As the search for Jay Slater, the British teenager who went missing while on holiday in Tenerife, enters its second week Spanish rescuers continue to comb the rugged mountain terrain where he was last seen for clues.
Staff and volunteers from the local police, fire brigade and civil defence force have been using dogs, drones and helicopters to hunt for the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire.
But more than 2,000 miles away in Britain, a group of online sleuths are conducting their own operations, scouring Google maps of the area where he disappeared in the Rural de Teno national park and posting baseless conspiracy theories, and, in some cases, even cruel deliberate hoaxes about his disappearance.
Slater’s family and friends have said the interest the case has generated online is compounding their distress in what is already one of the most difficult situations a parent could imagine. And they fear the online “noise” around the case could even hamper the investigation.
Slater’s last known contact with those close to him was when he phoned a friend called Lucy who had been at the same music festival but left before him. He told her that his phone battery was on 1%, that he was thirsty, lost and that he had cut his leg on a cactus.
A Facebook group set up by a friend of the family, for them to share information and seek help from the public, titled “JAY SLATER MISSING – ONLY OFFICIAL GROUP” has more than half a million members.
But a second group, “Jay Slater Discussions and Theories”, is rapidly catching up, with almost 288,000 members. In this group, some of the conspiracy theories are so far-fetched, they verge on bleak satire; “does anyone else think that maybe the shark that was spotted in Gran Canaria has something to do with it?”, reads one.
Other popular theories suggest Slater has been kidnapped after crossing “Moroccan drugs gangs”, that his disappearance has been faked to scam money in donations from the public, or that the mafia has somehow played a role in him going missing.
Even known conspiracy theorist David Icke has waded in, saying: “Lucy doesn’t exist,” and claiming “Manchester airport [on Sunday] wasn’t evacuated due to a power cut, and reason was much more chilling. These events are planned.”
Speculation is also spreading like wildfire on X and on TikTok, where “true crime” accounts are sharing their own theories.
Paul Arnott, a climber from Bedfordshire, has even flown to Tenerife to join the search in person, sharing clips on TikTok. “I was following the story and I wasn’t planning to come out but as soon as I heard they needed help, that’s when I came out,” he told Sky News.
And in a darker corner of the internet, some cruel posts falsely claim “he’s home now” or that a body has been found. Meanwhile, friends have said that trolls are impersonating them on social media, and have attempted to hack into Slater’s own Instagram account.
One photograph circulating last weekend, claiming to show a body that had been found in Los Cristianos, the seaside resort where Slater had been staying with friends, appeared to have actually been taken in Iceland.
Other conspiracies have targeted Slater’s friends and relatives directly, such as one ridiculous theory that his mother, Debbie Duncan, 55, is actually Karen Matthews, who was jailed in 2008 for faking the kidnapping of her daughter Shannon.
In a previous interview with the Guardian, Duncan described the online speculation as “horrible” and said that Spanish police had told her it may actually hinder their investigation.
“I think as well they have actually said that there’s too much noise, that’s affecting it,” she said.
She said she believes “there’s something untoward” about her son’s disappearance, and that police told her they are considering all possibilities. “They’ve said we’re investigating all leads,” Duncan said.
It is not the first time a missing person’s investigation has gripped the internet; last year, Nicola Bulley, 45, who was also from Lancashire, was missing for 23 days before her body was found. She had slipped into a river and drowned.
Her family criticised “wildly inaccurate speculation being shared over numerous platforms”, while YouTube and TikTok influencers descended on the tiny village where she was last seen, forcing police to put in place a dispersal order.
”People believe in conspiracy theories as a way to explain the world when they feel uncertain, they feel threatened, they feel perilous,” Daniel Jolley, assistant professor in social psychology at University of Nottingham said, adding that online speculation is also popular because “it’s entertaining”.
However, he said: “It can potentially derail investigations because people may indeed be flagging these things up to the police.”
“Any unexplained event that is vaguely unsettling and frightening that is reported in the media is going to give rise to speculation and conspiracy theories, it’s almost inevitable,” added Stephan Lewandowsky, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol.
But for the families at the centre of police investigations, Lewandowsky said: “The impact is awful.”
“I really am saddened by all your comments,” Duncan wrote in an update a GoFundMe page set up to support the family. “I really hope I am not taking my son home in a body bag.”
