Jay Slater search: His journey, outstanding questions and one final push to find missing teenager
In a corner of Tenerife, a winding, narrow road takes you towards a small village called Masca. At points on the route, the view of the sea below and the mountains above is breathtaking.
This place, with its handful of houses and cafes, nestled among ravines and rockfaces, is about a 40-minute drive from the parts of the island most British tourists know, but it might as well be a world away.
There isn’t the bustle of the resort towns in the south, with their clubs and bars. Instead, there are vast expanses of land that are arid and difficult to traverse on foot.
In the 13 days since the disappearance of Jay Slater, a 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire, the hikers and tourists who come to Masca have been joined by two more groups of people.
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Appeal for volunteers in Jay Slater search
The first are the emergency services, including the civil guard, volunteer firefighters and mountain rescue teams carrying out the so-far unsuccessful search for Jay. The second group are journalists like me, trying to understand a case shrouded in speculation and questions.
Jay’s journey
Those questions begin with Jay’s journey which started at Papayago, the nightclub where he was last pictured enjoying the end of the New Rave Generation (NRG) festival late on 16 June.
The club is in Playa De Las Americas, not too far from Los Cristianos where he was staying. Full of British revellers and near the beach, the strip is an area Jay would have been growing familiar with, having been at the festival for two days.
But on the event’s third and final night, instead of going back to the accommodation he was sharing with friends, Jay jumped in a car with two men, travelling to a small Airbnb in Masca.
This is where the information about his movements and whereabouts begins to thin, aside from the testimony of one eyewitness we met on our first full day in Tenerife.
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Ofelia Medina Hernandez runs a cafe above the Airbnb and says she saw Jay at about 8am on 17 June.
“He asked twice what time the bus came,” she told us. “He came back and he asked me again, and I told him again, at 10 o’clock.
“Later I got in my car, and I saw him, he was walking quickly, but I didn’t see him again after that,” she added.
Despite the door to the Airbnb being just yards from a bus stop which would have taken him back down south, Medina Hernandez described Jay walking in the wrong direction.
Another key component of the timeline is a conversation Jay had with a friend on the phone at around 8.30am that day. He told them he was walking back after missing a bus – a journey that would take 11 hours on foot.
He also said he was lost, in need of water, and only had 1% charge on his phone.
His phone is believed to have been last located near an observatory around an 18-minute walk away, which is where the efforts of the emergency services were focused in the first week.
The search
That visible flurry of activity included emergency services using a helicopter, drones and sniffer dogs.
However, as the days went on, that sprawling search became a more tightly focused one, with smaller groups of officers looking at pockets of land, like ravines and caves.
Pic: Adele-Momoko Fraser
Despite allowing us to film them at a distance, the teams, led by the civil guard, have refused to give much guidance on the ground, instead choosing to release updates and footage via WhatsApp.
With no news conference or formal interviews on offer, they’ve largely kept journalists in the dark.
‘I just want him back’
One group who are hoping for information and updates more than anyone else are Jay’s loved ones.
A small group of his friends and family have stayed in Tenerife, clearly struggling to come to terms with the void left by his absence and the prospect he might not return.
Pic: Adele-Momoko Fraser
On the first Saturday after his disappearance, we met his dad Warren and brother Zak for the first time and their anguish was clear.
Speaking to us near Masca, after trying to retrace Jay’s steps, Warren said he was “just hoping that somebody has helped him off this mountain”.
“That’s all I want, that somebody has helped him get off this mountain. I just want him back and that’s it. He’s, my son.”
His voice then cracked and he walked away from the camera and repeated: “I just want him back and that’s it.”
Despite his visible pain, Warren has also to push this search forward in his own way. Two days later in the town of Santiago Del Teide, we meet him again.
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Pic: Adele-Momoko Fraser
That afternoon he was tearful again – but determined, handing out flyers with a small group of friends.
Their reason for choosing the town, which is 7km away from Masca, was because of a grainy CCTV image that suggested Jay was last seen in the town’s square.
Online speculation
The family hinging so much hope on that information was an insight into how this case isn’t just about what’s happening on the ground, but also the narrative online.
A Facebook group called Jay Slater Missing – Only Official Group reached more than 500,000 members in less than a week and was inundated with speculation around the case, before comments in the group were restricted.
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Police share new CCTV image
The noise on social media, coupled with the situation, have added to his family’s distress, something his mother Debbie Duncan who is also in Tenerife, alluded to in a statement.
“I have every faith in them down on the ground and the amazing searches they are carrying out along with more amazing guys up there,” she said.
“As a family we are in a living nightmare. We have no further updates other than Jay is still missing and we are just ignoring the social media side of things.”
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It’s clear though that social media has not only hurt the family, they also feel it’s helped them too, a point Debbie made when specifically thanking Paul Arnott.
A hiker from Bedfordshire, he has travelled from Fort William in Scotland to Spain and promised to stay however long it takes to find the teenager.
Never too far from the police search, Paul has been scrambling down ridges and climbing hills on his own while regularly updating his followers in TikTok.
Away from the small screen is the reality of the situation, as the hunt for Jay enters its 13th day.
It’s a period that promises to be pivotal, with the Spanish Civil Guard calling on volunteer agencies such as Civil Protection and firefighters, as well as “individual volunteers who are experts in rugged search terrain” for a “massive search”.
In a case that has seen every twist and turn followed in places well beyond the rugged terrain of North West Tenerife, today feels like the beginning of one last push to try to find Jay Slater.
It “cuts my heart” and is a “betrayal”.
This was the response of a Ukrainian soldier in a frontline combat regiment directly affected by Donald Trump’s decision to pause US military support to Ukraine.
Serhii, 45, maintains a unit of US-supplied Bradley infantry fighting vehicles that are defending an area of eastern Ukraine from attacking Russian forces.
The halt to American military aid – if sustained – means there will be no new ammunition and no ability to repair any of the vehicles when they are damaged – a constant risk.
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On a recent mission by the 425th Storming Regiment “Skala”, three Bradleys went into battle towards the direction of the city of Pokrovsk, an area of heavy clashes.
Only two returned after the other was hit by the Russian side.
Troops said it would be for Ukraine to defend their land without US military support
“It’s going to be very hard,” Serhii said, standing next to a large Bradley, covered by a camouflage net and tucked under a line of trees in the Donetsk region.
“These vehicles are really good. You can fight back with them. And not just defend, you can even advance. It’s a shame we didn’t have this equipment two or three years ago.”
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Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine – what now?
The regiment has been using Bradleys for a number of months. Serhii is the lead mechanic.
The tracked vehicles, armed with a chain gun that can fire 200 rounds per minute, were first developed in the 1980s but have been fitted with modern reactive armour that means they can survive drone strikes, rocket attacks and the shrapnel from artillery rounds.
“The vehicle’s protection… is fantastic,” Serhii said, with clear admiration for the equipment compared with Soviet-era fighting vehicles that many Ukrainian troops have to use.
Soliders said the Bradley infantry vehicles are good for advancing, not just defence
He said the crew of one of his Bradleys was hit by two rocket-propelled grenades but was able to continue driving and was unharmed.
Serhii, who comes from the Donetsk region, said he felt betrayed by Mr Trump’s decision to halt such crucial support.
The US president ordered the move as he attempts to put pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Russia.
“Although I’m not a politician, it’s a betrayal for us, for the guys who are defending Ukraine,” the soldier said.
Inside a US-supplied Bradley vehicle
Asked how he felt when he heard the news about the US president’s decision, Serhii said: “The latest news cuts my heart, I can answer you that way. It cuts my heart… If politicians solve issues this way, just by halting weapons supply in one move, that’s criminal.”
He signalled it would be harder for Ukrainian troops to defend their land without the US military support – but they would still fight.
“Even without this weapon, we believe we will move forward,” he said.
“They [the Russians] have to retreat, no matter what. The guys didn’t take up arms here for nothing, and they stand together. Together, all of us, as one, will defeat this enemy.”
As for whether he had a message for Mr Trump, the soldier said: “Don’t stop military aid. Politics is politics, but the people, I believe, are the most important.
“It will be very hard for us without such equipment. This equipment is good; it allows us to show results. And we will keep showing them. We’ve shown them before and we will keep showing them. That’s how it is. Thank you.”
Fighting ‘for my motherland’
Soldier Sedoi said he is ‘tired’ of the war
Sky News watched as two crews prepared their fighting vehicles for a potential mission on Thursday evening.
Sedoi, 41, commands one of the Bradleys and operates the gun.
He said the American-supplied vehicle gives him confidence when he goes into battle – and was also likely a scary prospect for Russian troops to have to encounter.
“We make a lot of noise. Everything catches fire and burns… It’s a good vehicle,” he said.
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Will Kyiv fall without US support?
Sedoi said he did not have a reaction to the news about the halt to American military support, saying: “I don’t get involved in their politics.”
However, he signalled he did want an end to the war – even if it meant Russia keeping some of the land it has seized.
“Let it end, so people stop dying. Because a lot of people have died,” he said.
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Recently recovered from a shrapnel wound, Sedoi said he volunteered to fight after Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale war more than three years ago because of Russia’s brutality.
“I’ve heard what they do when they enter villages, what they do with children and women… I don’t want them to go any further… That’s why I’m here.
“But, to be honest, I’m getting tired of it.”
Yet still he and his fellow soldiers battle on. Asked why he was fighting, the soldier said: “For my motherland.”
A warning by Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin to stop “pounding” Ukraine or else, appears to have fallen on deaf ears after another night of devastating Russian strikes.
The persistent pummelling of Ukrainian towns and cities also follows a decision by the US president to stop sharing American intelligence and weapons with Kyiv – a move that is directly hampering the Ukrainian military’s ability to defend their skies from the Russian onslaught.
In the deadliest attack overnight, at least 11 people were killed and 30 wounded, including five children, in the town of Dobropillia, about 15 miles from the frontline in the Donestsk region of eastern Ukraine.
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The Ukrainian police service said a Russian ballistic missile, rockets and attack drones hit eight multi-storey buildings as well as a shopping centre and dozens of cars.
Firefighters work at the site of the strike. Pic: Reuters/State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Pic: Reuters/State Emergency Service of Ukraine
“Some buildings were burnt down almost completely,” the national police of Ukraine said in a post on its Telegram social media channel.
Another three civilians were killed and seven injured in a drone attack on the Kharkiv region in the northeast of the country, according to a separate post by the interior ministry.
Just hours earlier, the US president posted a warning to the Kremlin on social media.
“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large-scale banking sanctions, sanctions, and tariffs on Russia until a cease fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” he wrote.
“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!”
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Trump: ‘Ukraine difficult to deal with’
Kyiv will be watching closely to see whether Moscow’s continuing attacks will prompt Mr Trump to carry out his threat.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been in crisis mode ever since Mr Trump returned to office and started attacking his record on the war, falsely calling him a dictator and even claiming – again erroneously – that Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s invasion.
Sky News on the ground in Dobropillia 24hrs before strike
A Sky News team was in Dobropillia 24 hours before the attack – stopping off to grab food at a pizza restaurant that was close to the site of at least two of the incoming strikes.
The restaurant is on a road of shops, including a clothes store and a small grocery outlet.
The town, which used to be home to 28,000 residents before Russia’s full-scale war, feels far more battle-hardened than areas further away from the frontline.
Fighting has been raging for months between invading Russian forces and Ukrainian troops, just over a dozen miles away, around the city of Pokrovsk.
Despite the closeness of the war, however, many civilians, including children, still live in Dobropillia.
In the most significant blow, Washington has paused the sharing on intelligence with its Ukrainian partners, instantly making it far harder for Ukraine to have a clear picture on the movement of Russian forces and weapons, while also hampering the ability of the Ukrainian armed forces to effectively conduct targeting attacks against Russian positions.
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A decision to stop the flow of military support to Ukraine will also have a huge impact on the country’s ability to keep defending itself.
The US has been Kyiv’s largest and most important supplier of arms, including the Patriot air defence system – the only piece of equipment in Ukraine’s arsenal that has the ability to take down ballistic missiles.
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