THE dad of missing Brit teen Jay Slater paid an emotional visit to the search site last night to mark the first visit by a close family member.
Tearful Warren Slater, 58, said “I just want my boy back” as he overlooked the 2,000ft deep ravine in the remote mountain village of Masca, Tenerife, as the search for his son goes on.
Ian WhittakerWarren Slater, 58, has visited the site where his son Jay was last seen[/caption]
Ian WhittakerSlater’s dad and his brother Zak (right) visited Masca Village Ravine on Saturday[/caption]
Ian WhittakerThe trio pictured together for Zak’s 21st birthday[/caption]
Jay, 19, has been missing in Tenerife since the early hours of Monday morning
Ian WhittakerThe last known image of Jay taken on Sunday night at NRG Festival in the south of the island[/caption]
Mr Slater was supported by his son and Jay’s brother, Zak Slater, 24, who was too upset to comment when approached at a viewing point.
Warren, wearing a dark pair of sunglasses, bucket hat and shorts, wrapped his arm around Zak as they surveyed the scene below them.
Warren and Zak were also joined by eight of Jay’s friends at the viewpoint above Masca.
He said: “I just want the boy back.”
Meanwhile, 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 was 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.”
Earlier today, devastated Debbie revealed a huge development in the search for the missing teen.
She said her son may have been spotted with two men some ten hours after he was last seen on Monday morning in the remote village of Masca.
She revealed a witness went to cops and claimed to have seen Jay sitting on a bench with the pair of men 3.5 miles away in Santiago del Teide.
The heartbroken mum said she now fears “something untoward” has happened to the teen.
Debbie told Mail Online: “Someone has come forward to say they saw someone who they thought was Jay walking back down the road sat on a bench.
“He was with two men looking a bit worse for wear, and they were by a church, this guy has come forward and told the police about it and they are looking into it.
“We don’t know if it was Jay for sure, but it’s a start.”
Debbie, 55, has been in Tenerife since Tuesday helping with the massive police search for her 19-year-old son.
She revealed that the fresh sighting pinpoints Jay’s possible movements to 6pm on Monday – some 10 hours after his missing persons report was filed.
The worried mum said: “They said it was about 6pm which is ten hours after he was seen by the lady in the village.
Tim StewartJay (right) pictured with brother Zak and mum Debbie – who both flew out to the island after he went missing[/caption]
Jay’s mum Debbie revealed the new sighting today
PAThe search for missing Jay enters its sixth day today – with cops scouring remote parkland in northern Tenerife[/caption]
“But if it was him what was he doing there and who are these two men?”
She added: “All I know is that I am going to stay here for as long as it takes, I’m not going home unless it’s with Jay. I’m not going anywhere until they find him.”
Cops have yet to confirm the new sighting of the missing teen.
It comes as rescue efforts have turned their focus to an area known locally as “the badlands”, scouring a 2,000ft ravine in a remote park.
Pictures from the scene show cops, firefighters, volunteers and sniffer dogs scanning the desolate Teno Nature Reserve, Jay’s last known location.
Locals and experts have warned of the treacherous conditions in the area – where the air is “thin”, temperatures change rapidly and the mountains drop sharply to the water below.
Jay’s mum Debbie today slammed the investigation into her son’s disappearance for not allowing British cops to contribute.
On Friday Lancashire Constabulary offered to help Spain’s Guardia Civil in their efforts to find the teenager.
But local police rejected the bid and insisted they have the “resources” required to find him.
The mum also told The Guardian she spent eight hours in a police station as they revealed plans for ramping up the rescue effort.
On Monday morning around 8am, Jay made a frantic phone call to pal Lucy Law to tell her he was stranded in the “middle of nowhere”.
He said he had cut his leg on a cactus, was thirsty and was about to embark on an 10-hour trek home.
The panicked phone call was the last anyone had heard of him.
A missing persons report was filed at around 9am that morning – sparking a round-the-clock hunt.
It was later revealed that the Lancashire teen was last seen by the owner of an Airbnb where he had stayed on Sunday evening.
Ophelia, the owner of the holiday rental Casa Abuela Tina, said she saw him walking off on his own uphill in the vast mountainous area near Masca.
Ophelia told MEN: “It’s dangerous walking around here, it’s easy to lose yourself. He walked up the road when I saw him for the last time.
“He was alone. He was walking normally, though he was fast.”
It is understood the Airbnb was rented by the two men Jay went back with after the closing night of NRG festival on Sunday.
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
