The heartbroken mum of missing teenager Jay Slater has said she may never know what has happened to her son in a new admission.
Debbie Duncan angrily said the family is going “through hell” and stated “this is no holiday”, as she posted on the official find Jay Slater Facebook page. The 19-year-old, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was last seen after setting off to walk back to his accommodation while on holiday in Tenerife on June 17.
As reported by the Mirror, his family have flown to the island to help with the search for him - but they have faced a barrage of conspiracy theories.
Debbie wrote: “I feel the need to post this to your group and then I shall remove myself. I joined this group to share the positivity and love from the British public. It seems through no fault of my own you have all decided to make up your own minds. It is really sad I have felt the need to do this. My beautiful son Jay is still missing and believe me this is no holiday."
Addressing what may have happened she said: “He came on his first holiday to Tenerife to attend the NRG music event. What mystery surrounding his disappearance may never surface. We as a family are truly devastated. I did not ask for publicity from the start and was not aware that the first missing poster had my telephone number on it. It should have had the SOS Guardia Civil but like I say this was out of my control.
“Whatever decision you have in your minds I cannot control this either. We are a normal working family from Lancashire going through hell. I would like to thank the genuine people for their love and support at this difficult time and to continue to pray for Jay to be found.”
She also said she can account for every penny that has been donated to the fund to help find Jay. “For those of you who are more concerned around the Gofundme page I can assure you that up to now it has not been used and our stay up to now has been financed by ourselves.
"I do have proof of transactions and transfers to other persons but I should not have to justify this. So you can make up your own minds. If any of you in this group have donated. I am thankful for the other mothers out there. Please continue to pray. Thank you.”
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Tenerife's Guardia Civil have called off the search for Slater, an apprentice bricklayer, receiving thanks from Debbie for "worked tirelessly up in the mountains where Jay’s last phone call was traced”.
It recently emerged that one of the last people to see the missing teenager is a convicted drug dealer. Ayub Qassim, 31, was jailed nine years ago for being the mastermind who led the operation to flood Wales with Class A drugs. He booked an Airbnb holiday cottage, Casa Abuela Tina, near the remote village of Masca for £40 a night under the name Ayub Abdul.
Jay stayed at the cottage with two men on June 17, and has not been seen or heard from since 5am that morning. Qassim is believed to have invited him back to the holiday apartment after going to a rave in the south of Tenerife before he disappeared the next day. Qassim, along with an unidentified friend, spoke to the Spanish police and extended his stay by an extra day to discuss the disappearance of Jay.
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Qassim told the Mail: "If I'd fallen out with him would he even come to mine? There were no problems. You've seen the last images of him with his red blanket around him. I don't know if he had beef elsewhere because I don't know him that well, I only know him through friends. I'm doing the geezer a favour and now my face is all over the news. It's a bit mental. I haven't even done anything."
He did not give a theory on what had happened to Jay, saying instead: "Everyone knows each other. I'm not going to slander anyone. He's a cool guy, Jay. He ain't got a problem with me, I haven't got a problem with him or his mates. We just all talk to each other and everything was sweet."
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