Jay Slater's family sent 'fake ransom notes' and 'mocked-up chats' by trolls over weeks-long search, detective claims
1 July 2024, 12:33
Jay Slater's family has been sent fake ransom notes by trolls after he went missing last month, an investigator on the case has revealed.
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Lancashire apprentice bricklayer Jay, 19-year-old, was last seen on Tenerife on June 17 - and the search has been plagued by people making "vile threats", claimed Mark Williams-Thomas, a vastly experienced private investigator who has flown out to the Canary island.
Mr Williams-Thomas said: "So much fake content has been created in the Jay Slater case - mocked up chat, messages, pics.
"It’s a very different world we live in today with social media and online detectives," he told the Sun.
"Overwhelming response from people has been very positive people just wanting to help, even though most have no direct info, just what they have read, seen or think.
"Also a number of people making vile threats and ransom demands (all checked out and have no credibility."
The search for Jay was called off on Sunday after the Civil Guard called for volunteers to join a “massive search” in the Masca area of the island on Saturday.
But an ex-Met officer, Graham Wettone, who served in the force for 30 years, has said that “things just don’t add up” in the case.
Mr Wettone, who has extensive experience working on missing persons cases, has urged the Spanish police to accept an offer of assistance from their British counterparts after examining the evidence himself.
He told the MailOnline: “It seems to me on the face of it that they are just focusing on the mountain, but I would hope they are looking at other avenues and those include criminality.”
“I’ve been following this case closely and discussing it with colleagues and it's certainly a very bizarre one, lots of things just don't add up."
Mr Wettone said he would have put up a roadblock to stop people and ask if they had seen anything, as well as challenge the witnesses even though this would be difficult as it calls their honesty into question.
Jay attended the NRG music festival on the island with two friends before his disappearance and his last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the island - which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.
There has been mystery around two British men who went north towards Masca from the festival with Mr Slater.
They were initially declared “key witnesses” but later dismissed as “not relevant”.
It comes after Jay’s parents said they were “heartbroken and devastated” after the Spanish police announced their decision to call off the search for the teenager on Sunday.
Despite this, family friend Rachel Hargreaves has said Mr Slater's loved ones have no intention of leaving the island.
Ms Hargreaves, the mother of Mr Slater's best friend Brad Hargreaves, said: "We're just carrying on searching ourselves."
She said they were continuing to cooperate with TikTok mountaineer Paul Arnott who has helped with the search in the last week.
She added: "We're looking for whoever we can find with mountain rescue experience and will carry on searching the area."
On Friday, the Guardia Civil appealed for volunteer associations, such as firefighters, and individual volunteers who were experts in rugged terrain to assist in a "busqueda masiva", or massive search, to take place on Saturday.
A helicopter, drones and a unit of dogs specialized in searches in large areas arrived from Madrid, and the Guardia Civil maintains that all the hypotheses remain open.
