Jay Slater’s devastated mum reveals sick trolls are calling her ‘the new Karen Matthews’ as she hunts for missing son
JAY Slater’s devastated mum has said vicious trolls are comparing her to Karen Matthews, a woman dubbed “Britain’s worst mum”.
Debbie Duncan flew out to Tenerife after her son vanished on Monday and has described his disappearance as a “living nightmare”.
Jay’s family have had to endure an onslaught of vile messages and bogus theories from trolls online after the teen disappeared on holiday with his friends.
Debbie Duncan, 55, has now said: “People are calling me out on social media saying why aren’t you up there, you’re the new Karen Matthews.
“I just can’t face it.”
Matthews made headlines in 2008 when she cooked up a sickening plot with relative Michael Donovan to make money off her daughter’s fake kidnapping.
For a month she made repeated appeals for help finding her nine-year-old daughter Shannon, who was all along drugged and tied up inside the base of a bed at Donovan’s home.
Hundreds of neighbours joined the search for Karen’s daughter which cost West Yorkshire Police £3.2 million and lasted 24 days.
Matthews and Donovan devised the plan to claim £50,000 in reward money for finding Shannon.
Since Jay, an apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire, vanished in northern Tenerife on Monday, over half a million people have joined a Facebook group called ‘Jay Slater Missing’.
Family, friends and even former girlfriend’s of Jay have flown out to holiday island to help in the mammoth search.
It comes as…
- Jay’s mum gave a tearful plea and said “I just want my baby back”
- Owner of Airbnb where Jay stayed saw him “walking fast” up a dangerous ravine
- Cops searched the teen’s hotel room in Tenerife for clues
- Brit cops offered to fly out and help but Spanish officials said no
- Jay’s mum slammed the Tenerife police investigation
- A possible new sighting of Jay placed him 3.5 miles away from where he vanished with two men
- The missing teen’s dad and brother visited the search site
A go fund me page set up to support the family’s costs has raised almost £29,000 in a matter of days.
Mum Debbie Duncan, speaking away from the scene, said: “I’m just exhausted. I’m still hopeful. I’m not feeling negative just yet. I know it’s five days.
“It’s not just that they’ve said absolutely not. I don’t know what it’s been like today because I’ve been advised to stay away because I would just break down.
“My boy might be just up there somewhere. We’re all devastated. He’s just a normal boy from a little town in Lancashire. These things don’t happen.
“I was in touch with him while he is in Tenerife. He was just holidaying away, he’d saved up and was looking forward to it.
“I’ve not slept for five days. My brain isn’t functioning well and I’m tired and exhausted.”
Who is Karen Matthews?
KAREN Matthews was dubbed 'Britain's worst mum' after playing a part in the kidnapping of her nine-year-old daughter Shannon in 2008.
The evil mum’s accomplice in the sickening plot was Michael Donovan, who died in 2024.
She is the mum of Shannon Matthews, a schoolgirl who made national headlines when she vanished in 2008.
Shannon‘s mother made a number of public appeals for information on her daughter’s whereabouts during the month she was missing, despite knowing where she was all along.
The nine-year-old was found tethered and drugged inside the base of a double bed at relative Michael Donovan’s grotty flat almost a month after she disappeared.
Matthews was going out with Donovan’s nephew Craig Meehan at the time.
She devised the elaborate plot with Donovan in a bid to claim the £50,000 reward money for finding Shannon.
They had planned to release the schoolgirl, “discover her” then take her to a police station and claim the reward before splitting the cash.
Meehan, who had nothing to do with Shannon’s abduction, was jailed for 20 weeks after unrelated child sex abuse material was discovered on his computer.
On December 4, 2008, Karen and Donovan were found guilty of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.
Both were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court to eight years behind bars.
Matthews served just half of her time and was released from prison in 2012.
WHAT HAPPENED TO JAY?
Jay, 19, vanished on Monday while on holiday with two friends for the 2024 Tenerife NRG festival.
On Sunday evening he had gone to a rave with those two friends, Lucy and Brad, but left with two new people he’d just met.
After going back to their accommodation in in Rural de Teno park, Jay missed the bus home on Monday morning and was faced with a 10-hour walk.
He made a panicked phone call to Lucy Law to tell her he was lost in the middle of nowhere, his phone was about to die and he needed water.
That was the last anyone had heard of him and at around 9am a missing persons report was filed, sparking the huge rescue operation.
Jay’s devastated mum Debbie Duncan, who flew out on Tuesday, sobbed as she begged for help to find her missing son.
She told ITN in an emotional interview on Wednesday: “It’s just an absolute living nightmare. It’s like a dream – it’s like it’s not happening.”
On Saturday a tearful Warren Slater, Jay’s dad, said “I just want my boy back” as he overlooked the search area with his other son Zak.
It was revealed on Friday that the Lancashire teen was last seen by the owner of the Airbnb where he had stayed on Sunday evening.
Ophelia, the owner of the holiday rental Casa Abuela Tina, said she saw him “walking fast” up a dangerous ravine in the vast mountainous area near Masca.
Rescue efforts turned their focus on Friday to an area known by locals as “the badlands”, scouring a 2,000ft ravine in the remote de Teno park.
Locals and experts warned of the perilous conditions in the area – where the air is “thin”, temperatures change rapidly and the mountains drop sharply to the water below.
As the search enters its seventh day today temperatures are expected to hit as high as 29 degrees.
The UV rating also sits at “extreme” with a figure of 11 and 12 peaking at around 1pm – anything over 11 is classed as extreme and dangerous.
On Friday Lancashire Constabulary offered to help Spain’s Guardia Civil in their efforts to find the teenager.
But Tenerife police rejected the bid and insisted they have the “resources” required to find him.
Jay’s mum Debbie then slammed the investigation into her son’s disappearance for not allowing British cops to contribute.
The mum also told The Guardian she spent eight hours in a police station as they revealed plans for ramping up the rescue effort.
Two new pieces of information came to light on Saturday – including a possible sighting of Jay after he vanished.
Debbie told Mail Online that a witness went to cops and claimed to have seen Jay sitting on a bench with the pair of men 3.5 miles away from his last known location in Santiago del Teide.
The heartbroken mum said she fears “something untoward” has happened to the teen.
And a shocking new picture of the teen showed him wading through a packed rave hours before he vanished on Sunday night.
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
FRIDAY 21
Lancashire cops offer to help with the search but Tenerife authorities say they are “satisfied that they have the resources they need”
Search turns to 22,000ft ravine in Masca – part of an area dubbed “the badlands” by locals
SATURDAY 22
The sixth day of the search begins with sniffer dogs, cops, mountain rescue and firefighters again taking to the hills in northern Tenerife
Possible new sighting of Jay places him near a church with two men at 6pm on Monday – although unconfirmed by police
Jay’s dad Warren and brother Zak visit the search site in Tenerife