The dad of missing raver Jay Slater has widened his personal search for his son - three weeks to the day after he went missing in Tenerife.
Warren Slater, and Jay’s brother Zak, joined a small group who spent the day hiking through the neighbouring valleys to where the 19-year-old was last seen. But frustrated Warren said it would take an army 10 years to search all of the rugged mountainous terrain.
He told how they had been on “two wild goose chases” yesterday to abandoned buildings when they hoped Jay could be. Warren continued to voice his frustration at the local police investigation, calling for British cops to get involved and help the family.
After spending the morning scouring mountains in the Los Carrizales Valley the small search party stopped for a quick lunch in the village of Santiago del Teidi - before heading back into the hills. They have moved on from the Valley of Barranco de Juan Lopez, close to the village of Masca, where Jay’s phone last pinged.
Warren said: “I’ve been through 80% of that valley, so we went further along. We’ve drove and we’ve walked down the path at the next village, up the mountain there’s a viewpoint that looks down, you can either follow the road, but we didn’t, we parked up and walked down.”
He said when they reached the end of the path there was a sheer drop down a cliff edge. Warren said he couldn’t understand why Jay would leave the road. “It doesn’t make sense, he’s either hid himself, but why would he hide himself? Or he’s just ….?”
Apprentice bricklayer Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, disappeared on the Spanish island on June 17. He was last seen leaving an Airbnb in the north of the island, close to the village of Masca. The teenager, who was on holiday with his pals Lucy, 18, and Brad Hargreaves, 19, had previously been partying at the Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas.
He left the event with two British men to go back to the rented property. Warren said the family had still heard nothing from the Spanish police over the past few days - and they would like British officers to interview the two men who took Jay to the Airbnb.
“We need to, as a full family, do a proper press conference and ask the British authorities to help. He’s a British citizen. Get Interpol involved. It’s just us. I haven’t got a team. We need a team to come over here and find out for us what the police are doing and what we need to do. Our hands are tied over here, we need experts. How long can you stay here for? It’ll take an army 10 years to cover all this. I’d employ a team of Gurkhas.”
Warren added: “We’ve done the valley where his ping was, we’ve gone up the road to a vantage point, there’s cliffs there and there’s a valley and a village there.” He said he couldn’t understand why anyone would attempt to hike through the brambles and cacti when there was a rough path there.
“All I’m thinking is common sense, would you try and walk through there. Where we’ve been today you can see there’s a hikers path with proper stones. We’ve gone straight down and you end up in the village.” In the valley where they first searched is a small cave just off the path and also a dilapidated stone building half way down the track with women’s clothes in it - and also a bottle of water which he could have picked up.
“I’d go into the first building you see. An ideal spot for shelter is that little cave isn’t it, get a bit of shade, you’re hungover, get your head down in there. The police are convinced that’s where his last ping were”
He also questioned why no-one had seen his son walking along the twisting mountain road in a popular tourist spot. “From the bnb, he’s a fit lad, 25 minutes you can get to the top, to where the cafe is. If he’s followed the road and been where we’ve been today, it’s took him an hour and a half.
“Dozens of cars would have gone past him. We got here at 9am and the 10am bus passed us. And it would have passed him. I’ve been up here three weeks and I’ve never seen as many cars. "The Airbnb Jay visited was rented by convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim.
He has said: “I let the geezer stay at mine because he had nowhere else to go. His friends had all left him. I know Jay, through friends, I'm not going to bring someone back to mine if I don't know them. I'm doing the geezer a favour and now my face is all over the news. It's a bit mental. I haven't even done anything.”
Qassim added: “The only comment I have to make is that Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.” A search by the Spanish authorities ended last weekend after 14 days.