Missing Jay Slater major investigation update over mystery Airbnb men as just six volunteers join 'massive' search

Two mystery British men who were with missing teen Jay Slater on the night before he disappeared in the northwest of Tenerife have been ruled out of the investigation by police.

The Spanish police chief leading the mountain rescue team in search of the 19-year-old has today (June 29) declared the pair who were with him at a rural Airbnb rental the night before his disappearance are "of no relevance". Cipriano Martin, head of the Civil Guard’s Greim mountain rescue unit, spoke as a renewed search for the apprentice bricklayer is under way in Tenerife after police appealed for expert volunteers to help.

On Friday, the Guardia Civil appealed for volunteer associations, such as firefighters, and individual volunteers who were experts in rugged terrain to assist in a “busqueda masiva”, or massive search, on Saturday. However, just six volunteers - including a British TikToker - have stepped forward.

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The search in the village of Masca, near to his last-known location, is being co-ordinated to take in a steep rocky area, including ravines, trails and paths. It marks the 13th day in the search for the teenager who attended the NRG music festival on the island with two friends before his disappearance.

His last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the island – which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation. He had reportedly been driven to an Airbnb property in Masca.

According to reports, media were told in a press conference on Saturday that two men who were reported to have rented the Airbnb are “not relevant” to the case.

Cipriano Martin said: "Those men have been spoken to and they don’t have any relevance whatsoever for the case."

Asked whether Jay's family will take part in today's search, he said: "All week they’ve been participating because we’ve seen them and they’ve seen us in several places. They’ve been actively participating."

Today's search, which began at Hilda viewpoint, close to the spot where Jay's phone last 'pinged', includes around 30 professionals, including police, fire and mountain rescue officers, as well as just six volunteers, the Mirror reports. It will take in eight kilometres in one direction and four kilometres in the other.

Mr Martin said: "The operation is going to consist of a search with the people that have come here today, in a thorough manner, because at the height we are, we need to progress by ruling out areas and make sure that the areas we search, with the work we have done this week, are looked at well and can be ruled out.

"And of course that’s going to be done based on the information we have, and that information is his last-known position, the conservations he had the day he disappeared, and that’s what makes us focus the search on that area."

Asked if all options are being considered, Mr Martin said: "At the moment, yes. Until we know something we can’t focus on any hypothesis and we work with several possibilities.

Asked which areas it will include, the officer said: “Masca’s been looked at, the Juan Lopez ravine, the Retamar ravine, Las Aneas ravine, Los Carrizales ravine, in all the areas we know he’s been in because his mobile phone coverage is undeniable and places him there.

"But we have a difficulty which is that once the phone goes off the antennas stop picking it up, so that while he's walking, and we don’t know how long he was walking for, no phone mast is going to detect it, and as the technicians tell us, they look for mobiles and not people, so we’re at that point as well, that we have certain information and we have to go on that."

Asked whether the principal information they have to go on is the last place Jay’s phone ‘pinged’ from, he replied: "That’s right. We can't come up with too many conjectures either.

"The clues are based on the information we have. Another of the things that leads us to consider that hypothesis is when he rings his friend Lucy and says he’s cut himself on a cactus and he’s worried because he doesn’t know whether it’s poisonous or not, and she tells him not to worry that it’s not poisonous.

"But for that to happen you have to leave the road because you’re not going to cut yourself on a cactus being on the road and he’s had to go into the mountains obviously."

Asked if on the day Jay disappeared someone saw him, he replied: "Yes, he was seen, the morning he disappeared, around 8.10am, he was seen very near the spot we’re at now, heading up to the look-out point, and later his telephone places him here, and after that the phone location he shares places him here.

"We’re going to widen our search in areas we’ve already looked out, taking advantage of the fact there’s more people today and we can make a thorough search. We’ve got a drone as well, but what it’s principally about is a search where one person is in sight of the other, so that we don’t miss anything in-between.

"In a certain way we’re going to see more than with the drone, because although the drone offers an aerial view, we’re going to be seeing everything we’ve got beside us, and the instructions are that those searching don’t lose sight of the other person so no areas will be missed out in the search."

Asked if there were particular areas with special difficulty, Mr Martin replied: "Yes, there are particular areas that are difficult and people searching obviously have been told not to take unnecessary risks but there’s of course something that’s very clear, which is that the areas we can’t get into, Jay wouldn’t have accessed either.

"You have to think logically. If I see I’ve got large cactuses and bramble in front of me and I’m going to hurt myself and I’m not going to get through, he wouldn’t have done it either. It’s common sense. Asked if via those areas you could reach the sea directly, Mr Martin said: “Yes, you can get directly to the sea.

"In fact last Saturday I did the whole path that goes down the Juan Lopez ravine because there are very old footpaths that are used very seldomly because they’re not of much interest to sports enthusiasts, but you can reach the beach. I reached the beach. We didn’t see anything, but it’s a route that you do via a path not via the ravine. Following the ravine itself it’s not practical because there are parts where you need a rope to lower yourself down and we know Jay is not going to do that because he’s not equipped for it."