Volunteers searching for missing British tourist Jay Slater have vowed to continue looking for him – hours after police in Tenerife called off their search.
Earlier today, police in Tenerife said they had ended their search near the mountain village of Masca for the missing 19-year-old.
The case remains “under investigation”, although a Guardia Civil spokesperson said the “search operation has now finished”.
Jay, an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was last heard from on the morning of Monday, June 17.
He was trying to walk home to his accommodation, several hours walk away, after spending the night before at accommodation used by people he had met at the island’s NRG music festival.
An extensive search operation has been taking place on the island, with helicopters, drones and rescue dogs deployed as part of efforts to find him.
Mark Thomas-Williams, a former British police officer, is working with Jay’s family in Tenerife and has advised them to bring in experts to carry out a private search using funds from their GoFundMe page – which has raised more than £44,000.
Speaking to the Mirror, he said: “The police have put considerable resources into searching for Jay and of course it is very disappointing for the family that the search by the police has now ended.
“I have advised the family to use the GoFundMe money to bring in a large team of experts to flood the area from where we know Jay last was.”
Other volunteers who have travelled to island have vowed to continue their efforts.
Tiktok climber Paul Annott, who has flown to Tenerife to help the search, has been on the island for around a week.
Posting on his account on Sunday, he said: “I’m possibly going to move the search over to another area, either tomorrow (Monday) or this evening (Sunday) but I will tell you about that later.”
Speaking to The Sun, family friend Rachel Hargreaves also confirmed they had not given up looking for Jay.
She added: “Nothing has changed. We will continue to search for him.”
