Heartbreaking reason Jay Slater 'turned down lift home' before wandering into mountains, ex-detective reveals

8 July 2024, 12:19

Jay Slater rejected the offer of a lift back to his home before wandering into the mountains, a former detective has revealed.

Apprentice bricklayer Jay disappeared after embarking on an 11-hour trek back to his hotel in Tenerife three weeks ago.

TV detective Mark Williams-Thomas has shed light on the 'real reason' Jay didn't wait for a lift from a remote village to his accommodation in Tenerife on the day he disappeared.

Mr Williams-Thomas said that he interviewed a man named Ayub Qassim, 31, who claimed to have driven Mr Slater to an AirBnB in Masca after meeting him in Playa de las Americas, located in the south of the island.

Ayub Qassim, also known as "Johnny Vegas", recounted that Jay, 19, left the AirBnB alive following a party that took place subsequent to a music festival he had attended.

Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was reportedly transported to Masca by Mr Qassim and another individual, both of whom Spanish police have not considered pertinent to their investigation into Jay's disappearance.

Mr Williams-Thomas, who is conducting his own investigation separate from the official police efforts, stated that Mr Qassim informed him he had offered to drive Jay back the morning after the party in Playa de las Americas.

He said: "Qassim said to him 'Chill, mate, I'll drop you off later, when I wake up', but he said Jay said, 'Nah, I need some scran, I'm hungry'."

Jay is then said to have informed Mr Qassim that a woman had told him buses to Los Cristianos ran every 10 minutes, to which Mr Qassim allegedly responded there was no bus and said, "Do what you like", before returning to bed.

Mr Williams-Thomas recounted that Mr Qassim remembered next receiving a call from one of Jay's friends, claiming Jay was lying in a ditch having been "bitten by a cactus".

The detective also noted that Mr Qassim did not disclose the identity of the second man who accompanied Jay to Masca and refused to discuss the purported theft of a Rolex watch, which some speculate is connected to Mr Slater's vanishing.

Jay's phone last pinged in the rugged Rural de Teno park where local police focused their two week-search.

Jay vanished on June 17 and many unanswered questions about his disappearance remain.

Mr Williams-Thomas claims his investigation has "opened up an established criminal network with links to drugs, violent crime and thefts."

Jay's family returned to the mountains to retrace his last steps this past weekend in a desperate effort to find him.

His dad, brother and uncle took to the mountains with eight volunteers and the Slaters hope to use the more than £50,000 raised on their GoFundMe to pay for a new private search.