Jay Slater's family return to Tenerife mountains for own search with rescuers and dogs

Spanish police called off the search for missing 19-year-old Jay Slater after launching a massive search with volunteers last week.

jay slater family photo with hat

Jay Slater's dad and brother launched their private search almost 20 days after he went missing (Image: IG)

Jay Slater's family have headed back to the mountains where the Lancashire native was last seen to launch their personal search for the missing teen.

Spain's Guardia Civil told the family they could head back to the area on Friday.

Jay's father and brother started retracing his final steps alongside eight searchers and a dog nearly 20 days after his mysterious disappearance.

The new bid to locate Jay was launched a week after the Spanish Guardia Civil unexpectedly announced they would call off the search.

His family said they were "blindsided" by the decision and confirmed they would be staying in Tenerife to find out what happened to the 19-year-old.

Search for Jay Slater in Tenerife called off by Spanish police

Jay went missing in the morning of June 17 after a series of desperate calls to his friend Lucy Law warning he was lost on an off-road track and his phone was running out of battery.

The teen's mum, Debbie, confirmed the family would be using the over £50,000 raised via GoFundMe to bring in a team of sleuths to help out with the search.

Dad Warren and brother Zak have been trekking along the mountains where Jay was last seen after lamenting they had been "left in the dark" by police.

The family has faced growing pressure since Jay's disappearance, with mum Deb hitting back at trolls accusing them of misusing the funds.

She said: "For those of you who are more concerned about the GoFundMe page I can assure you that up to now it has not been used and our stay up to now has been financed by ourselves.

Macro Search For  jay slater

The Guardia Civil authorised Jay Slater's family to continue searching for him privately (Image: Getty)

"I did not ask for publicity from the start and was not aware that the first missing poster had my telephone number on it.

"It should have had the SOS Guardia Civil but like I said this was out of my control. We are a normal working family from Lancashire going through hell."

Jay shared his location with two friends minutes before his phone shut down on June 17. His last position was marked as somewhere off-road inside Teno Rural Park.

He is believed to have been walking back to his accommodation in Los Cristianos after leaving the NRG festival in the early hours of Monday with two British nationals.

Comments Unavailable

Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?