An experienced climber and TikTok star has told of three key pieces of evidence he is looking for in the search for Jay Slater.
Paul Arnott, a 29-year-old climber from Flitwick in Bedfordshire, has joined the rescue mission in the northwest of Tenerife to find the 19-year-old from Lancashire who went missing on June 17.
He is focusing his attention on a call made by Jay to his friends Lucy Law and Brad Hargreaves after leaving the Airbnb he was staying at in the village of Masca and saying he was going to try walking back to the south of the island - a trek that would take around 11 hours.
Shortly afterwards the battery on Jay’s phone died, but Brad believes he heard him slip during the call which suggests rocky and uneven terrain.
Paul said that he has spoken to Brad and that he is now looking for signs in the terrain of someone slipping including “breakages in the plant material” while he has also been shown a picture of Jay’s shoes and has the track on his phone.
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Paul Arnott speaking from the search area (Daily Mirror)
Jay Slater went missing on June 17 (MEN)"I'm trying to track at the moment. I've spoken to Brad and we know Jay's been sliding down the mountains, so I'm looking for slide marks,” Paul told reporters in Masca. “I've been shown his shoes, and I've got a picture of the track on my phone. So I'm looking for any breakages in the plant material. I'm just looking for any evidence that he's been this way."
Paul, whose TikTok account is called @downtherapids and has more than 260,000 followers, cancelled a charity event in Scotland to join the search, as he feels that with his mountaineering experience, he would be able to get to locations that even the rescue teams would struggle with their drones and dogs.
The surrounding area is rocky terrain (Stan Kujawa)On Friday, Jay's friend Brad told ITV’s This Morning he had been on a video call with him before his disappearance when he heard him go off the road. He said: “He was on the phone walking down a road and he’d gone over a little bit – not a big drop – but a tiny little drop and he was going down, and he said ‘I’ll ring ya back, I’ll ring ya back’ because I think someone else was ringing him.” He confirmed he could see his friend’s feet “sliding” down the hill and could hear he was walking on gravel.
A renewed effort is being made today to help find Jay with Spanish police having appealed for expert volunteers to help. On Friday, the Guardia Civil asked for volunteer associations, such as firefighters, and individual volunteers who were experts in rugged terrain to assist in a “busqueda masiva”, or massive search, to take place on Saturday. The Spanish police force said the search, beginning at 9am in the village of Masca, near to his last-known location, would be coordinated to take in a steep rocky area, including ravines, trails and paths.
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