Mystery over Jay Slater’s KEY that he ‘lost’ on night out when teen was ‘ditched by pals’ leading to fateful Airbnb trip
JAY Slater’s family have been left puzzled after the teen is said to have lost the keys to his apartment the night before he went missing.
The 19-year-old vanished in Tenerife three weeks ago after going with two men to a secluded Airbnb hours away from where he was staying with his own pals.
Jay was last seen leaving the house alone as he went on a treacherous 11-hour hike and hasn’t been seen since.
The home had been rented out by convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim who has since been dubbed “Johnny Vegas” by private investigators.
The missing Brit was seen leaving the Papagayo nightclub with the older men on Sunday June 16.
Officials are still unsure why he chose to go back to the Airbnb instead of returning to his apartment in Los Cristianos with pals Lucy Law and Brad Hargreaves.
A new theory suggests he had lost the key to his room leading to him looking for a new place to stay after his pals went home early.
Messages from Ayub, seen by The Sun, show that Jay had complained to him about losing his key on the night out.
Jay’s family have previously blasted any claims that he didn’t return to his apartment because of the keys saying “he’s not stupid”.
His uncle Glen Duncan, told The Sun: “The fact he has come out and said all his mates have left him and he had nowhere to go, he was 10 minutes from his apartment in Los Cristianos.
“He’s not stupid. If he didn’t have a room key he could have gone to reception for a replacement.”
Jay’s dad Warren, 58, has also questioned why his teenage son ended up at a remote home with “two grown men”.
The night before Jay went missing Ayub claims he drove Jay and the third friend back to the Airbnb where they all went to sleep.
In the morning he offered to drive the teen back to the Los Cristianos resort after he had a nap.
A hungry and tired Jay said he wanted to leave immediately and walked off by himself planning to catch a nearby bus.
When quizzed by former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, Ayub says he was woken up by a phone call from an unnamed friend of Jay saying he was “in a ditch” and had been “cut by a cactus”.
It was around this time that the alarm was raised for Jay, who had been spotted heading towards the mountainous Rural de Teno park.
His phone last pinged in the rugged parkland, where cops focused a massive two week-search which came to an end on Sunday 30.
The mammoth op was made up of countless emergency responders and volunteers but found no trace of the teen.
Ayub, who The Sun revealed was jailed for nine years in 2015, previously insisted: “Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.”
He has also said he has “nothing to hide” as he slammed Facebook detectives for screenshotting his Instagram.
Spanish cops have spoken to both of the men already and cleared them to return to the UK – dubbing them “irrelevant” to the investigation.
But there have been calls for police to speak to them again amid the ongoing mystery of Jay’s disappearance.
Glen said he was left “baffled” by the police’s decision.
Jay’s family returned to the mountains to retrace his last steps over the weekend in a desperate effort to find him.
Warren, Glen and older brother Zak were all seen scouring the vast rocky terrain along with eight volunteers.
The Sun revealed on Sunday how the Slaters hope to use the more than £50,000 raised on their GoFundMe to pay for a new private search.
Spanish cops have said the investigation remains ongoing with them continuing to follow any leads that may come in despite halting the ground search.
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF JAY SLATER
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 8 marks three weeks since Jay Slater, a 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished in Tenerife.
The apprentice bricklayer, who flew out to the popular holiday island for a rave festival with friends Lucy Law and Brad Page, has made headlines around the country.
On Sunday June 16 the three of them headed off to one of the events at Papagayo nightclub.
In the early hours of Monday 17 – Lucy and Brad were ready to head back to their hotel, but Jay wanted to keep partying.
It was then that he left the south of the island and headed to an Airbnb in the northwest with two British men.
The Sun revealed the identity of one of them – convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, who spent nine years behind bars in the UK.
For days it was thought that the second mystery man went by the name ‘Johnny Vegas’.
On Sunday former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who is out in Tenerife investigating, said Qassim told him he is in fact the man behind the nickname ‘Johnny Vegas’.
We don’t yet know the identity of the second man – who remains a key part of the puzzle in Jay’s mysterious disappearance.
Qassim claims he drove Jay and the friend back to their accommodation and said they all went to sleep.
In the morning he offered to drive the teen back to the Los Cristianos resort after a nap, but Jay, hungry and tired, said he wanted to leave immediately.
Lucy, the last person to speak to Jay, claims she had a panicked call from him soon after he left the holiday let, telling her he was lost and thirsty, his phone was about to die and that he’d been cut by a cactus.
Jay had been seen by the owner of the Airbnb that morning wandering around near the Rural de Teno park – a mountainous region close-by.
He is believed to have been attempting the 11-hour trek back to his hotel, despite the alleged offer of a lift and more buses scheduled for the day.
It was there that his phone last pinged – and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Mark Williams-Thomas has claimed he left the Airbnb quickly, and was “scared”.
Bizarrely, Qassim says he was woken up that morning by a phone call from an unnamed friend of Jay, saying he was “in a ditch” somewhere and had been “cut by a cactus”.
Jay’s friend Lucy claimed to have “tracked down” the two men in the Airbnb after he vanished – quizzing them on the morning of Jay’s disappearance.
Some reports have suggested Lucy knew the two men, although it is not clear how.
She has dubbed his disappearance “weird and suspicious”.
Both men were questioned by Spanish cops on June 17 but quickly deemed “irrelevant” to the investigation and cleared to fly back to the UK.
Police spent almost two weeks searching for Jay in the Tenerife mountains, scouring a 2,000ft ravine, before calling it off on Sunday June 30.
Jay’s family have repeatedly slammed the Spanish investigation into his bizarre disappearance.
His uncle, Glen Duncan, is convinced of “third party involvement”.
And the teen’s devastated dad, Warren Slater, says “everything stinks”
He told The Sun: “My starting position, I’ve said this from day one, ask the two men who’ve taken him – and then start from there.”
A number of unanswered questions remain, over why Jay would have travelled so far with two older men he didn’t know, why said men would have taken him in, and why he braved the Tenerife mountains with no phone battery, water or heat protection for a day-long walk.
