Jay Slater's friend shares poignant last photo together as search continues

The last individual to have contact with Jay Slater, a 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire who has been missing in Tenerife since June 17, has released a poignant photo of them together. Lucy Law, a close friend of Jay's, has been instrumental in the search efforts over the past few weeks.

According to Lucy, she had a phone conversation with Jay during which he expressed his intention to walk back from an Airbnb in northern Tenerife to their lodgings in the south. The Mirror reports that Lucy has now posted a touching image of the two of them on Instagram, accompanied by a blue heart and a crying face emoji.

Jay's last known communication was a call to Lucy in which he stated he was "lost in the middle of nowhere". Jay, an apprentice bricklayer, attended the NRG music festival with two friends prior to his disappearance. His last known whereabouts was Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island.

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Earlier reports suggested that he spent the night at an Airbnb and was last seen by two men at the rental property. Lucy claims that Jay told her he intended to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus, a journey that would take approximately 11 hours on foot.

She also mentioned that his phone battery was down to one per cent. Describing the situation as "weird" and said: "There's something weird going on. It is suspicious. "In two days you're telling me someone's not seen him. There's a restaurant 10 minutes away that he would have seen or walked past. It's suspicious and it's weird."

Lucy, who has remained silent on the missing case for over a fortnight, previously provided an update after she tracked down two individuals who had seen Jay an hour before his disappearance. She revealed: "We managed to find the house. I knocked on the door and there were two people there."

She further explained that the duo informed her that Jay had gone out to buy cigarettes before returning to their flat. However, upon his return, he reportedly expressed a desire to head back to his lodgings.

She added: "They told me he'd spoken to the next-door neighbours and they'd told him there was a bus every 10 minutes back down to Los Cristianos The bus stop was right next to the house. So obviously if he'd gone to get the bus he wouldn't have got lost because it [the stop] was visible from the front door."

On Thursday, Ayub Qassim, the man who rented out the Airbnb, spoke about the missing case, stating that Jay arrived at the holiday home alive and also left in the same state. Spanish police had earlier questioned Qassim and his unnamed friend, deeming them "irrelevant" to the investigation, reported Liverpool Echo.

Speaking to The Mail, Qassim said he allowed the 19-year-old to stay as he "had nowhere else to go", claiming that all his friends "had left him". Qassim, who knew the bricklayer through mutual friends, said he was doing him a "favour" by letting him stay. His comments come after the land search for the missing Brit was called off.

Jay's mother, Debbie Duncan, recently issued a statement saying: "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."

"The Guardia Civil have worked tirelessly up in the mountains where Jay's last phone call was traced. They conducted a land search for 12 days which involved every resource they had available."

"Although the land search ended, the Spanish police still continue with their investigations into why Jay had travelled to the location so far away from his accommodation. We offer our sincere thanks to the Spanish authorities who continue to follow lines of inquiries."