Spanish police have admitted they have prepared officers they may be about to find a body in their ongoing search for teenager - with police saying that they will not stop until they have solved the mystery.
The police said “Officers obviously are prepared for the possibility they may find a body.” Images put out by the Civil Guard which is leading the operation to locate the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer showed the mammoth efforts being made in mountainous terrain near the Tenerife village of Masca where he was last seen early on Monday morning.
A police helicopter has been flying over the Masca Gorge while officers from a specialist mountain called the Greim and others with scent dogs search on the ground.
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Police Search for Jay Slater (SOLARPIX.COM)Firefighters and Civil Protection workers who have been using drones have also been assisting the Civil Guard-led operation, set to continue today and into the weekend if necessary.
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One source said this morning: “There’s no talk at this stage of scaling down the efforts to find this missing man and certainly not of suspending it. The plan at the moment is to continue until he is found.
“Officers obviously are prepared for the possibility they may find a body but at the moment everyone is focused on the idea he is still alive and they can help reunite him with his family and friends.”
Jay Slater has been missing on Tenerife for 5 days (Facebook)The publication of the first police footage of the search came as grateful British locals shut down critics questioning firefighters who posted photos of the work they had been doing and revealed that between two search operations they rescued a cat trapped in a parked vehicle in the western coast town of Puerto de Santiago.
Thea Shepherd, commenting online on the pics showing fire crews walking along a road near the spot where Jay was last seen, snapped: “I hope you’re doing more than walking down the road looking over the edge.”
Police have released the first footage of their ongoing search for teenager Jay Slater (SOLARPIX.COM)Local Jose Chinea responded: “Yea they see if they can find a piece of mud to stick it in your gob.” And furious Sharon Lawrence won support from others by saying: “To put anything rude on this post is downright respectful.
”They are doing all they can and if you’re from our country, the UK, I suggest you keep your mouth shut if you’ve nothing constructive to say unless you think you can do any better.
“There’s a lot of greenery, steep cliffs and so on to search.” Referencing Jay’s family belief he could have been kidnapped, she added: “Yes agreed something more sinister may have taken place.
“But that gives nobody the right to vilify these folks who are trying their upmost to locate this young lad. Jay, I hope they find you son.”
Firefighters and Civil Protection workers have been using drones (SOLARPIX.COM) She added in a subsequent comment to firefighters and others helping to search for the missing teenager, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire: “Thank you for helping to look for this young lad, please stay safe and let’s hope this is a happy outcome for all.”
Another grateful Brit Cathy Sykes said: “Good luck to all the kind people who have taken time out of their daily lives to search for the missing boy Jay.
“I really pray every day for a safe return so he can be reunited with his mum and brother who are also on the island.”
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Katy Green said: “There’s literally thousands of people praying for you Jay. May the energy of these prayers help those who are actively searching for you and may you be brought home soon.”
Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, who is missing in Tenerife, Spain, and last spoke to his friends on 17 June 2024 (MEN Media)Shutting down a woman who criticised the fact firefighters had “stopped their search for a cat”, Julie Amery wrote: “The firemen here are voluntary, the police and rangers continued the search whilst the firemen were called away so it carried on.”
Overnight more witnesses came forward to shed light on Jay’s last-known movements.
Just before 9am on Monday he called friend Lucy Law, who had travelled with him to Tenerife to attend a three-day music festival, to say he was lost, thirsty and had one per cent left on his phone battery after heading back from the rave to an Airbnb apartment with two mystery Brits he had just met.
The rented home has been identified as a two-bed £40-a-night property called Casa Abuela Tina in the village of Masca a 50-minute drive north of Los Cristianos in the south where Jay had been staying.
Local Ofelia Medina Hernandez revealed overnight how she had seen the teenager walking the wrong way along a twisting mountain road shortly after he stopped her outside the house to ask about bus times.
She said: “"He was alone when I first saw him just before eight o’clock on Monday morning. He asked me what time the bus went by although he didn't tell me where he wanted to go.
"I told him it came at ten and because he obviously didn't understand he asked me the same question again and this time I put my fingers up to indicate it was ten o'clock.
"Then I went back home briefly before starting to drive to the town of Buenavista del Norte and that's when I saw him again, but this time walking on the road out of the village on the same side as me.
"It would have been no later than 8.10 and it was about a kilometre from where I'd seen him at the house. He was alone and he was walking quite fast. I drove past him and that's the last time I saw him. I've given police this information and I don't know anymore."
She added: "I didn't see him and the people who were renting the property get back but I've been told there was noise around 6am on Monday so I imagine it was around that time.
"The missing lad seemed okay. I imagine he'd been drinking if he'd been at a festival but it didn't show in the way he spoke to me and I remember thinking when I saw him so far up the road as I went to Buenavista that he was going fast. He wasn't trying to get cars to stop when I saw him but I don't know if anyone then picked him up.
"It's a twisting country road but it's not dangerous. But if he was trying to head south he was going in completely the wrong direction and the bus stop is in the village, not where he was heading. I only found afterwards he was apparently trying to get back to Los Cristianos. He didn't ask me where the bus was going, just what time the next bus came by.
"I think the men that rented the house arrived on Friday and were going to leave on Monday but left Tuesday in the end. I don't know why they left a day late but if they'd done anything wrong or suspicious then you wouldn't expect them to stay an extra day."
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