Police in Tenerife have searched the holiday flat which Jay Slater visited hours before he vanished, as his family described their “pain and agony” over the fact he remains missing.
The family of the British teenager were left heartbroken as a near fortnight-long search involving sniffer dogs, a helicopter and mountain rescue experts was brought to an end on Sunday - although police said their investigation would remain open.
The Civil Guard said officers would continue to act on any tip-offs or other information that came in - but the active search that has been ongoing since June 17 when the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer was reported missing would now cease.
But the Sun reports that two plain-clothed detectives reportedly spent two hours on Tuesday searching a holiday let in the Rural de Teno park in northwest Tenerife, where Mr Slater had headed with two British men after going to a rave.
Investigators said last week the two mystery Brits Mr Slater had been with at the Airbnb were "not relevant" to their probe.
The development came as Debbie Duncan, Mr Slater’s mother, said “words cannot describe the pain and agony we are experiencing”.
In a statement issued through the British overseas missing persons charity LBT Global, she said: “Jay is a normal guy who is in his third year of an apprenticeship, and he is a very popular young man with a large circle of friends.
“We are a very close family and are absolutely devastated about his disappearance. Words cannot describe the pain and agony we are experiencing. He is our beautiful boy with his whole life ahead of him and we just want to find him.
“We do not have any information on his whereabouts.
“The Guardia Civil have worked tirelessly up in the mountains where Jay’s last phonecall was traced. They conducted a land search for 12 days which involved every resource they had available. Although the land search ended, the Spanish police still continue with their investigations into why Jay had travelled to the location so far away from his accommodation.
“We offer our sincere thanks to the Spanish authorities who continue to follow lines of inquiries.”Mr Slater had attended the NRG music festival with two friends before his disappearance.
Mr Slater separated from his friends and his last known location was the remote park - which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.
He was last seen by a local resident in Masca just after 8am walking northwards along the road out of the village after stopping to ask her for directions.
His phone last pinged near to a look-out point where search teams gathered on Saturday to begin the last day of the search operation.
Friend Lucy Law said Mr Slater had called her shortly after he was last seen to say he was thirsty, had cut his leg on a cactus, had no water and just one per cent battery on his phone.
Another close friend claimed he heard him sliding on rocks in their last phone conversation at around the same time.
The missing teenager’s parents have said they are no closer to finding their son despite a crunch meeting with police on Tuesday.
The pair spent two and a half hours speaking with officers to get an update on the case.
Afterwards, a distraught Ms Duncan told The Sun: “It’s a mystery and he’s still missing, we need to just let these guys (the police) get on with it.”
She urged the public to not forget about their son saying: “Let’s keep it going, keep it alive.
“Let them (the police) get on with it, we’ve got to trust in these people.”
It comes as policing expert Graham Wettone, who was in the Met for 30 years, believes there are too many “inconsistencies” in the mystery of Mr Slater’s disappearance and called for detectives to look more closely at the days before he vanished.
The former police officer told MailOnline: “There are so many inconsistencies in what I am seeing and reading. I think the Spanish police need to take a step back and think ‘Why did he go missing where he did and in what circumstances?’
“They seem to be focusing primarily on the fact that they were told he wandered off into the mountain, but we are now [three] weeks in, and nothing has been found up there.
“I would even go back further to the days leading up to his disappearance, have they checked his bank accounts for anything untoward in the hours before he went missing.
“Were there any patterns forming that would point to him going wandering off but the fact he is said to have done that just doesn’t square with me. Was there anything sinister and untoward there, that would have made him go off with these two men, is there anything in his past that needs looking at more fully.”
A GoFundMe appeal Get Jay Slater Home was set up by Ms Law and had raised more than £43,000 as the police search came to an end.
