The family of missing teenager Jay Slater has released CCTV footage showing a possible sighting of him in Tenerife.
The grainy image is said to have been taken in Santiago del Teide at around 6pm on Monday evening – 10 hours after he was last seen in the village of Masca, about six kilometres up the hill.
Previously, the 19-year-old boy’s mother, Debbie Duncan (55), claimed that a witness had told police she believed she had seen Jay with two men in the village of Santiago on Monday night.
Jay’s father Warren (58), who put up missing persons posters at a local bus stop on Sunday, said: “Do you think anyone has caught him? Because whether you’re drunk or not, you shouldn’t be out of those streets there.” And there are people out there… You can’t drive this road for more than 20 minutes without someone cutting you off or passing you.
“As soon as I drove up there I knew he wasn’t going to [go off the road]. He’s not stupid. When I saw the police officers I asked them seriously, ‘Would you like to get off the road?’ So I think that woke them up a little bit.”
“At first the idea was that it was a boy who was walking and got lost, or maybe he had fallen. But that doesn’t make sense. No one would stray from this path. Why would he go uphill? It’s dangerous. It’s a big mountain. It’s not just a hill. [I only realised this when I went there myself.] Party-goers don’t come here. ‘
Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was staying at a secluded Airbnb in Masca, a village in north-west Lancashire. The island is set in a vast mountainous region and he was last seen by the Airbnb owner after he went to the island with two men after an NRG music event, when he was seen walking away asking when the next bus was coming. Tenerife, where he was staying with friends
On the eighth day of the search in rural Teno Park, which has involved mountain rescue teams, local police, private security and the fire department, clues about what happened there are still not clear.
But grainy CCTV footage shows someone the family believes resembles Jay walking through Santiago del Teide’s church square at 6pm last Monday. They’ll show the photo, along with posters of the missing teen, to people in the village to see if it can jog any memories.
And Jay’s mother Debbie spoke of a possible sighting in Santiago del Teide: “Someone said they saw someone they thought was Jay walking back along the road, sitting on a bench. He was with two men who looked a bit worn out and they were standing outside the church and this guy came forward and told the police and they are investigating.
We don’t know for sure if it was Jay but it’s a start. They said it was around 6pm, ten hours after the woman saw him in the village. But if it was him, what was he doing there and who were the two men?
Rachel Hargreaves, a family friend, told the Manchester Evening News they would “do anything to bring him home”. She also praised mountain rescue teams for their continued work.
“We have to take every initiative and act accordingly,” she said. “After being there [on the mountain] ourselves and after all the searches, we were under the impression that he couldn’t be there. We (…) are doing everything we can to bring him home. This morning I told the police where the security cameras are around here. We’re not giving up.
“He’s a smart kid, almost a skilled bricklayer. He’d stick out there like a sore thumb and someone would see him. They’ve got foot patrols, drones, helicopters.” The mountain rescue teams mapped the area and showed us they were doing their best. They had a detailed map and showed us where they were searching.”