Chilling Snapchat message sent to mum of missing teenager Jay Slater (2024)

The mum of a missing teenager, Jay Slater, in Tenerife has said she fears her son has been ‘taken against his will’ after she received a Snapchat message telling her to ‘kiss goodbye to your boy’.

Jay Slater, 19, disappeared after going to stay with people he just met on the holiday following a night out.

Officers have entered the room he was sharing with a friend at a three-star apartment complex in Los Cristianos in the south of the island to search for clues.

And his mum fears ‘something bad’ has happened to Jay as he is supposed to board a flight back to the UK tomorrow morning – but she currently has his passport.

The last phone location data showed he was in a mountainous area of a national park 10 hours away from his accommodation.

Helicopters have been seen flying over the area since Monday with rescue crews scaling the steep mountains.

Speaking as the third day of searching starts to come to a close, mum Debbie said: ‘There’s no ransom demand come in yet but I got a Snapchat about 10 minutes after I got off the plane saying “kiss goodbye to your boy, you’re never going to see him again, he owes me a lot of money” which I passed on to police with the number it came from because I had my wits about me at the time and got my eldest son Zac to take a screen grab before it disappeared.

‘There’s been that many prank calls that I don’t know whether that was one but I’m passing on information to police that I think could be relevant and I thought that could be.’

In the last video uploaded to Snapchat, Jay is seen in the outfit he was known to be wearing last, which is a light grey t-shirt with green shoulders and a black bag.

His friend Lucy Mae who travelled with Jay to Tenerife described his disappearance as ‘suspicious and weird’ and police admitted they were keeping an ‘open mind’ about what might have happened.

She said: ‘There’s something weird going on. It is suspicious. In two days you’re telling me someone’s not seen him.

‘Jay’s not stupid, it was just before 9 o’clock in the morning when he rang me so broad daylight and the area he was in is full of hikers.’

Debbie added: ‘Police have been into Jay’s room today. I’ve been in his room as well. But everything of Jay’s was neatly hung up, it’s just a normal room and there’s nothing untoward there.

‘His passport was there along with all his euros which I’ve got now. I’m not sure he had any money on him when he made that last call to his friend Lucy on Monday morning before he vanished.

‘But he had his bank card and I’ve checked his bank because I can get into his account online and there’s nothing gone out since he was on Veronica’s Strip in Playa de Las Americas earlier.

‘He and his friend Brad who he flew out here with would have been getting up tomorrow and flying home.

‘They had a flight tomorrow morning. I’ve got the tickets as well as Jay’s passport which has had a stop put on it by the British authorities before they knew it was in my possession.

‘Brad’s going to stay now. No-one’s going to go to the airport just in case Jay turns up there because I know for a fact he would have been in contact with someone and won’t be suddenly reappearing there without warning.’

Debbie’s partner Andy Watson said police urged the family to come to the island as soon as possible.

He told Lancashire Live: ‘It was about 2.30am and the police said “the best thing you can do is get yourself out there”, we knew it was bad.

‘This was his first holiday on his own. I’m just hoping he’s gone to another party.’

Speaking from the south of the island where her son had been staying, Debbie said: ‘The consulate has been really good so far. I’m obviously beside myself with worry which is why I’ve flown out here with my eldest son to do anything we can to help.

‘We’re just praying the police or someone finds Jay. I know there’s a mountain rescue team out and a helicopter.

‘Nothing’s ever going to be enough when your youngest son’s gone missing but it sounds as if the police here are taking this very seriously and doing the best job they can.’

She added: ‘He’d been at a three-day festival so he would have consumed a fair bit of alcohol but Jay was snapchatting with friends before he went missing and seemed very compos mentis.’

Debbie has revealed she has been bombarded with prank calls during the search, with trolls even claiming to have kidnapped Jay.

She said: I just don’t know why people would want to do things like this. I’ve been getting lots of prank calls. It’s sickening.’

Jay’s last known location was the Teno Rural Park in the north west of the island, which is a popular hiking spot.

His friend, Lucy Mae, said it was ‘in the middle of nowhere’ and Jay would ‘not have realised’ how far away he was from their accommodation.

After it ran out his last location was in ‘the middle of mountains with nothing around’, Lucy said.

The location is in the Rural de Teno Park – or the National Park of Teno – which is popular with hikers.

The closest town is Santiago del Teide. Lucy said she is now frantically searching for her friend on the island.

Speaking to MEN about her friend’s disappearance, she said: ‘He’s gone on a night out, he’s gone to a friend’s house, someone that he has met on holiday.

‘One of the people he has met has hired a car out of here, so he’s driven them back to his apartment and Jay has gone there not realising how far away it is.

‘He’s ended up out in the middle of nowhere. Jay was obviously thinking he would be able to get home from there.’

She added: ‘I’ve never been so worried in my life. I was there all yesterday, a lovely lady messaged me on Facebook and said she had hired a car and would drive me up there.

‘We were there all of yesterday, we were driving around looking around everywhere, looking in all the nooks and crannies.’

Jay was last seen wearing a white t-shirt with shorts and trainers. He was also believed to be carrying a black bag.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: ‘We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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