Jay Slater’s mum using GoFundMe donations to fly specialist search teams from Netherlands to Tenerife to hunt for teen
A SPECIALIST search team is being jetted out to Tenerife from the Netherlands by Jay Slater’s desperate family to hunt for the teen.
Distraught mum Debbie Duncan has announced part of the £52,000 donated through a GoFundMe page is being used to pay for the private search.
Jay, 19, has been missing for almost four weeks – with his loved ones no closer to finding answers.
Spanish cops on the island abruptly axed the official search after less than two weeks, leaving Jay’s family “blindsided”.
They have continued to scour the remote Masca ravine where apprentice bricklayer Jay was last seen every day.
Yet no trace of Jay has been found in the weeks since his disappearance.
Now the family have turned to the help of experts from the Netherlands who are flying to Tenerife with specialist dogs.
Cash from a GoFundMe page set up by Jay’s close friend Lucy Law is being used to cover the expenses.
Jay’s mum Debbie, 55, said: “As you all know the Guardia Civil gave up the land search after 12 days.
“We have been actively working with search and rescue teams and we can now confirm that we have a team of experts flying in over the weekend from the Netherlands, who will carry on the search with their specialist dogs.
“We are only able to fund this with the generosity of all those who donated.
“The team are the Signi Zoekhondon and this has taken lots of planning to get them over so thank you so much for your kindness.”
School finance officer Debbie previously revealed money from the fundraiser was being used to fly supporters to Tenerife, as well as cover some of their own expenses.
She blasted trolls who questioned what money from the page would be used for and said she felt “very let down”.
The devastated mum said the family trying to “remain positive” but are still being targeted by vile trolls.
She added: “Jay is just a normal hardworking young lad from Lancashire who is very loved by all who know him.
“He is about to finish his 3 year apprenticeship this month.
“Although we don’t have any answers to his disappearance we obviously have to remain positive.
“Please continue to pray for him and our family. There is a lot of negativity unfortunately and this is adding to the heartbreak of the unknown.
“So I would please just say send the love and positive thoughts to Jay, our beautiful son.”
Jay’s family, including Debbie, dad Warren Slater, and brother Zak, have vowed to remain on the island indefinitely until they have answers.
The Sun revealed they are looking for a more permanent base in Tenerife.
Police this week confirmed Jay has not yet been deemed “missing feared dead”and that there are still several lines of inquiry open.
Jay vanished on June 17 after leaving a remote Airbnb in Masca he had travelled to with two men after a night of raving.
As he attempted the 11-hour trek back to his own hotel, he made a final call to friend Lucy to say he was lost and only had one per cent phone battery and had been hurt on a cactus.
The desperate family are still holding onto hope with them now saying tonight’s Euros final could trigger a key breakthrough in the hunt for the missing teenager.
Locals are also expected to be out in force to watch Spain in and around the area Jay was last seen with businesses predicting it will be the “busiest and wildest” weekend of the summer so far.
Now a source close to the search for Jay has told The Sun they believe this could provide a much-needed opportunity to get new evidence in their hunt.
The insider said: “There will be more people out in Tenerife this weekend than there have been all summer.
“And the volunteers involved in the search for Jay think it can present an opportunity to raise awareness of the work they are doing to try and find Jay.
“It’s a chance to underline how they are still desperately in need of information.”
The mysterious case of Jay Slater
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 15 marks five 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.