The search for Jay Slater, the 19-year-old British man who disappeared in the Teno Rural Park (Tenerife) on Monday, continues to yield no results after five days of searching. This has been confirmed by sources from the Guardia Civil, which is directing the search operation with dogs, drones, helicopters and the mountain rescue teams looking in ravines that are up to 600 metres deep.
The case has had massive coverage in the British press, who has sent several journalists and TV crews to the island, and has generated multiple conspiracy theories on social media. In the last few days, several groups have been created on Facebook in which possible hypotheses are discussed and are made up of hundreds of thousands of people, who are making their thoughts and theories public.
The biggest one by far with more than 460,000 members, called JAY SLATER MISSING - ONLY OFFICIAL GROUP, was created by Jay's friends, including Lucy Mae who originally reported him missing and, she claims, was the last person to speak with the missing holidaymaker before he seemed to have disappeared.
Lucy Mae made some controversial statements on ITV News this Thursday, in which she stated that the Guardia Civil was not doing everything in its power to find Jay Slater and that there were numerous "questions that needed answering" and that she wanted the UK police to get involved in the investigation.
Many of these comments have angered Canarians in Tenerife and the local Spanish press, as she is bringing into question the abilities of the islands police and specialist rescue teams, who know the terrain and processes involved in a search like this much better than a young British ‘TikToker’.
Atlantico Hoy newspaper commented by saying that “it is necessary to point out two things. Firstly, the Guardia Civil, Agents from the Special Mountain Intervention Rescue Groups (GREIM), Civil Protection of Buenavista del Norte, and the volunteer firefighters of Santiago del Teide have deployed a significant operation on the ground, with Canine Division dogs, drones, and helicopters from the air.”
“Secondly, it should also be noted that the Guardia Civil is not leading the search party, but is carrying out an investigation of the events that involves records and interviews with the last people who saw Jay Slater, online teams looking at CCTV, social media and other leads on the internet, and that, since the investigation is still ongoing, the results of these have not been made public because they are being conducted under the secrecy act.”
From what is known so far, the people Jay Slater was with in Masca or Teno have been cooperative and have been interrogated by the Guard Civil. They are also British citizens who have already returned to the United Kingdom, although the police have kept a copy of their passports.
In addition, investigators have also searched the apartment he stayed in, in search of evidence to determine Slater's whereabouts. The Guardia Civil has always maintained that no hypothesis has been ruled out and are still treating it as a missing persons case, not a kidnapping, even though conspiracy theories are multiplying.
