During his last phone conversation with his closest buddy, Jay Slater «veered off main road and could have slipped on rocks»; Spanish police are requesting volunteers to assist in a «massive search»
On June 17, Jay Slater, 19, disappeared during a night out in Tenerife with pals.
As Jay Slater attempted to make his way back to his accommodations from the isolated mountains of Tenerife, he deviated off the main road and may have fallen over rocks while speaking with his best buddy.
At the three-day NRG music festival on the Spanish island, Brad Hargreaves, with whom Jay was partying, spoke for the first time since his friend went missing on June 17.
After spending the night on the notorious Veronicas strip in the Playa de las Americas resort on Tenerife, Jay, an Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire resident, has not been seen since returning to an Airbnb close to the isolated village of Masca with two males.
He was last observed ascending a hill close to the untamed Rural de Teno national park at approximately 8:15 a.m.
Prior to this, Brad and Jay’s acquaintance Lucy Mae Law disclosed that Jay had called her at approximately 8.50am, describing himself as «tired, thirsty, and disoriented» with only 1% of his phone’s charge remaining.
In a recent post, however, Brad revealed that he had also spoken to Jay over the phone the morning he vanished, going into detail about their final exchange, which was presumably a video call.
«He was on the phone and he goes, ‘I’m not walking down all around that road and he’s gone over like a little… not a big drop but a tiny little drop going down there,'» Brad recalled in an interview with This Morning in Tenerife. He says, «I promise to call you back.» I believe there was another caller to him.
«If he had been thinking like me, he wouldn’t have gone all the way down there; instead, he would have gone back up and started walking around the path again.»
‘And you claimed you could see his feet and he was literally sort of sliding down the hill, you could hear the rocks?’ the reporter then questioned him.
Yes, that’s how I knew he got off the road, Brad retorted. You know, when you walk on gravel or anything, you can—you know what I mean—tumble stones.
Brad responded, «Not at the time because we were both, like, laughing about it,» when asked if he was worried. ‘Look where I am,’ he declared. On the phone, he didn’t appear worried until we found out how far away he was.
«Set your location on,» I said. «Fifteen minutes by car, fourteen hours by foot,» he said. ‘It’s only a 15-minute trip, hire a cab,’ I told him, without knowing if it was true or not.
Brad has been speaking as Spanish police called for an ‘army of volunteers’ to join them in a massive search tomorrow.
It comes as:
Jay Slater cops issue mass appeal for volunteers to join ‘massive search’ in mountainous Tenerife area
Spanish police focus search for missing Jay Slater on caves close to ravine in remote part of Tenerife
MailOnline revealed new photos of Jay chatting with friends at a hotel pool party just two days before he went missing;
Spanish police sent up drones as they continued their search for the missing British teenager;
Jay’s mother said she’s at her ‘wit’s end’ and revealed his ex-girlfriend Jessica Ingham was among those who had travelled to Tenerife with him;
True crime internet sleuths with no connections to Jay flew to Tenerife to join the hunt;
Jay’s father accused Spanish police of keeping the family in the dark.
Brad Hargreaves (pictured), who Jay was partying with at the three-day NRG music festival on the Spanish island, has spoken for the first time since his friend vanished on June 17
Jay Slater, pictured with his mother, has not been seen since June 17 after he went missing following a night out in Tenerife’s Playa de las Americas resort
The apprentice bricklayer went back to the Casa Abuela Tina Airbnb (pictured) near the rugged Rural de Teno national park with two men
The apprentice mason returned with two men to the Casa Abuela Tina Airbnb (shown below), which is close to the untamed Rural de Teno national park.
Together with two individuals he had met at the music festival, Jay returned to the Casa Abuela Tina Airbnb. Around eight in the morning, according to the property owner, she observed Jay standing at a nearby bus stop.
When he found out that there wouldn’t be a bus to Los Cristianos until 10 a.m., he decided to trek the 11 hours or so there on foot.
A police spokeswoman stated today that officers were getting ready for a «coordinated large scale operation» on Saturday, marking their first straight call for assistance.
The Masca Gorge, which is around 3000 feet above sea level and has been searched by police, dogs, drones, and helicopters since he was reported missing, will be the main focus of the search.
As the search for Jay enters its twelfth day, it comes amid criticism of the Spanish for turning down an offer of assistance from their Lancashire counterparts last week.
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According to a spokeswoman, the ‘unexperienced’ public was not being asked to assist with the search.
The GoFundMe page created to help the family out financially broke the £40,000 mark.
This is in response to reports that eerie tourists on «Jeep safari tours» are converging at the Tenerife Airbnb where Jay spent his last hours before disappearing.
Jay hardly stayed at Casa Abuela Tina for a few hours, but it seems that the home, which was once frequented by hikers trying to ascend the Teno mountains, has turned into a tourist attraction.
The Times notes that groups of British visitors and rental car drivers from Jeep’safari’ trips are clogging the road outside the two-bedroom farmhouse.
«This is our second time here,» a woman who lives in Birmingham and Spain said to the newspaper. I just wanted to see it one more time, so I asked to drive this route. I’d like to know some answers.
«It truly chills me,» she continued.
Many online detectives have flown to Tenerife to join the hunt in the mountains in response to the teenager’s mysterious disappearance.
Despite claims from Spanish officials that ‘inaccurate’ conspiracy theories on social media have muddied the case, Jay’s frantic family has enlisted the aid of one TikTok investigator, Paul Arnott.
Since Saturday, the 29-year-old, who goes by the handle Down the Rapids on TikTok and calls himself a «explorer,» has been looking for Jay.
