Jay Slater’s pal begs for Brit cops to join hunt & kidnap fears deepen as missing teen’s tearful mum pleads ‘let him go’
JAY Slater’s best friend has pleaded for British cops to get involved in the search as rescue crews in Tenerife fail to make any progress.
It comes as the 19-year-old’s panicked mum fears her son may have been kidnapped as he still has not been seen or heard from since he vanished on Monday.
Lancashire teen Jay, who was on holiday with two friends, left a rave on Sunday night with two men he had just met and was driven back to their accommodation.
The next morning he called friend Lucy Law to tell her his phone was about to die and he was stranded in the middle of nowhere.
He was reported missing an hour later, prompting a huge four-day search to track him down.
Jay’s best friend Lucy – the last person he spoke to on the phone – has now implored British cops to get involved in the search as precious hours tick by.
She told the Mirror: “We need British police here. I just want to find my mate. He’s been missing three days. It’s not looking good now.
“We feel as though it’s down to us to find him and that we’re doing more than the police.”
Lucy said the two men Jay left the club with Sunday night have since left the country.
“They need to be questioned by British police,” she said.
Lucy told Sky on Wednesday she had managed to track down the exact place he stayed on Sunday night – a 10-hour walk from Jay’s hotel.
She said: “We managed to find the house. I knocked on the door and there were two people there.”
The mystery pair told Lucy Jay had gone out to buy cigarettes before returning to their apartment.
Once he got back he told them he wanted to go home to his accommodation.
Lucy said: “They told me he’d spoken to the next door neighbours and they’d told him there was a bus every 10 minutes back down to Los Cristianos.
“The bus stop was right next to the house.
“So obviously if he’d gone to get the bus he wouldn’t have got lost because it [the stop] was visible from the front door.”
Not long after Jay first disappeared an American woman had offered to give Lucy a lift up into the mountains where he was last seen so she could look for him.
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
An emotional Lucy said: “We drove around all day”, but there was “literally no sign of him anywhere”.
Meanwhile Jay’s desperate mum broke down in tears as she pleaded with anyone holding her to “let him go”.
Debbie Duncan fears her son, 19, has been kidnapped as he has not been seen or heard from for more than three days after vanishing in Tenerife.
But his panicked mum Debbie – who has flown out to the island – is worried her son has been taken against his will.
She told the Mail: “If anyone does have him, just let him go, he’s not a bad person, maybe he’s got in with some strangers who’ve befriended him.
“I’m not stupid, I’ve been to Tenerife before, I’ve worked abroad myself and I gave him warnings, I just think if anyone has got him let him go, he’s not a bad person.”
Debbie admitted she was overcome with emotion and struggling to work out where he son could be.
She added: “I just don’t know what to think, I’m all over the place and I’m trying to keep positive, has somebody taken him? Is he panicked and lost in the mountains?
“But if he is lost then why hasn’t anyone seen him? It’s busy with hikers and holidaymakers up there so if he was lost then someone would have seen him, so that’s why I think maybe he’s been bundled off somewhere.”
Cops scoured the teen’s hotel room in the tourist resort of Los Cristianos on Wednesday, where his distraught mum is waiting for news.
Jay was sharing the room at a three-star apartment complex after flying out with Lucy and fellow pal Brad for Tenerife’s NGR festival.
Police, who promised to keep an “open mind” about his disappearance yesterday, have scanned his accommodation for clues.
Spanish police, however, have never said kidnapping is a line of enquiry. Jay is being treated as a missing person.
Timeline of Jay Slater’s disappearance
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
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