Jay Slater: The unanswered questions about missing teenager’s disappearance in Tenerife
With the search for missing teenager Jay Slater now in its fifth day, family and friends have spoken of their desperation and frustration with Spanish police as the case fails to make progress.
The 19-year-old was last heard from on Monday morning, when he phoned his friend Lucy Law at 8.15am to say that he was lost, dehydrated and had 1 per cent phone battery.
After attending the New Generation Rave music festival on Sunday evening, he travelled to a remote Airbnb with two men he had met at the event.
His phone’s last location was recorded at 8.50am in the Rural de Teno national park, a mountainous area, popular with hikers.
No further trace of him has been discovered.
As concerns grow for his welfare, questions have begun to emerge as to how the apprentice bricklayer has seemingly vanished in an area inundated with tourists.
Why was Mr Slater in the national park?
In his last Snapchat post at 7.30am, Mr Slater tagged Parque Rural de Teno Buenavista del Norte, an area to the north of the island, known for its rugged and sparse terrain.
He is believed to have travelled to the area during the early hours of Monday morning with two new acquaintances, without realising the distance from his apartment in the tourist area of Los Cristianos.
Around an hour later, he phoned his friend Lucy to tell her he had missed his bus, and was planning to make the 11-hour walk.
He told her he had cut his leg on a cactus, was unsure of his location and had barely any phone battery to use a maps app to make his way back.
Search teams are currently scouring the area, with police deploying helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs to help with the search.
Why did he choose an 11-hour walk instead of waiting for a bus?
Despite being pointed towards a bus stop, Mr Slater decided against waiting another two hours for a bus to take him into town.
Speaking to MailOnline, Ofelia Medina Hernandez said she had seen the teenager standing by the bus stop and had asked about buses back to Los Cristianos.
She said: “I held up my fingers on my hands to say 10am as he didn’t understand me then I went home briefly before driving up the mountain to Buenavista del Norte, but this time I saw him walking on the road out of the village.
“It was no more than ten or fifteen minutes after I had spoken to him and he was about a kilometre from the house. I drove past him and that’s the last I saw him.”
Given that there is a main road nearby, questions have been raised as to why Mr Slater appears to have wandered into the wilderness. His friend Ms Law said: “What I don’t understand is if he did walk down then why wasn’t he seen by anyone? x
“It’s a busy time of day, the place is full of hikers and holidaymakers, he could have asked them for help or stopped somewhere but no one has seen him at all.”
Who were the men Mr Slater was with?
After meeting two men, who have been described as British, during the festival, Mr Slater decided to return to their AirBnb while his friends went home.
Little is known about them, and they have since flown back to the UK after being questioned briefly by Spanish police.
In the immediate aftermath of his disappearance, his friend Ms Law tracked them down at their AirBnb after spending time matching images from Mr Slater’s Snapchat to the location.
She told MailOnline: “They seemed startled and surprised that I had found them, and I asked them where Jay was.
“They said he had gone out to try and look for cigarettes and then come back and said he was leaving to try and get a bus back into town.
“They just seemed shocked that I had managed to find them and I know the police have spoken to them but I’ve since found out they have left the country. They need to be spoken to properly.”
