Yzabelle Bostyn
MISSING Brit Jay Slater ‘fled Airbnb’ in a remote Tenerife village ‘after admitting to stealing a €14,000 Rolex’, an ex-detective has claimed.
Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas has alleged the 19-year-old was ‘scared’ to return to the Airbnb, despite having almost no phone battery.
The apprentice bricklayer had been at a rave in Playa de las Americas before travelling north to a holiday let in Masca.
During the hour-long drive in the early hours of Monday, June 17, Jay reportedly posted a Snapchat claiming that he had taken a €14,000 Rolex from an unknown person.
Photo: Adam Bignell/Unsplash
According to Williams-Thomas, Spanish police had been investigating this line of inquiry, examining security cameras and speaking to witnesses.
They claimed a fight broke out in the Papagayo Beach Club in the early morning of June 17 after a ‘burly’ Eastern European man claimed his watch was stolen.
Mark said: “Friends of Jay said he would not make this up and the watch was subject of later conversation between them.”
Jay had reportedly contacted friends multiple times while staying at the Airbnb, called Casa Abuela Tina.
He sent them a Snapchat at around 7:30 am while holding a cigarette outside the building.
Then, Jay was seen at about 08:00 am by the Airbnb host after missing a bus back to his accommodation on the south of the island.
They informed Jay there would be another bus in two hours but Jay instead set off on the 11 hour walk back to his friends.
The Casa Abuela Tina owner claims she then saw him walking off into the vast mountains surrounding Masca village.
Williams-Thomas, who has worked on many high profile cases, says Jay messaged at least three friends while on his way home to tell them he was lost.
At about 08:50am he made a desperate call to friend Lucy, saying he was lost in the ‘middle of nowhere’, with no water and only one percent phone battery.
According to the investigator: “He was told to go back by two people to the rental.
“He said he could not do that and that he’d already been walking for 30 minutes and that he was now off road and was walking on a track where there were loose stones.”
The teen sent his location to friends at both 08:49 and 08:50 am, showing him on a remote hiking path.
His phone battery died shortly after and he has not been seen or heard from since.
Investigator Williams-Thomas says Jay ‘fled’ the holiday let because he was ‘scared’.
He said: “We have received information that would suggest that Jay left the rental property feeling scared and he would not return to the rental, even though that would have been the most sensible course of action, and also where he could have charged his phone, got some water and made contact with friends.
“We continue to investigate this aspect.”
The two men Jay stayed with before he vanished have been investigated by Spanish police, who deemed them ‘not relevant’ to the case and allowed them to return to the UK.
It comes as The Mail revealed the identity of the man who booked the Airbnb, Ayub Abdul.
Abdul booked Casa Abuela Tina for three nights between June 14 and June 17.
There is no implication of wrongdoing on Abdul’s part and according to the Airbnb host, the men were ‘friendly’.
The ex-Nicola Bulley investigator, Mark Williams-Thomas, flew to Tenerife a week after Jay’s disappearance to help look for the teen.
His unofficial search team believes there is no third-party involvement and has ‘ruled out’ a ‘hostage or kidnapping situation’ due a lack of ‘credible ransom demands’.
Williams-Thomas said there were still a number of leads to investigate and is ‘keeping an open mind.’
On Monday, a Spanish judge stated there was ‘no current evidence of criminality’ in the case.
Maria Goya, the investigating judge, was informed by the Guardia Civil there is no indication that the Brit was the victim of a crime.
It comes as the official search for Jay was called off on Sunday.
However, two plain-clothed police officers searched the Airbnb on Tuesday, spending two hours in the holiday let.
Despite this, many internet sleuths believe Jay could have been kidnapped or murdered.
Jay’s family, many of whom have flown out to Tenerife to aid in the search, are in ‘agony’ after it was called off.
His mum, Debbie Duncan, said: “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.
“We do not have any information on his whereabouts.”
Hi my name on here is David irwin from Northern Ireland very sorry to hear that Jay slater haven’t found him yet tell there mum to get in touch with the fbi ok david irwin please