JAY Slater’s devastated mum has revealed a huge development in the search for the missing teen.
Debbie Duncan, speaking from Tenerife, said her son may have been spotted with two men some ten hours after he was last seen on Monday morning.
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Debbie told Mail Online: “Someone has come forward to say they saw someone who they thought was Jay walking back down the road sat on a bench.
“He was with two men looking a bit worse for wear, and they were by a church, this guy has come forward and told the police about it and they are looking into it.
“We don’t know if it was Jay for sure, but it’s a start.”
Debbie, 55, has been in Tenerife since Tuesday helping with the massive police search for her 19-year-old son.
She revealed that the fresh sighting pinpoints Jay’s possible movements to 6pm on Monday – 9 hours after his missing persons report was filed.
The worried mum said: “They said it was about 6pm which is ten hours after he was seen by the lady in the village.
“But if it was him what was he doing there and who are these two men?”
She added: “All I know is that I am going to stay here for as long as it takes, I’m not going home unless it’s with Jay. I’m not going anywhere until they find him.”
Cops have yet to confirm the new sighting of the missing teen.
It comes as rescue efforts have turned their focus to an area known locally as “the badlands”, scouring a 2,000ft ravine in a remote park.
Pictures from the scene show cops, firefighters, volunteers and sniffer dogs scanning the desolate Teno Nature Reserve, Jay’s last known location.
Locals and experts have warned of the treacherous conditions in the area – where the air is “thin”, temperatures change rapidly and the mountains drop sharply to the water below.
On Monday morning around 8am, Jay made a frantic phone call to pal Lucy Law to tell her he was stranded in the “middle of nowhere”.
He said he had cut his leg on a cactus, was thirsty and was about to embark on an 11-hour trek home.
The panicked phone call was the last anyone had heard of Jay.
A missing persons report was filed at around 9am that morning – sparking a round-the-clock hunt.
The Lancashire teen was last seen by the owner of an AirBnB where he had stayed on Sunday evening.
Ophelia, the owner of the holiday rental Casa Abuela Tina – where he spent the night – said she saw him walking off on his own uphill in the vast mountainous area near Masca.
Ophelia told MEN: “It’s dangerous walking around here, it’s easy to lose yourself. He walked up the road when I saw him for the last time.
“He was alone. He was walking normally, though he was fast.”
It is understood the Airbnb was rented by the two men Jay went back with after the closing night of NRG festival on Sunday.
TREACHEROUS CONDITIONS
Today police efforts are spread across 30 kilometres in and around the Masca area where Jay was last seen.
A local car rental owner has warned of the treacherous conditions in the parklands where efforts are concentrated.
Andrew Knight, who runs Sanasty Car Hire Tenerife, has lent his vehicles to help in the hunt.
He told The Mirror: “You’re up there, it’s very thin air, you’ve got cloud around.
“It does go very cold at night, especially with the thin air and the wind chill.
“It would be pretty cold if you were up there without jumpers and jackets and things.”
The 29-year-old warned that the weather up in the hills is also “constantly changing”.
Jonathan Stones, who moved to Tenerife more than two decades ago at 13, said the Teno Nature Reserve is one of the island’s most inhospitable spots.
He told The Sun: “Where Jay was last located through his mobile phone is where he stands the least chance of survival.
“The desolate landscapes around the island’s holiday hotspots are referred to as ‘malpais’ by locals — a word that translates into English as ‘bad land’.”
The former journalist, 50, warned the searing heat could be deceptive, with comfortable temperatures in the morning turning into roasting highs by 11am.
He added: “With no shade in sight, no water to hand and a deep ravine, the sun becomes an even more fierce adversary.
“And the shadowy respite offered by the hilltops is short-lived.
“The sun moves around the mountain sides quickly and anyone sheltering behind a craggy outcrop is soon flushed from their hide in search of the next one.
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“I hope desperately that it’s a riddle solved in time for Jay to be reunited safely with his family.”
