Search for missing teenager in Tenerife called off by police- QHN

The search for missing British teenager Jay Slater in Tenerife has been called off, police say.

“The search operation is over. Yesterday was the final day of the search,” Tenerife’s Guardia Civil told the BBC.

The 19-year-old from Lancashire has been missing since 17 June, after he told a friend he was lost in the mountains.

Police carried out a new search on Saturday with the help of dozens of emergency workers near the village of Masca, in the Rural de Teno national park.

Confirming that the search for Mr Slater was no longer “active”, a Guardia Civil spokeswoman told Reuters that “the case is still open and there are several lines of investigation”.

Since the teenager disappeared almost two weeks ago, the Spanish authorities have deployed helicopter crews, specially trained search dogs and drones.

A new search on Saturday focused on an area previously explored but was intended to be more extensive after a call was put out for help from volunteers with specialist mountain experience.

It was hoped the operation would be a “massive search” but less than 12 members of the public had arrived at the meeting point shortly before it began, BBC reporters on the ground observed.

The search took in ravines and steep, rocky terrain that surrounded the small village where Mr Slater was last seen.

But by Sunday morning there were no emergency vehicles or personnel to be seen in Masca.

The apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle, had been attending the NRG music festival on 16 June, and his friends said they were out in the tourist hotspot of Playa de las Americas when he was seen getting into a car with two British men he met earlier in the night.

The next morning, 17 June, he was tagged in a photo posted on Snapchat at 07:30 BST at an Airbnb in Masca, which was reportedly being rented by the two men.

Investigators have spoken to the pair and they are “not in any way relevant to the case”.

He was last heard from before 09:00 BST in the Rural de Teno Park, where he called a friend to say he had missed the bus and was trying to make the 10-hour walk back to their accommodation in the south of the island.

Lucy Law said Mr Slater told her during a frantic phone call that he was “lost in the mountains”, desperately needed a drink and had 1% battery on his phone.

Best friend Brad Hargreaves told ITV he received a video call from Mr Slater around the same time in which he appeared to be sliding off a designated path, with the call showing his feet on rough ground.

Mr Hargreaves told ITV News last week: “I don’t know how or what has gone on there but he’s gone off and rang me halfway to their house saying I’m staying here and I’ll be back the next day.

“He’s rang me walking down the mountain and he just says he’s walking home.

“At the time I didn’t think anything of it I just thought he was going to get a bus home or a taxi home because that’s what he says he is going to do.

“Next thing you know his phone dies and it’s 10 days on now and nothing since.”

A GoFundMe appeal Get Jay Slater Home, set up by Ms Law, had raised more than £43,000 as the police search came to an end.

Mr Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, travelled to the island as the search took place.

She said the money raised online would be used to support mountain rescue teams, and to cover her own accommodation and food costs.

Speaking to the BBC previously, Mr Slater’s mother said: “He’s just an all-round nice, bubbly guy with hundreds of friends who love being in his company,” she said.

“He’s gorgeous, he’s beautiful. He’s my baby.”

Lancashire police referred BBC questions about the cancellation of the search to the Guardia Civil, saying its role was to support Mr Slater’s family.

• Sunday 16 June – Jay Slater and friends attend final day of the NRG music festival at Papagayo night club in the tourist hotspot of Playa de las Americas
• Monday 17 June – Between 03:00 and 06:00 BST Mr Slater gets into a car with two men he had met during the festival and left town
• 07:30 – Mr Slater posts a photograph on his Snapchat account showing him at the doorway of a property, tagged with the location Parque Rural de Teno.
• Between 08:30 and 09:00 – Mr Slater calls friends and says he missed a bus back south and was attempting to walk the 10-hour journey
• Tuesday 18 June – Despite his friends searching the area, no sign of Mr Slater emerges and he does not return to his accommodation
• Local police and mountain rescue teams begin searching and his mother and brother board a flight to Tenerife
• Wednesday 19 June – The Spanish Guardia Civil continue the search using drones, dogs and a helicopter
• The search is briefly moved to the Los Cristianos area in the south of the island due to a potential sighting, but police quickly “discount” that lead
• Thursday 20 June – The Guardia Civil, mountain rescue, firefighters and volunteers return to scour the national park around Masca village
• Saturday 22 June – Mr Slater’s mother issues a plea for her son to come home
• Sunday 23 June – Small buildings around village of Masca are searched
• Tuesday 25 June – Specially trained dogs, brought in from mainland Spain, join the search
• Friday 28 June – Police ask for volunteers with specialist mountain experience to join a “massive” search – on Saturday (29 June)
• Saturday 29 June – A new search covering an area near Masca village that has already been explored begins. BBC reporters only see a small number of volunteers at the start point
• Sunday 30 June – Guardia Civil call off the search for Mr Slater, but say that “the case is still open and there are several lines of investigation”