Spanish police have ended the search for missing raver Jay Slater – almost two weeks after the British teenager vanished on the island of Tenerife.
Apprentice bricklayer Jay, 19, was last seen on June 17 and a huge search involving dogs, drones and a helicopter has failed to find any trace.
On Saturday, police launched one final push and appealed for volunteers to help but just six people turned up to join 24 mountain rescue and fire teams in the remote mountainous area of Masca.
A spokesperson for Tenerife police said: ‘The search is now over but the investigation remains open.’ The spokesperson refused to elaborate on whether it was now a criminal investigation.
The decision to end the search was taken at a senior level following a meeting between investigators and mountain rescue teams at the island’s HQ i Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
On Saturday one of the search teams had told MailOnline: ‘Nothing was found and now the chief will make a decision whether to carry on, it’s up to the senior people to decide, there is no established cut off time.
‘But obviously we cannot carry on searching for ever so what we know will be evaluated and then the senior investigators will make that decision.’
Jay was last seen by a local resident in Masca in north-west Tenerife just after 8am on June 17 walking northwards along the road out of the village after stopping to ask her for directions.
Spanish police have ended the search for missing raver Jay Slater (centre) – almost two weeks after the British teenager vanished on the island of Tenerife. He is pictured here with his mother, Debbie Duncan, and brother Zak
On Saturday police launched one final push and appealed for volunteers to help and just six turned up to join 24 mountain rescue and fire teams at Masca
Jay’s father Warren along with with Jay’s mother Debbie and a number of his friends have flown to the Spanish island to help over the past two weeks
Spanish police and volunteers gather before searching the remote area yesterday
There has been no sign of Jay since he vanished on Tenerife on June 17
His phone last pinged near to a look-out point where search teams gathered yesterday to begin the last day of the operation.
Friend Lucy Law said Jay had called her shortly after he was last seen to say he was thirsty and had no water and just one per cent battery on his phone.
The Civil Guard says the ‘parallel’ investigation by police investigators which they are not sharing information on is continuing despite the suspension of the ‘visible’ mountain search in and around Masca.
After partying on the final night of the three-day NRG festival in Tenerife’s Playa de las Americas resort, Jay had gone back to an Airbnb in Masca with two men he had met on holiday. It was here that he sent two Snapchat messages from there to his friends.
Ofelia Medina Hernandez, the owner of the villa, said she saw Jay standing at a nearby bus stop at around 8am.
He asked her when the next bus was to Los Cristianos, but when he was told it wasn’t until 10am, he set off on foot for what would have been an 11-hour walk.
Jay’s father, Warren Slater, yesterday said he was ‘disappointed’ after only a handful of volunteers turned out to join the hunt for his son.
Just six volunteers including British TikTok mountaineer Paul Arnott and a few Spanish nationals joined the search on Saturday, with temperatures pushing 23C.
‘It’s a bit disappointing that there are no British apart from Paul but I suppose to them he’s just a British lad who’s come out here and got drunk,’ Warren said.
The father added he was ‘grateful’ to those who gathered to look for his son.
‘You can see just how dangerous it is and what gets me is the trollers who are having a go at us for not searching,’ he said.
Police revealed yesterday that two mystery British men who were with Jay the night he disappeared were ‘not relevant’ to their investigation.
After partying on the final night of the three-day NRG festival in Tenerife’s Playa de las Americas resort, Jay had gone back to an Airbnb in Masca with two men he had met on holiday
Guardia Civil agent Cipriano Martin has confirmed the two mystery men who invited Jay Slater back to their Airbnb hours before he vanished ‘don’t have any relevance whatsoever for the case’
Spanish police begin a final search for Jay yesterday
TV detective Mark Williams Thomas previously called on the two mystery men who were with missing teenager Jay Slater to come forward
The development raised eyebrows among many as TV sleuth Mark Williams-Thomas, who worked on the missing people cases of Madeleine McCann and Nicola Bulley, had described the men as ‘key witnesses’ and appealed for them to come forward.
Cipriano Martin, head of the Spanish Civil Guard’s Mountain Rescue team in Tenerife, said: ‘Those men have been spoken to and they don’t have any relevance whatsoever for the case.’
However little is known about the two mystery men, who have not spoken publicly, besides the fact that they are British, black and in their late 30s to early 40s.
One is said to go by the nickname Johnny Vegas and one is described as around 6ft, stocky and with short dark hair. He was seen with an orange wristband but little else is known about the other man.
On Friday, Jay’s friend Brad Hargreaves told ITV’s This Morning he had been on a video call with him before his disappearance when he heard him go off the road.
He said: ‘He was on the phone walking down a road and he’d gone over a little bit – not a big drop – but a tiny little drop and he was going down, and he said ‘I’ll ring ya back, I’ll ring ya back’ because I think someone else was ringing him.’
He confirmed he could see his friend’s feet ‘sliding’ down the hill and could hear he was walking on gravel.
But, Mr Hargreaves said he and his friend were both laughing at that point.
He added: ‘He didn’t seem concerned on the phone until we knew how far away he was.’
He told the programme he still had hope for Jay and was ‘praying’ for him to come home.
Earlier this week, his mother Debbie Duncan, who travelled to the island following his disappearance, said money raised online would be used to support mountain rescue teams, and to cover her own accommodation and food costs.
Donations flooded in after GoFundMe appeal ‘Get Jay Slater home’ was set up by Lucy Law which has raised £43,000 as of Sunday.
In an update on Thursday, Ms Duncan said: ‘We are currently working with GoFundMe to withdraw part of the funds, which are being safely held.
‘I wanted to share that these funds will be used to support the mountain rescue teams who are tirelessly searching for Jay.
‘Additionally, since our stay in Tenerife needs to be extended, we will also use the funds to cover accommodation and food expenses.’
Ms Duncan has described her son’s disappearance and the wait for news as a ‘living nightmare’.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk