Timeline: The search for missing teenager Jay Slater in Tenerife
The apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, had attended the NRG music festival with friends before his disappearance.
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Your support makes all the difference.British teenager Jay Slater vanished on the Spanish holiday island of Tenerife last month, prompting a search effort which spanned weeks and involved family members, police and volunteers.
The apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, had attended the NRG music festival with friends before his disappearance, and his last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island, which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.
A body has been found in the search for the 19-year-old, and below are the key events leading up to the discovery:
– Sunday June 16
Mr Slater attends the NRG music festival with friends at Papagayo nightclub in the tourist resort of Playa de las Americas in the south of the island.
– Monday June 17
In the early hours of Monday he goes to stay in an apartment in the north of the island with people he had met over the course of the night.
– 7.30amMr Slater posts a picture on Snapchat from the doorway of the property he stayed at overnight, tagged as being in Rural de Teno park.
– 8.30am
He calls his friend, Lucy Law, telling her he had attempted to walk back to his accommodation after missing his bus – a journey that would take more than 10 hours.
In the frantic last phone call, Mr Slater says he had “cut his leg” on a cactus and had “no idea where he was”.
Ms Law says her friend told her he was “lost in the mountains, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, he desperately needed a drink and his phone was on 1%”.
Mr Slater’s phone runs out of battery shortly after with his last known location being in Rural de Teno park.
– 9.04am
He is reported missing.
– Tuesday June 18
After friends spend the previous day searching to no avail, local police and mountain rescue teams scour Rural de Teno park for Mr Slater.
His family fly out to Tenerife to join the search.
– Wednesday June 19
The search is temporarily moved to the Los Cristianos area in the south of the island because of a potential lead, but this is quickly discounted and the search returns north.
Mr Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, says she feared her son had “been taken against his will”.
– Thursday June 20
The search returns to Rural de Teno park, around the village of Masca.
Emergency workers meet in various locations throughout the day, combing bushes, overgrown terrain, hillsides and rivers, but fail to find the missing teenager.
– Friday June 21
Spanish police reject an offer of support from Lancashire Constabulary as the hunt continues.
Police, firefighters and search and rescue personnel comb a vast area of land in and around the village of Masca.
Search and rescue personnel carefully look through dead palm trees covering a river at the bottom of the hillside near to an Airbnb property Mr Slater had reportedly been driven to.
The owner of the property tells reporters she saw Mr Slater walk up the road past her property but did not see him again after that – describing the situation as worrying.
– Saturday June 22
Mr Slater’s mother issues a direct plea to her missing son on the sixth day of the hunt, saying: “We just need you home.”
Firefighters appear to conduct the majority of the searches as they wear helmets to tackle dangerous hillside terrain in Tenerife.
The search parties seem noticeably smaller compared with other days – with only a handful of emergency workers visible in the village of Masca and the surrounding areas.
As we approach four weeks of our beautiful Jay’s disappearance, we cannot put into words the heartache we are suffering as a family
– Sunday June 23
Search teams narrow their efforts on small buildings close to where Mr Slater’s phone last pinged.
Officers from the Guardia Civil in the Canary Island can be seen circling two structures at the bottom of a ravine in Rural de Teno Park.
Efforts appear to be solely focused on the one area after days of searches in the village of Masca and the surrounding landscape.
– Thursday June 27
Mr Slater’s mother says she will use donations from the GoFundMe appeal set up by Ms Law, to fund her stay on Tenerife.
Ms Duncan says the £36,000 raised by more than 3,200 individual donations will be used to support mountain rescue teams, and to cover her own accommodation and food costs during her extended stay on the island.
– Friday June 28
The Guardia Civil appeal for volunteer associations, such as firefighters, and individual volunteers who are experts in rugged terrain to assist in a “busqueda masiva”, or massive search, to take place on Saturday.
– Saturday June 29
A renewed search for Mr Slater gets under way in the village of Masca, near to his last-known location, co-ordinated to take in a steep rocky area, including ravines, trails and paths.
– Sunday June 30
Spanish police call off the search for the missing teenager.
A Guardia Civil spokesperson reportedly says: “The search operation has now finished, although the case remains open.”
It is understood that Mr Slater’s family and friends will stay in Tenerife to continue to look for him.
– Tuesday July 2
Ms Duncan says “words cannot describe the pain and agony we are experiencing” after searches fail to trace her missing son.
In a statement issued through the British overseas missing persons charity LBT Global, she says the land search for her son has been called off, but thanks the Guardia Civil who she says “worked tirelessly up in the mountains where Jay’s last phone call was traced”.
– Wednesday July 3
In a statement on the GoFundMe appeal Get Jay Slater Home, which had raised almost £50,000 as of Wednesday, Ms Duncan thanks the “vast” generosity of donors, saying her family are “grateful for all of your support and kindness during this unimaginable time”.
She writes that part of the funds will be used to support volunteers hunting for Mr Slater in the mountains near to where his last phone call was traced.
– Sunday July 14
The missing teenager’s mother speaks of her “heartache” and criticises “awful comments and conspiracy theories” as it approaches a month since Mr Slater disappeared.
In a statement released through LBT Global, Ms Duncan says: “As we approach four weeks of our beautiful Jay’s disappearance, we cannot put into words the heartache we are suffering as a family.”
Ms Duncan says the family wish to thank the public for “their continued support and well wishes” and praises the British Embassy and police for “doing all they can to support us”.
But she also criticises “awful comments and conspiracy theories” posted on social media, which she brands “vile” and says were “hindering” people trying to help locate the teenager.
– Monday July 15
A body is found in the search for Mr Slater.
Charity LBT Global says that, while formal identification has not yet taken place, the remains were found with the 19-year-old’s clothes and possessions near his last known location.
Members of a mountain rescue team from the Spanish Civil Guard discovered the body near the village of Masca on Monday.
The force says Mr Slater could have fallen in the steep and inaccessible area where the body was discovered.