Missing teen Jay Slater was reportedly sighted alongside two men, who were not the friends he was holidaying with, in the village of Santiago del Teide 10 hours after his high-profile disappearance.
The 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, has been missing since Monday, June 17 after travelling to the Spanish island for a music festival with two of his friends.
He last spoke to one of the friends, Lucy Mae Law, at around 8am on Monday morning before his phone died.
Reporting from our sister site Manchester Evening News, reporter James Holt travelled to the sight where the teen was allegedly seen and described the scene.
He said: “So the village is around 20 minutes drive from Masca (where his holiday home was). If you’re travelling to Masca and the Rural de Teno national park, you go through it from the south of the island before turning off up a narrow and dangerous road through the hilly landscape.
“The small villages with just a few shops, cafes and a church, is positioned right at the bottom of one of the mountains. Today (June 23), a number of shops were closed – it was very quiet with just the odd car passing through
“Now if Jay made it there on foot somehow, it would take hours. It’s about 7km from the search base, just about half a mile north of Masca village, and takes at least two hours up extremely steep and challenging roads.
“So in that village there wasn’t any police presence when I attended.”
Jay’s mum, Debbie Duncan, said that police are looking into a possible sighting in the village, which happened 10 hours after his disappearance, acocrding to reports.
However, the civil guard are yet to confirm which avenues they are exploring.
Holt said: “Today most shops were closed it was very quiet with not much activity. I would say if he had been there, in an evening, bars and restaurants would have been open and people could’ve helped so it makes the sighting seem less plausible. It’s still around 30km from where he was staying.”
On Monday morning, Jay’s friend and travel companion Lucy received a call from him, saying he was attempting a long walk back through a mountainous area after spending the night with other friends he met on the island.
He told her he was thirsty and his phone battery was at one percent, which died shortly afterwards. Nobody has heard from him since and the search operation has enetered its seventh day.
