20 June 2024 , 11:22
1065
0
Jay Slater's distraught mum has said she wouldn't wish the nightmare she is going through on anybody, and shared her heartbreaking regret as police in Tenerife continue their search for the missing teenager.
Devastated Debbie Duncan has flown out to the island of Tenerife, where her youngest child went missing after going to a three day festival with his friends. It’s believed Jay got into a car with two men and travelled to their accommodation in a mountainous rural park about 40 minutes drive away.
The alarm was raised on Monday when he called his friend Lucy Mae at 8.50am. He said he "didn't know where he was," was thirsty and only had one percent battery left on his phone. The call cut out and that is the last known time anyone has heard from him. It’s thought he was trying to walk back to where he was staying in Playa de Las Americas, which is in the south, around 10 hours walk away.
Jay’s distraught mum headed to the island with other family and friends, including his older brother Zak and father Warren Slater, to try and assist in the search for her son. She made a tearful plea for help and summed up her feelings as she faces the desperate situation no parent ever wants to go through. In a desperate plea, she said: "I just want my baby back".
She told ITN yesterday: "It's a nightmare. It's just an absolute living nightmare. It's like a dream - it's like it's not happening, it really is. I wouldn't wish this on anybody.
Woman falls to death from 60ft-high flat window putting up Christmas decorations
(MEN Media)
(MEN Media)"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."
It was the 19 year old apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtiwstle, Lancashire’s first holiday abroad without his parents, and Debbie urged him to go and have fun. But now she is full of regret and heartbreakingly blames herself.
"First holiday abroad, saving up, looking forward to this event, three-day DJs from everywhere, absolutely buzzing about it," she said. "Now I just wish I hadn't encouraged him to go, I should have said ''don't go to Tenerife''.
"He's just an ace person. Everyone loves being in his company. He's the life and soul, a beautiful boy, a good looking boy. He needs to be here."
She also revealed the safety warning she issued him before left the UK, urging him to be careful. "I said to him as well, I said ''Jay please have your wits about you, you're in a foreign country, just stay together''."
Jay and his friends went to the NRG Tenerife Weekender music festival, which features pool parties, nightclub takeovers and day and night raves over a three day period. It was on the last night of the event that Jay disappeared.
Sniffer dogs and mountain rescue crews have been searching the remote Rural de Teno Park - his last known location since Monday. Yesterday police suddenly shifted their search to the south of the island in Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas, which are favourites with tourists, after a sighting of him getting out of a taxi.
It turned out to be a false alarm and the search has now returned back to the mountains in the north near Masca, although valuable time was lost in the searing heat. Local car hire firms and hoteliers are helping out free of charge and the family are being assisted by the British embassy.