'Scared' Jay Slater 'took £12k Rolex' before he disappeared, claims TV detective

A former detective has claimed Jay Slater was "scared" when he left an Airbnb and had allegedly "taken a £12,000 Rolex" before he disappeared.

The 19-year-old vanished on the morning of June 17 after exiting the Airbnb located in the north of the island, near the village of Masca in the Rural de Teno Park. Jay from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, had gone to the area with two other Brits following a night out at a club in Playa de las Americas.

Mark Williams-Thomas, renowned for investigating several high-profile missing persons cases, has now indicated that the teen must have been "feeling scared" upon departing the accommodation on that Monday morning. In a video recorded yesterday (July 2) and shared on X, previously known as Twitter, today, the investigator remarked: "We've received information that would suggest that Jay left the rental property feeling scared and he would not return to the rental, even though that would have been the most sensible course of action."

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Jay's friend Lucy Law, said that during his last phone call to her, he mentioned "he was in the middle of nowhere, trying to get home with no water and 1 per cent on his phone battery". That conversation turned out to be the final contact anyone had with him.

Mr Williams-Thomas pointed out that Jay could have opted to go back to the Airbnb to charge his mobile and hydrate himself but decided against it. Additionally, the ex-detective alleged that Jay had 'posted a Snapchat saying that he'd taken a £12,000 Rolex from a person', reports the Manchester Evening News.

"We've been unable to validate this in terms of a reported theft" he said in the video. "However, friends of Jay said he would not make this up and the watch was subject of later conversation between the friends."

Discussing the teenager's last known movements, Mr Williams-Thomas claimed: "The evidence is that Jay walked off on the rental, walked for about 30 minutes, and then sent his location at 8.49am and 8.50am. And we know that he was at that stage off the road on a track with loose stones."

He added: "I want to make an appeal for landowners in the area of the rural park to check any outbuildings and land that they have in the hope that further searches will continue by volunteers in the area not yet searched."

Mr Williams-Thomas had "spoken to a significant number of witnesses, both here in the UK and in Tenerife, including Jay's friends who are fully engaged with us". Jay's family, including his mum Debbie Duncan, dad Warren Slater and older brother Zak, are still in Tenerife searching for Jay.

In a statement released last night through LBT Global, a British charity specialising in overseas missing person's cases, Debbie shared the family's profound distress: "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."

She continued: "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 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."

After nearly two weeks of searching for the teenager in vast and mountainous terrain, police called off the ground search for him. On June 30, they announced that officers would continue to act on any tip-offs or other information that came in but the active work that has been ongoing since the apprentice bricklayer was reported missing would cease.

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