Jay Slater’s family planning to move into new search HQ and will be staying in Tenerife ‘indefinitely’ to keep up hunt
JAY Slater’s desperate family are trying to secure a permanent base in Tenerife after vowing to remain on the island “indefinitely”.
Dad Warren Slater and mum Debbie Duncan were left “blindsided” when Spanish cops abruptly axed the search for Jay after less than two weeks.
But they insisted they would keep up the hunt themselves alongside a small group of volunteers until they get some answers.
His family, including older brother Zak, 24, frantically jetted to the island after hearing Jay had vanished on June 17.
They have been staying at a hotel – but The Sun can reveal they are now looking for a more permanent place to coordinate their efforts.
No trace of the teenager has been found yet despite an extensive search involving drones, specialist sniffer dogs and helicopters.
A family source told The Sun: “Jay’s parents have no intention of leaving Tenerife until they know what’s happened to their son.
“They are going through hell each day, but they feel that at least by being in Tenerife they can make a tangible effort.
“Their biggest fear is going home and that Jay is suddenly forgotten about, and just becomes another missing person statistic.
“That’s why they are looking at finding somewhere they can be based, in the long-term to co-ordinate the search and to work from.”
Jay’s devastated family are still holding on to hope that he could still be alive as the hunt edges towards being a month long.
Police this week confirmed Jay has not yet been deemed “missing feared dead” as they announced on Tuesday there are still “several lines of inquiry” open.
The source added: “Right now they plan to stay indefinitely, and however long it takes to get to the bottom of this.
“They’ve not given up hope that Jay could still be alive. But what concerns and confuses them the most is the fact that he hasn’t been in touch.”
Former Met detective Mark Williams-Thomas – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case -claims to have uncovered a bombshell new clue in the case.
Mark has been in Tenerife for weeks trying to solve the teen’s mysterious disappearance alongside the distraught family.
He has been in close contact with a number of witnesses including Jay’s family and friends, and has been updating cops on his findings.
And revealed today he has passed on a “significant new piece of information” to Spanish police.
We have a number of outstanding actions that still require completing and remain open minded with our investigation
Mark Williams-Thomas
Within the first few weeks when Jay vanished Mark began drawing up theories that the case may have links to an “established criminal network with links to drugs, violent crime and thefts”.
Speaking on X today, he said: “We’ve still not found evidence of a third party criminal involvement in Jay’s disappearance, although we have opened up links with dangerous criminal underworld of drugs and associated crime.
“We have a number of outstanding actions that still require completing and remain open minded with our investigation.”
Yesterday Jay’s desperate dad Warren Slater, 58, spoke to The Sun about the search for his son.
He vowed to not stop looking for the 19-year-old after the official search effort drew to a halt on Sunday July 30.
Warren and Jay’s brother Zak have been hiking through the mountains in Tenerife every day trying to find any sign of Jay.
Jay had gone back to the holiday let in a desolate park after a night of partying.
In the morning, he attempted the 11-hour walk back to his own accommodation after missing the bus.
Jay made a frantic final call to friend Lucy Law to say he was lost.
He was last seen walking uphill in a remote village on the northwest of the island.
Jay’s out there somewhere and the family are determined to find him
a source told The Sun
Returning to the Valley of Barranco de Juan Lopez, near the village of Masca, where Jay’s phone last pinged, Warren said: “We are still out looking. What more can we possibly do?
“I’ve said before, I need an army to help me. People don’t understand the vastness of it.”
Well-wishers have donated more than £50,000 on a GoFundMe page set up to support Jay’s family.
Debbie previously revealed cash would be used to aid volunteers searching for Jay, as well as cover the family’s accommodation and food expenses.
An insider added: “It’s tough. They have the donations people have kindly made. But they only want to use any of those funds as an absolute last resort.
“Jay’s parents are obviously highly reliant on the help and support of others. And they are especially reliant on a goodwill back home from people that they work with.
“But, thankfully, they’ve received amazing support and been told to just take as long as they need to deal with what they have to do in Tenerife.
“Jay’s out there somewhere and the family are determined to find him.”
The mysterious case of Jay Slater
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 8 marked 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