Jay Slater’s family release new photo of missing teen in Tenerife | World | News

The family of missing teenager Jay Slater has released a new photo of him as they continue their hope of being reunited.

The 19-year-old was last heard from in the northwest of Tenerife after staying at an Airbnb in Masca on June 17. He told a friend Lucy Law that he was planning to walk back to the south of the island before his phone battery went dead.

It led to a major search operation that was called off last Sunday with no signs of the teenager from Lancashire.

His mum Debbie Duncan has now given her first public comment since the search ended and released a new photo of a son she called her “beautiful boy”.

She said: “My son, Jay Dean Slater, came to the holiday island of Tenerife on the 13th of June with his friend to attend a music festival.

“On the 17th of June after not returning to his apartment he was reported as a missing person. Jay is a normal guy who is in his third year of an apprenticeship, and he is a very popular young man with a large circle of friends.”

“We are a very close family and are absolutely devastated about his disappearance. Words cannot describe the pain and agony we are experiencing. He is our beautiful boy with his whole life ahead of him and we just want to find him.”

Spanish forensic teams were seen at the Airbnb where Jay was last reported to have been seen, and today his dad Warren Slater and mum Debbie Duncan spent several hours with officers at the police HQ in Tenerife. 

Speaking as she left the meeting with investigators Debbie said: “We don’t know anything about the investigation. We’re leaving it to the police.”

She added: “Let’s keep it going, keep it alive. Let them (the police) get on with it, we’ve got to trust in these people.”

In the UK Lancashire Police, the force from Jay’s home county, said today they “remained open” to assisting Spanish authorities if the need arose.