Yzabelle Bostyn
AS the search for missing Brit Jay Slater enters its 11th day, two key witnesses are urged to come forward with ‘crucial info’- as mother reaches her ‘wit’s end’.
Top British investigator, Mark Williams-Thomas, has revealed multiple crucial updates in the search for Jay Slater.
He gave a press conference yesterday afternoon, three days after he flew out to Tenerife to help Jay’s family, free of charge.
Now, he has pleaded for the two men who rented the Airbnb Jay left just before his disappearance, to ‘come forward with crucial information.’
Photo: Cordon Press
He said: “”What we don’t know is why, if they were partying here, they went to a holiday rental around an hour away in a really remote location.”
“They are crucial witnesses and [I could] ask questions that could get answers.”
The detective, who worked on the Nicola Bulley case, said he has identified one of the men and knows the nickname of the other, alongside what he looks like.
According to him, he is ‘about six foot tall’, ‘stocky’, with ‘quite short black hair’ and wears a ‘distinctive bright orange wristband.’
The other man is reportedly ‘slightly bigger’ and ‘much much more chatty’.
Neither of the pair attended the festival Jay and his friends travelled to Tenerife for.
He believes they are between 30 and 40 years old and have travelled back to the UK.
If they do not come forward, he claims he will continue to track them down.
The two men met Jay and his friends on ‘bars in the strip area’ of Playa de Las Americas (southern Tenerife) in the run up to Jay’s disappearance.
Williams-Thomas has claimed that before leaving the club with the two men to head to their Airbnb in the northwestern village of Masca, Jay sat on a wall outside the venue and appeared to be ‘in control of himself’.
He said: “There will be you, as well as many other people, asking very pertinent questions into why were they here, what were they doing, why did they take Jay back to that holiday rental?”
When asked his opinion on Spanish authorities allowing the men to leave Tenerife, he said: “I think the problem is that the starting point of the investigation for the Spanish authorities has been one of a missing person.
“If this was in the UK I would have started investigating this as a critical incident and I’d have done everything so that you can secure the potential crime scene. Once you’ve lost evidence you’ve lost evidence.”
He added: “One of the early thoughts of the family was that Jay was being held hostage. There have been no requests for financial remuneration in any aspect at all.”
Commenting on various sightings reported in recent days, he told Manchester Evening News: “”I have to date been able to speak to a large number of witnesses who were with him or came across him. There are a number of those that are probably not entirely truthful, and I intend to follow up with those people further.”
“”There are two key people that we have not yet spoken to, and these are the two men that took Jay back to that holiday rental in the hills. Those two men have spoken to the police – but are now back in England.”
It comes after a witness reported seeing Jay speaking with two men on a bench in Santiago del Teide, near where he went missing.
The mayor of Santiago del Teide has also claimed many people say they saw the teen watching Euros matches in the days after his disappearance.
Despite claiming that various locals had spotted Jay in or near the town, Mayor Emilio Navarro has refuted reports that CCTV footage uncovered earlier this week was captured in the town.
The blurry image showed a young man walking in front of what is reportedly the San Fernando Rey church in Santiago del Teide.
It was captured at around 06:00pm on Monday, June 17, almost ten hours after the apprentice bricklayer went missing.
Speaking to the Independent, Navarro said: “He’s not here.
“The Guardia Civil sent us an email asking for our security cameras. We could not give it to them as they are organised through a separate company, so the police are speaking to them.
“But that CCTV picture is not from us and I do not recognise that place – I do not think it is in Santiago del Teide and he is not here. We will help the police but it makes no sense. We have had family and journalists here but we have seen no police.”
It comes as a local firefighter calls the teenager’s disappearance, ‘increasingly strange.’
Speaking to Birmingham Live, Firefighter Riccardo, a member of the Brigada Forestal, said: “I’ve seen the case and about the missing boy on the internet… but the days are now passing by and it’s increasingly strange that he hasn’t appeared yet.”
Jay’s family, who have flown out to Tenerife to help with the search, did not take part in the press conference.
Speaking on their behalf, former detective Williams-Thomas said: “”The family are very grateful for you to be here. They appreciate the press are a really important aspect of the story but they are reluctant to speak because they really want to work with Spanish police, and Spanish authorities and they have not sanctioned this. We have to respect that.
“Since I have been here and worked with the family, I have spent yesterday with them and the night before and they are a very, very united family and they are very supportive and their one mission of course is to find out what happened to Jay. They still live with the hope that Jay will return and he is, not safe, but still alive.”
Jay’s mum, Debbie Duncan, has also posted an update on the GoFundMe page founded to raise money to search for the teen.
It has raised over £30,000 and Duncan is trying to release the funds to help support mountain rescue teams, as well fly loved ones to Tenerife.
She also said the funds would be used to cover the cost of food and accommodation for the family.
She said: “I wanted to share that these funds will be used to support the mountain rescue teams who are tirelessly searching for Jay.
“Additionally, since our stay in Tenerife needs to be extended, we will also use the funds to cover accommodation and food expenses.
“I’m surrounded by wonderful people who are by my side, but far from their loved ones, so we’ll also be using part of these funds to fly them to Tenerife so we can support each other during these dark times.”
Earlier this week, Duncan revealed she was ‘at her wit’s end’ and ‘hadn’t slept in nine days’.
