
After scouring his room with cops she said: “His passport was there along with all his euros which I’ve got now.
“I’m not sure he had any money on him when he made that last call to his friend Lucy on Monday morning before he vanished.
“I haven’t slept since all this began and I’ve no plans to go up to the search site right now.
“I just want to be here for if he does turn up but I’ve got a bad feeling. I’m being warned there’s a lot of bad people in Tenerife.”
Debbie, who previously told how sick trolls were calling her up claiming to have kidnapped her son, said “no ransom demand [has] come in yet”.
She said of the creepy Snapchat: “There’s been that many prank calls that I don’t know whether that was one but I’m passing on information to police that I think could be relevant and I thought that could be.
“For me it’s just a question of sitting and waiting and hoping that tomorrow they’ll be good news.”
SEARCH OPERATION
Jay has been missing for three days now after vanishing early on Monday morning.
A Spanish missing persons association has launched an appeal for help in finding him, dubbing his case one of “high vulnerability”.
The nonprofit has sounded the alarm in previous cases involving Brits and urged anyone with information to call the country’s emergency number 112.
Tragically valuable hours were wasted in the search on Wednesday when cops moved the operation to the other side of Tenerife after a false sighting.
Mountain rescue were told around midday to leave the hills where Jay was last seen and move to the southern tourist resorts of Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas.
The huge search operation was later moved back near the village of Masca in northwestern Tenerife after the report turned out to be false.
MUM’S URGENT PLEA
In her latest appeal for information, a distraught Debbie spoke to ITN on Wednesday evening.
She said: “It’s a nightmare. It’s just an absolute living nightmare.
“I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. I just want my baby back. Please, just anybody who can help just look for him.
“There’s a massive area up there, massive. It’s over 48 hours now since he last had any contact with anybody.
“He’s out there somewhere, or somebody knows where he is. We just need to find my baby.”
Jay was on his first holiday abroad this past weekend, which his mum happily encouraged him to take – while still warning him to stay vigilant.
Debbie said: “First holiday abroad, saving up, looking forward to this event, three-day DJs from everywhere, absolutely buzzing about it.
“Now I just wish I hadn’t have encouraged him to go, I should have said ”don’t go to Tenerife’.
“I said to him as well, I said ”Jay please have your wits about you, you’re in a foreign country, just stay together”.”
Coronation Street star's plea for help
By Anita Markoff, TV reporter
VICKY Entwhistle, who used to play Janice Battersby on ITV soap Coronation Street, shared a heartbreaking post on Tuesday as the search continues for missing teen Jay Slater.
Vicky shared one of the missing posters circulating online, adding: “My God Mother’s Grandson has gone missing. His Mother has flown out 7pm. To join the police search.
“Hope to God they find him. Please pray for him.”
Fans flocked to the comments to offer reassurance, with one saying: “Saw this on Facebook Vicky, it seems to be getting shared far and wide, hopefully there will be some good news imminently with all the love and support out there, just makes it so much harder when abroad! Love and prayers for you all.”
Another offered: “We are in Tenerife if we can help in any way let us know.”