“I Just Want My Baby Back” Mother of Missing Brit Jay Slater Issues Plea After ‘False Sighting’ Delays Search
The mother of missing British teenager Jay Slater has issued an emotional plea for help after a ‘false sighting‘ delayed the search for him in Tenerife.
Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was traveling to the Canary Islands for a weekend music festival with two friends when he disappeared late on Sunday evening. The teenager was attending the ‘New Rave Generation’ (NRG) festival but chose to stay behind with a group of strangers he had met instead of returning to his accommodation with friends.
His devastated mother, who flew out to Tenerife to assist in the search, shared her anguish. “It’s a nightmare. It’s just an absolute living nightmare,” Debbie Duncan told ITN. “It’s like a dream – it’s like it’s not happening, it really is. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. I just want my baby back. Please, just anybody who can help, just look for him. There’s a massive area up there, massive. It’s over 48 hours now since he last had any contact with anybody. He’s out there somewhere, or somebody knows where he is. We just need to find my baby” via Daily Mail.
Authorities initially focused their search on the mountainous area of northwest Tenerife but shifted their efforts to the tourist hotspots of Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas in the south following an alleged sighting of Jay getting out of a taxi. This report was later proven false, forcing police to return their attention to the original search site.
Jay disappeared after calling his friend, Lucy Mae, around 8 a.m. on Monday. He sounded disoriented, explaining that he was “in the middle of mountains” with “nothing around.” Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Lucy recounted, “He’s gone on a night out, he’s gone to a friend’s house, someone that he has met on holiday. One of the people he has met has hired a car out of here, so he’s driven them back to his apartment and Jay has gone there not realizing how far away it is. He’s ended up out in the middle of nowhere. Jay was obviously thinking he would be able to get home from there. But then in the morning he set off walking, using his Maps on his phone, and ended up in the middle of the mountains with nothing around. He rang me saying his phone was on 1 percent, he said ‘I don’t know where I am, I need a drink and my phone is about to die.'”
A final Snapchat video from Jay revealed him smiling and laughing the evening before he went missing. Lucy has been frantically searching for her friend on the island, making several reports to local police and contacting the British Embassy. She spoke to the people Jay was with on Sunday night, who said he left their apartment around 8 a.m. on Monday, reported The Sun.
“I’ve never been so worried in my life. I was there all yesterday, a lovely lady messaged me on Facebook and said she had hired a car and would drive me up there,” Lucy added. “We were there all of yesterday, we were driving around looking everywhere, looking in all the nooks and crannies.”
Speaking from the south of the island, Jay’s mother said, “I’m obviously beside myself with worry, which is why I’ve flown out here with my eldest son to do anything we can to help. We’re just praying the police or someone finds Jay. I know there’s a mountain rescue team out and a helicopter. Nothing’s ever going to be enough when your youngest son’s gone missing, but it sounds as if the police here are taking this very seriously and doing the best job they can.”
Debbie also revealed that she had received “sickening” prank calls from several hidden numbers claiming they had taken Jay and were holding him for ransom. According to friends, Jay attempted to make his way home across a mountainous area close to Tenerife’s Teno Rural Park around 8 a.m. His phone is believed to have switched off around 8:50 a.m. The last known location was close to the PR-TF51 hiking trail, several hundred feet above the village of Masca in southern Tenerife. He was said to be wearing a white t-shirt, shorts, trainers, and a black bag at the time he disappeared.
The British Foreign Office stated, “We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities.” Jay’s sister-in-law, Jessica Rogers, noted in a Facebook group set up to locate him that the family has “had no updates”, via GB News.
One friend wrote on Facebook, “I can’t take my eyes off the Masca webcam! Been staring at it for hours thinking somehow he’s just gonna dander down them steps. Stranger things have happened eh.” Another added, “Hoping Jay is found soon, every mother’s worst nightmare.”
Temperatures in the south of Tenerife peaked at around 26 degrees Celsius on Monday, adding to the urgency of the search.