Jay Slater could be alive somewhere 'drinking rainwater and eating plants', says private investigator who urges family 'not to give up hope' after police ended search 'prematurely'
Jay Slater could be alive somewhere 'drinking rainwater and eating plants', a private investigator has claimed as he urged the missing teenager's family not to give up hope.
The apprentice bricklayer, 19, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was last seen at around 8am on June 17.
He had been at a rave in Playa de las Americas before travelling back to a £40-a-night Airbnb cottage in the remote village of Masca with two older British men.
As he tried to walk the 11 hours back to his hotel, Jay called a friend to say he was lost, in desperate need of some water and his phone battery was on 1 per cent.
Spanish police focused their search on the mountainous village and Rural de Teno National Park in north-west Tenerife where his phone last pinged.
But on June 30, the search and rescue mission was dramatically called off after nearly 14 days, leaving his desperate family 'in the dark'.
Army reservist and private investigator Juan García, is among those advising Jay's mother to access the £48,000 GoFundMe towards funding the private search.
Speaking to the Times, he said that 'two weeks is too premature to end the search'.
'[Slater] could be alive somewhere — someone can drink from rainwater and eat plants. The family should not give up hope,' he said.
Jay (right) is pictured right alongside his mother Debbie and brother Zak (left) who flew out to Tenerife after his disappearance
A private investigator believes the missing teenager may have kept himself alive by 'drinking rainwater'
His family have been advised to fund an independent search party after Tenerife's Civil Guard ended their hunt for him 'prematurely'.
Jay had been attending a three day NRG festival which ended on Sunday, 16 June in Papagayo beach club in South Tenerife.
It comes as:
- MailOnline revealed the 31-year-old British man who Jay Slater visited in AirBnb before vanishing is a convicted drug dealer who insists the missing teen 'came to the house alive, and he left the house alive'
- MailOnline revealed the first picture of Briton who booked £40-a-night Airbnb where missing teen Jay Slater stayed hours before he vanished
- Spanish police return to search the Airbnb where Jay Slater stayed just before he disappeared in Tenerife
- Missing Jay Slater's family are being targeted with fake 'ransom demands'
- Jay's mother Debbie urges police to keep going with investigation
- Jay Slater volunteers say they WON'T give up search for missing 19-year-old
- Jay's 'disappointed' family meet with Spanish police after search is called off
- Spanish police END hunt for missing teen 14 days after Brit disappeared in Tenerife
- Jay's father reveals he is 'disappointed' after just six volunteers turn up to join the hunt
A friend of the teenager - who had gone to the festival with him - said Jay had gone to stay with people he met after a night out.
The friend, Lucy Mae, received a phone call from Jay at around 8am on Monday morning saying he'd missed his bus and was trying to walk back but was lost, needed a drink and only had 1% battery on his phone. The phone call then cut off.
Jay Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, travelled to the Canary Islands for a musical festival with his friend Lucy and another friend last week
The teenager's phone died at around 8.50am, with his last known location registered in the remote Rural de Teno park, more than ten miles from the popular resort Guía de Isora.
Jay was reported missing at around 9am the same morning and police launched a mountain rescue.
Mountain rescue crews and sniffer dogs had been searching the mountainous area of north-west Tenerife for the 19-year-old up until this afternoon.
But suddenly police focus shifted to the tourist hotspots of Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas in south Tenerife, after a false sighting of him getting out of a taxi.
It later emerged the report was false and police, having wasted precious time in the blistering 27C heat, were forced to move attention back to their original site.
The 19-year-old had gone back to the remote cottage in the village of Masca with two British men in the early hours of Monday morning after a rave in Playa de las Americas on June 17.
Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, left the £40-a-night two bedroom property called Casa Abuela Tina at 7.30am and posted two pictures from it on Snapchat.
Yet Spanish police dramatically called off the search for Jay on Monday but said their investigation into his disappearance was ongoing.
Jay's final Snapchat shows the teenager laughing and smiling at around 8.35pm on the night before he went missing
Jay was reported missing on Sunday morning by friend Lucy Mae (pictured)
Jay's friend Lucy reported Jay missing to police and launched search efforts on Monday morning
Jay is seen in this image shared to his friend Lucy's social media days before he disappeared
This week, MailOnline revealed that Spanish police have to search the Airbnb where Jay Slater stayed just before he disappeared in Tenerife more than two weeks ago.
Two plain-clothes officers were sent to the property at 11am on Tuesday.
As one of the officers left the property today, he told MailOnline: 'I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about the investigation or our search inside. If you want any details, speak to headquarters, I'm not allowed to talk to you. My colleague and I are from the judicial police and carrying out our own work.'
A local who saw the two officers arrive said: 'They got here around 9am and spent almost two hours inside. They got the key from the owner. I thought it had already been searched but I don't know for sure. It's been taken off the market and not available to book, that's all I know.'
The fact the property has been searched again more than two weeks after Jay was there will raise questions of how the Spanish are handling the investigation.
