Jay Slater missing in Tenerife: Every word said as police hold first press conference on 13th day of search

Spanish authorities have held their first media briefing since Jay Slater went missing in Tenerife on the 13th day of the search. Today, June 29, marks the beginning of a new, 'massive search' for Jay after the Civil Guard sent out a call to arms to urge all emergency services and experienced hikers and mountaineers to join police as they hunt for the teenager.

This morning, at Mirador La Cruz de Hilda, one of the primary places where the search is focused, the Civil Guard delved into the challenges they're facing in locating Jay, reports the MEN.

"We know to a certain science that he was here because the coverage of his phone its undeniable that he was around this point. And that's where we have difficulties, because once you turn off your phone, it can no longer be traced," they explained.

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"So while he was walking - and we don't know how long he could have walked for - with his phone switched off, no antenna is going to pick that up. And the technology we have - it traces phones, but not people. We have certain clues, and we have to stick to those."

Of the two men who were with Jay at the Airbnb before his disappearance, the Civil Guard said: "[Investigators] have already spoken to the men and it didn’t have any point of relevance to the case."

Police in Tenerife made a major announcement yesterday morning (June 28) in the continued search for the 19-year-old from Lancashire. The authorities are launching a 'massive search' around the 'multitude of roads, trails and ravines that are found in Masca', the village where the 19-year-old was last tracked.

The Civil Guard issued a statement saying it is 'preparing and coordinating' a 'massive search' from 9am today, June 29. The search area, previously described as 'immense', is said to be around 30km wide and has been focusing on three main ravines in the Masca area.

Speaking at the beginning of the search in the first press conference of the 13-day mission, Cipriano Martin, Chief of the Mountain Rescue team of the Guardia Civil, said: "The plan will consist of carrying out a search with the people that have gathered here today, a thorough search, because at the stage we’re at, we need to start ruling areas out, and need to be sure that the area we’re searching - even though you may have already done a lot of work in the last few days - is looked at really thoroughly, and then can be ruled out.

"It’s going to be - obviously - based off of the evidence that we have. And the evidence that we have is: his last position, the conversations he had that last day [before he disappeared], and we will centre the search around this area."

Is the Civil Guard keeping an open mind about what happened?

"Yes, at the moment, yes. While we still don’t know, we’re not going to posit any theories. Various lines (of enquiry) are being worked on."

How many square kilometres are being searched?

"We have searched the Masca area, the Barranco de San Lopez area and the Barranco Retamar, Barranco de las Aneas, Barranco de Carrizales, we have searched the whole area. We know to a certain science that he was here because the coverage of his phone its undeniable that he was around this point.

"And that’s where we have difficulties, because once you turn off your phone, it can no longer be traced. So while he was walking - and we don’t know how long he could have walked for - with his phone switched off, no antenna is going to pick that up. And the technology we have - it traces phones, but not people. We have certain clues, and we have to stick to those."

And the main clue is that the last GPS point from his phone?

"Effectively yes. And we can’t start coming up with conspiracy theories either. The investigation is being based off the proof that we have."

And we know for certain that he started from here walking down to the bottom of the ravine?

"Effectively yes. Another thing that leads us to that conclusion is that when he was on the phone to Lucy, he got caught by a cactus and he was worried that they might be poisonous - she said, don’t worry, it won’t be poisonous - but for that, he had to have left the main road. If you were walking along the main road you wouldn’t get pricked by a cactus. To do that, you would have had to have left the main road and be half way up the mountain."

There aren’t many people here to search such a big area?

One reporter questioned that there were only a handful of volunteers, and small groups of emergency service workers. The Civil Guard replied: "We have already spent days searching. The search we are going to do today is going to be around 30 people."

The morning he disappeared - is there anyone that can localise him, anyone that saw him, according to your investigations?

"Around 8 in the morning, that morning, he was seen at this point or very near this point, going up to El Mirador. And later his phone locates him as being around here. And later on the location that he shared also puts him here.

"We are going to widen the zones that we have already searched, but taking advantage this time of the fact that we have more people and can do a more thorough search. So we are going to widen these zones.

"We have drones as well, but in principle we will do a search where each person searching is in view of the next person searching. That way, nothing can get overlooked between them. We will be able to see more than a drone - although a drone is able to give you an aerial view, we will be able to see everything around us on the ground.

"Each person will be able to see the next person searching so there won’t be any area of ground that’s not been swept.

Are there areas that are complex to search?

"Yes. And the situation we are in is that, no one should put themselves at risk more than the normal, but there is also a very important factor - the places we can’t get to, Jay wouldn’t have been able to get there either.

"So we have to think logically - if I see that there are cactuses and brambles ahead, and I can’t get through or I’ll get scratched, he wouldn’t have gone that way either. You have to follow logic."

This area you’re searching - does it go to the sea? Can you go straight to the coast?

"Yes you can get to the sea. In fact last Saturday, I myself and some others did the walk that takes you through the Juan Lopez ravine - there are old paths there that get used very occasionally because it has very little appeal to walkers - but you can get to the beach that way. And I got to the beach that way. And we didn’t see anything, but its a route that can be done.

"Not along the bottom of the gully - that way is very impractical, because it has parts that stick out, and you would need rope to get down from them. So for that reason we know that he wouldn’t have done that because he didn’t have the equipment for it."

And when we talk about difficult areas, how difficult are we talking?

"There are rocky outcrops that are impassable - that you can only pass with a harness and ropes. I think that the people doing the search today will turn back at these points because they aren’t carrying the equipment for that - only for walking, which in any case is the most that Jay could have done - just walk."

His family that are in Tenerife now - are they participating in the search?

"Every day they have been taking part - we have found them here every day. They have been actively participating."

And the two English men - when did he and when will you talk with them?

"The part of the investigators on the case - which isn’t us, we are in charge of actually doing the search on the mountain - they are the ones in charge of doing the investigation. They have already spoken to the men and it didn’t have any point of relevance to the case."

That brings the press conference to an end. When it first expanded, the search then involved a number of forest trails and tracks within the Buenavista del Norte municipality. In Saturday morning's announcement, the Civil Guard called for the 'collaboration of all volunteer associations', including civil protection, firefighters, and 'even private volunteers' who are 'experts in the field of search'. In a tragic update on Thursday, police searching for the teen said it was 'very unlikely' Jay will be found alive.

A well-placed source from the Civil Guard said: “No-one at the moment is talking about the search being brought to an end, even though it’s very unlikely Jay has survived if he got lost in the mountains in the way we were told he did."

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