Jay Slater, a 19-year-old bricklayer from the UK, disappeared in Tenerife, Spain after missing a bus and walking to his accommodation. As the search for his son in Tenerife enters its second week, the father of missing British teenager Jay Slater called his experience "a living hell." "I just want him found," Warren Slater said, addressing reporters in Santiago del Teide, about four miles (6.4 km) from the search location. A week after his disappearance, local police have stated that "nothing is ruled out" in the ongoing search for the missing boy.
New footage has surfaced in which the teenager was allegedly seen dancing in a nightclub just hours before he disappeared. An eyewitness said that Slater was seen early on Monday in the Papagayo club in Playa de las Américas.
The 20-year-old man claimed he was recording people dancing so he could "remember the moment" when everyone was having a great time. He said that he saw a lad staggering around in front of him, in reference to Mr. Slater.
Who is Jay Slater?
The 19-year-old Jay Slater is an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire. He reportedly disappeared in Tenerife after he missed a bus and tried to walk back to his accommodation. Before going missing, he had gone to the NRG music festival on the island with two pals.
The 19-year-old was on his first ever holiday without his family when he vanished as he walked back to his accommodation last Monday morning. Slater called friend, Lucy Law in panic to report that he was lost and trying to walk back to their accommodations but really needed water. Slater claimed that just 1% of his phone's battery remained before the connection abruptly stopped.
A Gofundme page has also been set up for the missing teen which has raised around 35,000 GBP.
The missing 19-year-old was part of a group of eight people who attacked Tom Hilton, then 17, with a machete, golf clubs and an axe in Rishton, Lancashire, in 2021.
Due to his involvement in the violent incident, the Oswaldtwistle apprentice bricklayer was given an 18-month community order that included 150 hours of unpaid labor and 25 days of rehabilitative programs.
Online reaction to Slater’s dissappearance
The teenager’s disappearance has also attracted quite a lot of attention online, with several amateur sleuths and armchair detectives throwing out conspiracies and theories as the cause of Slater’s disappearance. Many internet users have hit out at a GoFundMe page set up by Slater’s family and friends. The family and Slater himself has been subjected to relentless trolling by the netizens. Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, responded by saying that she was let down by trolls and just hopes that she does not “find her son in a body bag.”