Yahoo News Jay Slater's dad asks three key questions around son's mysterious disappearance
Jay Slater's dad has put forward three burning questions in the wake of his son's baffling disappearance, as the family leads their own search for the missing teen.
The Oswaldtwistle landed in Tenerife one day after the 19-year-old was reported missing by his mates on June 16, and they've been there ever since, even after Spanish officials halted the official search. They're supporting independent search teams who've pitched in after the story grabbed global attention, hoping to dig up fresh clues about what happened to the apprentice bricklayer.
With official searches called off last and his best friends Lucy Law and Brad Hargreaves now back home on UK soil, the fight for closure by Jay's loved ones is far from over. Leads have so far proved fruitless; but Spanish police have insisted they are not giving up hope of finding him.
READ MORE: Jay Slater family's Tenerife search boosted as unexpected source flies in to help
The disappearance of Jay remains a mystery after major searches through the treacherous landscape of Masca and the Rural de Teno park, countless desperate appeals for information and offers of help from former detectives and mountaineering experts. Warren Slater, Jay's dad, has been combing through the spot where his son was last seen more than three weeks ago, posing crucial questions that the Guardia Civil's probe hasn't cracked, the Mirror reports.
Why would someone walk the cacti-ridden valley route?
While poring over the valley where his phone last pinged, Warren said he couldn't understand why someone would walk through the rough environment when there was another path nearby. He said: "All I’m thinking is common sense, would you try and walk through there.
"Where we’ve been today you can see there’s a hikers path with proper stones. We’ve gone straight down and you end up in the village." The dad also wondered why, in the vast, rough but flat area, he was not seen by locals or other tourists.
Why was Jay not seen in the area?
The dad questioned why he was not seen as he walked from his Airbnb near Masca, a little town in northern Tenerife, after he left the morning he vanished. He suggested the "fit" teen would have been able to make it to a local café, after he reportedly left the rental property in search for food.
He added: "From the bnb, he’s a fit lad, 25 minutes you can get to the top, to where the café is. If he’s followed the road and been where we’ve been today, it’s took him an hour and a half." The desperate dad has been putting up missing posters around the village of Santiago del Teide along with retracing what are believed to be his son's steps.
Why was he not picked up by a car along the way?
Warren also wanted to know whether his son was seen by drivers as he started the approximately 11-hour walk back to his accommodation. The dad added that he had "never seen as many cars" along the route as he tried to retrace his son's steps.
He added: "Dozens of cars would have gone past him. We got here at 9am and the 10am bus passed us. And it would have passed him. I’ve been up here three weeks and I’ve never seen as many cars.”
