THE former British police detective working for missing Jay Slater's distraught family has welcomed Spanish police's decision to make a public appeal for help in finding him.
Tenerife Civil Guard police chief Angel Sanz Coronado issued a public statement on Friday morning asking volunteers to join the hunt for the 19-year-old, alongside his officers, on Saturday.
TV sleuth Mark Williams-Thomas, 54, said: “A strong working hypothesis remains that Jay has come to natural harm in the terrain as he took the rugged course back down the hill from the point of his location drop , where I am confident now that he was at 8.50am last Monday morning.
So for the police chief to issue a statement in Spanish asking local residents, who will know the area well, to join a massive co-ordinated search is a very good action to take .”
Jay Slater vanished in Tenerife (Supplied)Tenerife Civil Guard police chief Angel Sanz Coronado issued a public statement on Friday asking volunteers to join the hunt for the 19-year-old, alongside his officers, on Saturday. It was the first time Mr Coronado has spoken about Jay's case and the first time Spanish police have made any official statement regarding it.
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He said: “Following the disappearance on June 17 of the young 19-year-old British man in the area of Masca, belonging to the municipality of Buenavista del Norte, the Civil Guard is prepared to carry out a mass search. Given that it is a steep, rocky area, full of uneven terrain and with many ravines, tracks and trails, we request the collaboration of all those Volunteer Associations that can help in this planned search that is intended to be carried out in a directed and co-ordinated way.
“This massive search will begin on Saturday 29 June at 09:00 hours. A meeting point will be established at the Mirador de la Cruz de Hilda in Masca to start the search in a logical and orderly way along the many paths and ravines that are found in Masca.”
The TV sleuth flew out to the island to help with the case (Stan Kujawa)
Jay was seen partying before he went missingThe statement came just hours after Mr Williams-Thomas thanked the public for their "huge response" and said he is now focusing on speaking to more witnesses, including the two British men the 19-year-old stayed with the night before he vanished.
He also issued a plea for anyone who saw or spoke to them or the apprentice bricklayer in Tenerife to come forward. Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday morning, Mr Williams-Thomas said: "I am grateful for the huge response from the public with information about Jay Slater.
"My focus now is on those who had direct contact with Jay in the days leading up to and on the night and morning of his disappearance, or if you were in the area of Masca on the morning of his disappearance on Monday 17th June . I am also interested to hear from anyone who at any stage spoke to , or saw, the two men that Jay went back to the rental apartment with. Thank you."
Police have tried to trace his last known steps (Facebook)The ex-cop, turned TV sleuth, held a press conference on the island on Wednesday, during which he made a plea for the two men to come forward and announced the opening of a new hotline number for the public to call with information. The two British men are understood to have flown back to Britain last week – days after Jay’s disappearance. Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Williams-Thomas had told reporters: “I need to speak to those people because they are the last people, other than the owner of the holiday rental, that saw Jay.
“I believe they have crucial information that may enable us to find out what has happened to Jay. They were in the bars of the strip area, certainly for two days, they mixed with Jay and Jay’s group of friends that were there. They spent time in bars there, they say they drank Hennessy, which was their preferred drink.
The huge search operation continues (PA)“I know the nickname of one of those individuals. I have a photograph of that individual. He’s about 6ft tall, he’s quite stocky, he had a distinctive bright orange wristband on and he’s got quite short black hair. It’s very difficult to tell but I think he’s probably aged around 30 to 40. One was slightly bigger and was much more chatty than the other.”
Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, had been partying at the New Rave Generation festival in the South-West of Tenerife before he vanished. He left the event with the two men to go back to their holiday rental, which was more than 20 miles and 11 hours’ walk from the Los Cristianos apartment where he was staying with best pal Lucy Law, 18, and a friend.
At 8.30am he called Lucy to say he was in the middle of nowhere, trying to get home with no water and 1% on his phone battery. Mr Williams-Thomas flew to Tenerife on Monday after reaching out to Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan, 55, offering his help, which she accepted. He was seen carrying out inquiries at the holiday rental where the apprentice was last seen, as well as on the strip where Jay had been seen partying.
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