Police searching for missing Jay Slater in Tenerife rescue lost Scottish hiker

A British hiker was rescued by police searching for Jay Slater in the same Tenerife national park where the 19-year-old  disappeared.

The Scottish hiker, 51, was found by officers on Friday as they searched for Mr Slater in the Rural de Teno national park, police said on Tuesday. He had failed to return to the start of his hike after several hours, and locals alerted search teams.

Police said the hiker had gone into a “difficult” area that is not “suitable for travel”, adding: “Tired and disoriented, he was located by the agents and the rescue team who helped him get out of the ravine.

“We want to thank these neighbours for giving alert to this situation because, due to the difficulty and lack of communication in the area, this hiker would not have managed to get out by his own means without the help received.”

The search for Mr Slater, whose phone last pinged at 8.50am in the national park on June 17, hours after he left a dance music festival, is continuing.

It was reported on Tuesday that Mark Williams-Thomas, a television investigator and former police detective, had arrived in Tenerife to work on the case.

Mr Williams-Thomas, who investigated the disappearance of Nicola Bulley, a dog walker who drowned after falling into a Lancashire river last year, has offered his services free to the Slater family, according to The Mirror. He has been contacted by The Telegraph for comment.

His involvement emerged as Spanish police confirmed they were investigating growing online conspiracy theories surrounding Mr Slater’s disappearance. Two theories that have been suggested are that he has been kidnapped or is simply hiding.

As the search entered its ninth day on Tuesday, a source close to Spain’s Guardia Civil told The Telegraph: “Yes, of course it is being investigated. From the beginning they have been considering all possibilities.”

Other wild online theories have seen people compare Debbie Duncan, Mr Slater’s mother, to Karen Matthews, who faked the kidnapping of her daughter Shannon 16 years ago. Some have questioned what more than £34,000 raised on a GoFundMe page will be used for.

Ms Duncan said she felt “let down” by the theories, writing on Monday: “I really hope I am not taking my son home in a body bag. I really cannot believe the British public are not supporting me in trying to find Jay. This may happen to any of you one day. Very let down by you all.”

Warren Slater, Mr Slater’s father,  has criticised the police for a lack of communication with the family. Some family members have travelled to Tenerife as the search continues.

He told Sky News: “The mountain police have been brilliant, but I don’t know how the other police force works. They could be doing everything, but if they are doing something they’re not telling us what they’re doing.”

The search for the apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire is focused on the mountain village of Masca, near where his phone last pinged.

On Monday, his family released a CCTV image of a figure walking through Santiago del Teide, a town a few miles away, captured at 6pm last Monday. Although the image is blurry, they believe it could be Mr Slater, which would mean he was alive 10 hours after he was last heard from.

The Guardia Civil has not confirmed the sighting, but told The Telegraph “nothing has been ruled out”.

Mr Slater, who travelled to Tenerife with two friends to attend the NRG music festival, left between 3am and 6am in a car with two other British men he had met that night.

At 7.30am, he posted a picture on Snapchat showing him smoking a cigarette at the doorway of a cottage in Parque Rural de Teno, more than 30 miles from where the festival was held in the south of the island.

At around 8am Ofelia Medina Hernandez, the owner of the cottage, which is rented out on Airbnb, saw the teenager standing at a nearby bus stop. He asked when the next bus was to Los Cristianos, where he had been staying, and she said it was not for another two hours. Instead of waiting, Mr Slater decided to walk.

After setting off he rang his friend Lucy Law, who had been with him at the music festival, and said he was lost, thirsty, had one per cent charge left on his phone, and had cut his leg on a cactus. His phone ran out of power shortly after the call, and its last location was north of the cottage.