Over two weeks have elapsed since British teenager Jay Slater vanished while on holiday in Tenerife – and Spanish police still have no idea what happened to him.
Slater, a trainee bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire disappeared after attending the New Rave Generation music festival in the morning after a night out on June 17.
His family are desperate for answers but rather than provide them, the authorities on the island have instead spurned offers of outside help from UK police and suspended on-the-ground searches.
The Tenerife Police have repeatedly insisted that there is no evidence of a crime having been committed but as each day brings new revelations, the questions around what happened show no sign of abating.
Here senior MailOnline reporter Nick Pisa – who has been on the case longer than any other journalist – poses ten questions which could hold the key to revealing what really became of Jay Slater
Jay Slater pictured with his mother Debbie Duncan. The teenager has been missing since June 17
Volunteers gathering ahead of a final ‘massive search’ for Jay Slater, which was called off by Spanish police the following day
Jay travelled to the Casa Abuela Tina Airbnb (pictured) in the village of Masca with two older British men before he went missing
1. When exactly was Jay reported missing?
Mystery still surrounds the exact time that Jay was reported missing to police.
His friend Lucy Law, who was on holiday with him in Tenerife, said she lost contact with him at 8.50am on June 17 when he phoned her to say he was ‘lost in the mountains, needed a drink and had one per cent on his battery’. Then the line went dead. Lucy says she called police at 9am to report him missing.
However, police have told MailOnline that Jay was officially reported missing ‘in the late afternoon early evening of June 17’.
So, when was he reported missing and when did police start searching for him. Were vital hours lost in the hunt for him in those crucial first hours when he vanished?
2. Why did Jay go back to the Airbnb?
At 5am on June 17 Jay left a rave at the NRG dance music festival on Veronica’s Strip at Playas de Americas in the south of Tenerife – and got into a Seat Leon hire car with British man Ayub Qassim, 31, and Qassim’s unnamed friend.
While in the car Jay sent a Snapchat message to his friends boasting that he had just stolen a £12,000 Rolex watch from a reveller and was going to sell it for £10,000.
Quite why Jay went from Playas de Americas – where he was already renting a holiday apartment – and travelled the hour it took Qasim to drive 19 miles to the Airbnb in the Rural de Teno park, close to Masca village is open to speculation.
Initial reports suggested that he had ditched his friends to go back to the apartment with the two men ‘for a few beers’, although this now seems like an unlikely scenario.
The £40-a-night Casa Abuela Tina holiday rental near the remote village of Masca where Jay spent his final hours before going missing
In its Airbnb listing Casa Abuela Tina is described as being a farmhouse within the ‘unique natural landscape’ surrounding it
3. Why did Jay leave the Airbnb?
If Jay did indeed come back to the Airbnb because he didn’t have anywhere else to stay like Qassim has claimed, then why did he leave so soon after arriving instead of resting?
He left the remote cottage after less than 90 minutes there to catch the bus back to Playa de las Americas.
The last person to see him alive was cleaner Ophelia Media Hernandez, who told him that the next bus wasn’t due for another two hours.
She said that Jay then walked away ‘quickly’, but crucially the wrong way – up the hill towards the gorge instead of down towards the city.
Was he trying to put distance between himself and Casa Abuela Tina?
Ophelia told MailOnline she saw Jay 15 minutes later walked ‘quickly’ but crucially the wrong way – up the hill towards the gorge instead of downhill towards Playa de las Americas.
The area is a tourist trap and cars regularly drive up and down, why not stop a car or thumb a lift? Why not just wait in the café?
4. Who else was at the Airbnb?
MailOnline identified the man who took Jay back to Casa Abuela Tina as convicted drug smuggler Ayub Qassim, who insisted that Jay left the holiday rental alive.
But Jay’s friends told us and the police that he went back to Masca with two men – so who was the other? Ayub refused to tell us without speaking to his lawyer.
Although both men have been spoken to by Spanish police and deemed ‘irrelevant’, why were they allowed to leave Tenerife without further questioning as they were the last people to have spent significant time with him on June 17, the day he disappeared?
Ayub Abdul (pictured) rented the Airbnb which missing raver Jay Slater visited just before he disappeared
A Snapchat picture Jay sent to friends on the doorstep of the cottage at 7.30am, in which he was holding a cigarette
Ayub Qassim invited Jay, 19, back to his rented holiday cottage after a rave in Tenerife and says: ‘He came to my Airbnb alive and he left my Airbnb alive’
Ayub Qassim told MailOnline that he knew Jay and his friends
Why did Ayub and his unidentified fellow traveller only book the £40 a night AirBnB at 15.48 on June 14 and then arrive just over 90 minutes later?
Why did they choose to stay in a rural location in Masca, an hour from the heady nightclubs of Playa de las Americas, a two hour round trip along a roller-coaster mountain road, from where they were staying and where they were spotted each night?
5. Was the theft of a Rolex significant?
Have police concluded that Jay stealing a Rolex watch that night is relevant to his disappearance?
We know that Jay admitted on Snapchat to stealing the watch. We know it reportedly belonged to a burley Eastern European man – and that Jay’s friend Brandon told police there had been a fight outside Papagayo’s nightclub after the theft.
Now that we know he stole the watch, did that contribute to his disappearance? Did something happen at the Airbnb relating to the watch? Where is the watch now?
6. Why do Jay’s friends’ statements not stack up?
Ayub Qassim told MailOnline that he knew Jay and his friends.
But Jay’s friends have previously claimed that they only met Qassim and his friend in Tenerife at the NRG dance music festival.
Inconsistencies with witnesses’ statements – and recollections being impaired through drink and drugs are hampering the police effort to find Jay – but how much?
Spanish police called off the hunt for the apprentice bricklayer two weeks after he went missing
Jay’s father Warren and brother Zak today hike through the mountain track where Jay’s phone was last located
Jay was on his first-ever friends holiday with Lucy Law (pictured) and Brad Hargreaves when he went missing in Tenerife
Brad Hargreaves (pictured) said he spoke to Jay on the phone before he went missing
7. Why have Spanish police refused help from British counterparts?
Four days after Jay disappeared, Lancashire police offered assistance to Spain’s Guardia Civil – but the polite offer was turned down.
In a statement they said: ‘Whilst this case falls outside the jurisdiction of UK policing, we have made an offer of support to the Guardia Civil to see if they need any additional resources. They have confirmed that at this time they are satisfied that they have the resources they need, but the offer remains open and they will contact us should the position change.’
When asked by MailOnline why they had turned down the offer, a spokesman refused to reply and maintained the same standard response they have given throughout – and said: ‘All lines of investigation into Jay Slater’s disappearance remain open and are being pursued.’
Investigations in Spain are covered by ‘judicial secrecy’ meaning that there is effectively a media blackout.
It is known that the investigation is ongoing, despite the search of the mountain where Jay’s phone last pinged having ended.
Former Met Police officer Graham Wettone told MailOnline that Spanish police should accept the offer even as an option for ‘another pair of eyes’ to look over the evidence.
Emergency workers near the village of Masca, Tenerife, on June 21
Investigations in Spain are covered by ‘judicial secrecy’ meaning that there is effectively a media blackout
It is known that the investigation is ongoing, despite the search of the mountain where Jay’s phone last pinged having ended
Four days after Jay disappeared, Lancashire police offered assistance to Spain’s Guardia Civil – but the polite offer was turned down
The area of Tenerife where 19-year-old Jay Slater went missing
Police officers overlook the village of Masca, Tenerife on June 21
8. Is Jay’s past relevant?
Shortly after he disappeared it emerged that Jay had been convicted as part of an eight strong gang who launched a brutal attack against fellow teenager Tom Hilton, in Rishton, Lancashire close to his home in Oswaldtwistle.
Tom suffered a split skull and injuries to his shoulders and legs, after being hit with a machete, axe and golf clubs in what was likened to a ‘pack of gorillas’.
Despite laughing his way through the trial, Jay was handed an 18-month community order which included 25 days’ worth of rehabilitation activities.
Even if he did turn over a new leaf in Britian, his trip to a Tenerife music festival ended with vanishing without a trace after an evening spent fraternising with drug dealers and helping steal a luxury watch.
Was it a coincidence that Jay fell in with the wrong crowd before disappearing… or a fatal mistake?
9. Why have the Spanish police called off the search for Jay?
After two weeks of activity, police in Tenerife stunned Jay’s mother and wider family by suspending the search last Monday – despite having found no trace of him.
Parties of police officers, rescue workers and volunteers had spent that period repeatedly scouring the mountainous area near to where the 19-year-old was last seen.
They searched caves, ravines and paths, looking for any indication of what happened to Jay – and were supported in the hunt by helicopters, drones and dogs.
Announcing the shock decision, the Guardia Civil said that the investigation would remain open and that any relevant new information would be looked into – but active seeking would cease with immediate effect.
This was despite an ongoing offer from police in Jay’s native Lancashire to deploy officers to assist.
Why have they taken this extraordinary step when there is so much interest from Jay’s family and his home nation to find him?
Pictured: Jay Slater, the teenager who went missing on Tenerife
Jay’s father Warren along with with Jay’s mother Debbie and a number of his friends flew to the Spanish island to help over the past two weeks
Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan and father Warren Slater leaving the Guardia Civil in Playa de las Americas
10. Why has the case captured the public imagination?
The case of Jay Slater has sparked a huge amount of media interest – but underpinning this has been an even greater appetite for news from the general public. This has been particularly fueled by social media discussion – with Facebook particularly seeing huge numbers of people join in speculative discussions about the mystery.
This started with a ‘Find Jay’ Facebook group and has since spawned other variations.
This in turn has led to each new development being analysed and debated by the groups that have formed around the case.
In this sense the investigation around Jay’s disappearance has echoes of the case of Nicola Bulley.
The young mother went missing while walking her dog by the River Wyre in Lancashire last January -creating a mystery that captivated the UK for days before her body was finally found. She had drowned.
