'Everything stinks': Missing Jay Slater’s dad speaks out after mysterious 'Johnny Vegas' identified
7 July 2024, 16:03 | Updated: 7 July 2024, 16:06
Jay Slater's father Warren has spoken of the family's anguish as fears grow that others are involved in the missing teen's disappearance.
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The 58-year-old said: "Everything stinks" as he went back to the mountainous region in Tenerife where the 19-year-old disappeared on June 17, to begin the search in the hope of a discovery.
However, questions still remain regarding what happened to Jay the night before he vanished.
Warren said: "It’s just a riddle and I don’t know the outcome."
He believes the two men who saw Jay last could be important in helping him to locate him.
He added: "My starting position, I’ve said this from day one, ask the two men who’ve taken him - and then start from there."
He went on to say: "We’re going round and round in circles. If they want to go and search a house they have to go to court first."
Jay disappeared after returning to a £40-a-night Airbnb with the 31-year-old convicted drug dealer Ayub Qasim and another unknown male.
The police have declared that both men are "not relevant" and Ayub has said he has "nothing to hide".
Today, it was claimed by ex-cop Mark Williams-Thomas that Ayub goes by the name "Johnny Vegas".
The strange nickname had been circling the case for weeks and at first it was thought it referred to a second man.
After spending the night at a cottage in Masca, Jay left and called his friend Lucy Mae Law, 18, saying he was "lost in the middle of nowhere" with no water, and just one per cent left on his phone battery.
Spanish police searched the area for 12 days, but called off the search last weekend, with no sign of Jay.
Now his family are leading new attempts to identify him.
Warren added: "I was quite disappointed last Saturday when they did the search, they said the whole island was going to turn out.
"Let all the big boys do it, the police told me the big, big search was Saturday.
"We got down in that valley at 2pm and there wasn’t a soul.
"They might have been there I don’t know, they might have been there before me.
"But I was quite disappointed because I expected every fire engine, ambulance...to be looking for him.
"You need Columbo."
Today Mr Williams-Thomas, who has been working with the family, posted a video update regarding the case.
He claimed that Jay had come into contact with an "established criminal network" in Tenerife.
However, he did not elaborate, and was unable to say whether or not the link was associated with his disappearance.
He also claimed "Johnny Vegas" was Jay's new pal Ayub.
Ayub gives details of Jay's trip back from the music festival to the Airbnb, which he left because he wanted food.
The bricklayer has been missing for almost three weeks, after disappearing in the early hours three weeks ago.
He was on his first "lads holiday" and attending a music festival in Tenerife, before the left the night out with two men.
He went back with them to their Airbnb in the mountain village of Masca.
The next morning, it's thought Jay tried to access his accommodation again in Los Cristianos.
However, following a phone call with his friend Lucy Mae Law, in which he said he had just one per cent battery and had cut his leg, he disappeared.
After the search was officially called off last Sunday, Jay's uncle Glen Duncan furiously lashed out at the police investigation.
He said he wished he could "burst into the police station" and saying he fears a "third party" could have been involved.
