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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Josh Salisbury

Jay Slater search: Everything we know about hunt for teenager one week after he went missing in Tenerife

The search is continuing for Jay Slater, the missing 19-year-old, who vanished at around 8.50am last Monday.

Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, disappeared while attempting a long walk back to his accommodation in Tenerife while on holiday with two friends.

The apprentice bricklayer attended the three-day NRG music festival on the island with his friends before his disappearance and is thought to have left on Sunday with two men he met.

Here is what we know so far:

A timeline of his last known movements

A search team looking for Jay Slater (PA Wire)

Sunday afternoon - The 19-year-old attended the NRG festival in south Tenerife with friends. 

He left the festival later Sunday to go to the remote northwestern mountain village of Masca with two people he met at the festival.

Monday, around 8am - Ofelia Medina Hernandez, who owns a villa the teenager visited on the morning he went missing, confirmed the last sighting of him by a bus stop.

Ms Hernandez, the last known person to speak to Mr Slater, told several British news outlets that she met the teenager at the bus stop outside her property, and said that she saw him walking down the road.

The walk from Mr Slater’s last known location to his accommodation would have taken about 11 hours on foot.

Monday, 8.30am - Mr Slater frantically called his friend Lucy Law, with just one percent phone battery, saying he was lost after leaving the villa and trying to walk back to his own accommodation, having missed a bus.

He said he had “cut his leg on a cactus and had no idea where he was”, and that he needed water.

Monday, 8.50am - The teenager’s last live location showed as in the mountainous Rural de Teno park.

Monday, 9.04am - Friends report Mr Slater as missing.

Family’s anguish

Relatives from his home town of Oswaldtwistle have flown out to aid the search.

As the sixth day of the search for Mr Slater drew to a close without success on Saturday night, his mother Debbie Duncan said: “I’ve not slept, I’m exhausted. It’s been awful. I can’t give up on him, I just can’t.”

Asked how his family was coping with the situation, she said: “We’re not. I’m not coping very well at all.”

The teenager’s father Warren Slater is also in Tenerife as police search for his son.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Slater said he is “just hoping that somebody has helped him off this mountain”.

He added: “That’s all I want, that somebody has helped him get off this mountain. I just want him back and that’s it. He’s my son.”

Search efforts narrow

A member of a search and rescue team searches near the last known location of Jay Slater, close to the village of Masca, Tenerife (PA Wire)

Search teams appeared to have narrowed their efforts on small buildings close to where his phone last pinged in Tenerife.

Officers from the Guardia Civil in the Canary Islands could be seen circling two structures at the bottom of a ravine in Rural de Teno Park on Sunday.

Efforts appeared to be solely focused on the one area after days of searches in the village of Masca and the surrounding landscape.

Fundraiser hits £30,000 as case attracts huge online interest

A fundraiser set up by Ms Law called Get Jay Slater home has raised more than £32,500 with well-wishers hoping for the teen’s speedy return.

However, the case has also sparked huge interest online, with Mr Slater’s family hitting out at armchair detectives posting unfounded conspiracy theories - including attempting to access Mr Slater’s social media.

Rachel Harg, a family friend, said: “I can’t believe some people are actually this sick in the head.”

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