COPS hunting for Jay Slater in Tenerife have expanded their search to an “immense” barren landscape north of where he was last seen.
It comes after the 19-year-old’s dad Warren pleaded for the safe return of his son and urged rescue teams to widen the operation.
The mammoth operation involving drones, sniffer dogs and helicopters has now been broadened a week after Jay vanished.
Crews had been focussing on the Masca gorge close to where Jay, from Lancashire, had made a final frantic call to friend Lucy Law last Monday morning.
He told his pal he was lost in the middle of nowhere with no water and had just one per cent battery on his phone.
Today Civil Guard officers confirmed forest trails and tracks north of the gorge in Teno Rural Park were also now being looked at as the ongoing search expanded to other areas.
A spokesman for the force said: “Officers are going over old ground in the gorge but teams are also looking at other areas such as forest trails and tracks in other parts of Buenavista del Norte.
“We’re talking about an immense area.
“We’re not going to go in every little new detail of the search or give a running commentary but everything possible is being done to find this missing man and we continue to keep an open mind with regards to what could have happened to him.
“It remains a land and air search and hasn’t yet been extended to the sea.”
Buenavista del Norte is the name of the municipality the tiny village of Masca forms part of.
It is also the name of the town on the north west coast of Tenerife a 35-minute drive from Masca.
Jay stopped a local there to ask her about bus times shortly before she spotted him again walking out of the village around 15 minutes later as she drove past him on the twisting road running north.
Ofelia Medina Hernandez spoke about the sighting late last week, saying: “He was alone and he was walking quite fast. I drove past him and that’s the last time I saw him.”
Apprentice bricklayer Jay was heading in the opposite direction to the way he should have been going if his intended destination was in the south of the island where his hotel was.
It comes as…
He had headed to Masca with two British men at the end of a three-day music festival he flew to Tenerife to attend.
Jay stayed at their rented Airbnb for a couple of hours before trying to make his way back to his holiday accommodation.
His distraught dad today broke down in tears as he told how his family are going through a “living hell”.
Warren, 55, told The Sun: “I just want him to be found. I just want my son back, end of.
“What more is there, it’s been a week now, a week of nothing. So somebody somewhere must’ve found out something. Somebody.
“It is a living hell, unless you’re going through it, you cannot explain.
“Please, please please, if anybody knows anything just come forward and help us.
“I don’t know if anything undertoward has happened to Jay. One minute he was here, next minute he’s disappeared.
“I don’t believe he’s still in that mountain. The police have put every effort into finding him. It’s bleak and barren.
“The authorities have done everything they can in the search, everybody is up there looking for him.”
Warren has been putting up missing person posters in the village of Santiago del Teide.
The tearful dad has also been sharing a grainy CCTV image he believes could be his son.
It shows a mystery figure walking past a church in Santiago del Teide last Monday at around 6pm – hours after Jay was reported missing.
The village is around 7km from the Masca village Jay vanished from one week ago.
Police are yet to confirm whether as a potential sighting – but Jay’s family are praying it is.
Jay’s mum said a man had come forward to say he saw someone matching her son’s description sitting on a bench with two men in the same area.
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
SUNDAY JUNE 16 – MONDAY 17
Jay goes to a rave at the 2024 NRG music festival in Tenerife, around Arona on the south of the island
8.35pm – Jay posts a smiling Snapchat video of him laughing with friends
He leaves the rave with two men he met that day and is driven back to their accommodation across the island
MONDAY 17
7.30am – Jay posts a Snapchat of a hand holding a cigarette in the area where the accommodation was – near the rural de Teno Park on the north of the island
8.30am – Jay calls his friend Lucy Law and tells her he missed a bus, had one per cent of battery left on his phone and was stuck in the “middle of nowhere”
9am – A missing persons report is filed and the search for Jay begins
TUESDAY 18
2am – Police knock on the door of Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan’s home and tell her to catch the first flight out to Tenerife
7am – She flies out from Manchester Airport alongside her son Zak to help with the search
Debbie is sent a Snapchat message saying “Kiss goodbye to your boy, you’re never going to see him again, he owes me a lot of money.”
WEDNESDAY 19
12.30pm – Police move the search to the south of the island briefly after a false sighting
Cops search his hotel room for clues as his mum says there was “nothing untoward there”
Debbie gives a heart-wrenching interview where she shares fears he has been “taken” and says “I just want my baby back”
THURSDAY 20
Cops begin day four of the massive search for Jay
FRIDAY 21
Lancashire cops offer to help with the search but Tenerife authorities say they are “satisfied that they have the resources they need”
Search turns to 22,000ft ravine in Masca – part of an area dubbed “the badlands” by locals
SATURDAY 22
The sixth day of the search begins with sniffer dogs, cops, mountain rescue and firefighters again taking to the hills in northern Tenerife
Possible new sighting of Jay places him near a church with two men at 6pm on Monday – although unconfirmed by police
Jay’s dad Warren and brother Zak visit the search site in Tenerife
SUNDAY 23
Cops focus their search around small outbuildings in de Teno park near where Jay’s phone last pinged
Jay’s mum Debbie says trolls are comparing her to Karen Matthews
The GoFundMe set up by Jay’s friend Lucy surpasses £30,000 after just three days
Exclusive Sun footage shows Jay appearing to fall and stumble back up at a rave before he vanished
MONDAY 24
Search for Jay enters eighth day
Police expand search area north to parts of Buenavista del Norte
