Missing Jay Slater’s mum ‘at her wit’s end’ as major search for son continues

Jay Slater’s heartbroken mum has said she is ‘at her wit’s end’ as major search efforts to find her son continue in Tenerife for another gruelling week.

19-year-old Jay, from Lancashire, has now been missing since June 17, when he disappeared in the mountains of north west Tenerife. He had stayed at an Airbnb rental the night before he vanished after ‘walking off alone’.

On the ninth day of the rescue mission, that has seen the Civil Guard, fire crews and mountain rescue teams deployed to the vast and ‘treacherous’ Rural de Teno Park, Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan said she has ‘barely slept’ and that she is ‘at her wit’s end with worry’.

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“It’s been a week now and it’s been awful. I’ve barely slept and I’m at my wits’ end,” she told the Daily Mail. “The Spanish police are doing a good job and we are getting updated from the consulate so we just put our faith in them.”

The 19-year-old was reported missing on June 17 while on a holiday with friends. He attended the NRG rave in the Playa de las Americas resort, before reportedly travelling over 30km to stay in the rural village of Masca with two men he had met.

He has not been seen or heard from since his phone is said to have died in the middle of a vast ravine, with major efforts continuing to trace him.

Jay’s family previously told the Manchester Evening News that police are probing a possible new sighting of Jay, at around 6pm on June 17 – ten hours after he was last heard from in the Masca area.

Although not confirmed by the Civil Guard, CCTV footage appears to show a man, that Jay’s family say matches his description, walking through a church square in the village of Santiago del Teide, around 7km away from Masca.

Jay’s dad Warren Slater said: “You think, has somebody got him? Because no matter if you were drunk or whatever, you don’t go off that road up there.

“And there are people up there… you don’t go along that road for more than 20 minutes without somebody stopping you or passing you.

“I knew right from when I went up there that he wouldn’t have gone [off that road]. He isn’t stupid. When I saw the police I asked them, seriously, ‘would you go off that road?’ and I think it woke them up a bit.”