Former Met officer Graham Wettone has suggested that the case of missing teen Jay Slater might require further scrutiny, stating that certain aspects "don't add up".
Wettone, with 30 years of experience at the Metropolitan Police, suggested that Slater, who vanished on June 17, may not actually be missing in the traditional sense. The former policeman emphasised the importance for local authorities to consider whether third-party involvement is a possibility and to explore "criminal" aspects of the case.
Efforts to find the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer saw drones, dogs, and international search teams descend upon the Spanish island. The termination of the search has reportedly left Jay's parents "devastated". As of Sunday, the Tenerife police have formally discontinued the search for Jay, reports the Mirror.
In a conversation with MailOnline, Graham said: "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."
Jay Slater has now been missing for two weeks (Image: Instagram)
Graham also suggested many of the witnesses may not be telling the truth and he would start again from the beginning and speak to them all once more. He criticised Spanish police for focusing primarily on the fact they were told told he wandered off into the mountain and said he hoped officers would have at least secured the Airbnb so any potential evidence there could be gathered.
He told the publication that other things that do not add up include - were they any patterns forming that would point to ending up wandering off; was there anything sinister and untoward or related to his past about why he went off with the two men; why hasn't he been found, if he is young and fit?
Graham argued Spanish police should look at other avenues, including criminality, in their investigation.
Sources close to Jay's family express their devastation over the conclusion of the search, driven by a sense that "trolls have won".
A family source in the UK told The Sun: "Jay's family can't help thinking the trolls have won and that they have got the way. So many people have been putting horrible messages out there which has only added to the family's torment.
"They will not stop looking for Jay or giving up. They will be staying in Tenerife and trying to do all they can to keep momentum going and to find Jay. They've been trying to get in touch with groups in Tenerife and beyond who specialise in missing persons.
"Jay's family knew the search would eventually wind down. They get that. But it was a nightmare scenario they didn't want to think about."
A 14-year-old boy has gone missing after swimming with friends in the River Mersey.
Police said he became separated from the group near the radar tower off Crosby beach, Waterloo, and hasn't been seen since.
Emergency services were called just after 7pm on Sunday and a cordon was put in place on the beach.
Local media said there were multiple ambulances and fire engines near the scene, with a coastguard helicopter overhead.
"We are asking people to avoid the area at this time, whilst the emergency services, including the coastguard and North West Ambulance Service, continue searching for the missing boy," said Merseyside Police.
Police in Tenerife have said the unsuccessful two-week search in the mountains for a missing British teenager is now over, although the case remains open.
Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, went missing on Monday 17 June after attending a weekend rave with friends.
Since then, emergency services, mountain rescue teams, sniffer dogs, drones and helicopters have taken part in searches for Slater culminating in what was described as a “búsqueda masiva” – massive search – on Saturday.
It has emerged that that search was essentially one last push in coordinated attempts to locate Slater.
On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Guardia Civil in Tenerife said the search operation for Slater had finished, but the case remained open.
Slater, an apprentice bricklayer, had been holidaying in Tenerife with friends and went to the three-day NRG Tenerife Weekender festival at venues in the island’s Playa de las Americas resort.
In the early hours of the Monday morning, he apparently left the resort in a car with two British men and headed to an Airbnb property in Masca, a remote hilltop hamlet in the north-west of the island.
He was last heard from at about 8.15am when he told a friend, Lucy Law, that he planned to walk back to his holiday accommodation after missing a bus, a journey that would take him 10-11 hours on foot.
Slater also said he was thirsty, had 1% of charge left on his phone and did not know where he was.
The search on Saturday centred around valleys and ravines in the mountainous, treacherous, cactus-filled terrain near Masca in the Rural de Teno national park.
The authorities had asked for help from professionals such as civil protection workers or firefighters as well as volunteers with expertise in that type of terrain. According to the BBC, about a dozen people arrived at the designated meeting point. No sign of Slater was found.
It also emerged on Friday that one of Slater’s last calls was a video call to another friend, Brad Hargreaves, who told ITV that he heard Slater apparently sliding off the path he was on.
“He was on the phone walking down a road … and he’d gone over a little bit – not a big drop – but a tiny little drop and he was going down, and he said ‘I’ll ring you back, I’ll ring you back’ because I think someone else was ringing him.
“If he was thinking like me, he would have gone back up and started walking on the path again … He wouldn’t have gone all that way down there.”
Hargreaves said he could hear his friend sliding. “I knew he went off the road because I could hear like when you walk on gravel … stones,” he added.
The authorities in Tenerife said they had spoken to the two men who rented the Airbnb in Masca and they were “not in any way relevant to the case”.
In a previous interview with the Guardian, Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, described the online speculation as “horrible” and said Spanish police had told her it may hinder their investigation.
“I think as well they have actually said that there’s too much noise, that’s affecting it,” she said.
Rishi Sunak and Nigel Farage will be questioned on the politics shows this morning as we enter into the final days before the general election.
Mr Sunak will appear on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, alongside Labour’s campaign co-ordinator PatMcFadden and Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader.
Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, will also be on the panel.
Mr Farage, Reform UK leader, and John Swinney, the SNP leader, will appear on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.
The Prime Minister told The Sunday Telegraph that Labour will “bankrupt every generation” and warned voters have four days left to “save the country”.
“Whatever stage of your life, Labour will put up your taxes,” Mr Sunak said.
Rishi Sunak reveals anger after being called 'effing p***’ by Reform UK canvasser
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Reform UK has withdrawn support from three of its parliamentary candidates as the party is caught up in a deepening racism row.
The party, spearheaded by Nigel Farage, is no longer endorsing Edward Oakenfull, who is standing in Derbyshire Dales, Robert Lomas, a candidate in Barnsley North, and Leslie Lilley, standing in Southend East and Rochford after alleged comments made by the three candidates emerged in the media.
It comes as Reform has said it has reported Channel 4 to the Electoral Commission, after the broadcaster released footage of an activist campaigning for Mr Farage using a racial slur to describe Rishi Sunak.
Andrew Parker was exposed referring to Rishi Sunak as a “f****** p***” in a Channel 4 investigation.
In a letter to the Electoral Commission, the party’s secretary Adam Richardson claimed that it was “entirely evident that Mr Parker was a plant within the Channel 4 news piece”.
He added: “The Channel 4 broadcast has clearly been made to harm Reform UK during an election period and this cannot be described as anything short of election interference.”
Now is the time for change – that’s why The Independent is backing Labour in the 2024 election
How would you feel if you woke up on 5 July and you had to have another five years of Tory rule? It is a highly potent question. We conclude it would not be good for Britain.
It is not quite an iron rule, but political parties that have been in power for a prolonged period eventually run out of ideas, talent and energy – and can collapse into a spiral of corruption. The latest election betting scandal is embarrassing and damaging to the Conservative campaign because, although novel, it is entirely consistent behaviour from a government that brought us Partygate, among many other severe lapses in the standards we expect in public life.
It is this sense of betrayal that is driving the national mood for change.
Most expensive purchase and the music that makes him cry: Keir Starmer’s quickfire Q&A
As the Labour leader sat down with The Independent, we put him on the spot on topics from his greatest regret to his biggest heroes – and everything in between.
Sir Elton John among celebrities to throw support behind Labour
The singer appeared sitting next to his husband David Furnish in the video message that was almost drowned out by applause during a supporters meeting in Westminster.
In the message, Sir Elton said: “It’s heartbreaking to see the hopes of Britain’s next generation of creative talent downtrodden and destroyed by bureaucracy and red tape.
Failed Tory project fear drove voters to Labour and Reform, poll reveals
According to findings from Techne UK for The Independent, twice as many people are “more likely” to vote Labour (26 per cent) than more likely to vote Conservative (13 per cent) as a result of the warning used by Rishi Sunak and senior Conservatives about handing Sir Keir Starmer too much power.
The tactic was also used to try to prevent Tory voters defecting to Reform, but almost one in 10 (9 per cent) said the warning had in fact made them “more likely” to vote for Nigel Farage’s party.
Service record row and Sunak’s D-Day blunder – but Johnny Mercer fights on for one last campaign
“On the doorsteps I’ve noticed a real shift,” Johnny Mercer tells his assembled troops on the grass verge at a post-war council housing estate on the northwestern fringe of Plymouth.
Poring over a road map, the 42-year-old former Commando, wearing a polo shirt, combat trousers and rough-terrain shoes, says people are not liking Sir Keir Starmer, but that many are “pi**ed off” and don’t want to vote.
“I get that,” he says, before pushing the message to the small group that a local vote for Reform UK means Labour dominance across the city, with a second constituency likely already in their hands and a party-run city council.
Among the gift shops and Goth daytrippers – meet the ‘Whitby woman’ who could sway the election
Pensioners whizz around on mobility scooters, pirate-themed boats sail by, couples clutch each other’s hands. Welcome to Whitby: the seaside town in North Yorkshire that has lent its name to a target voter in the general election race.
The so-called “Whitby woman”, a term coined by polling think-tank More in Common, is a Tory voter who remains undecided about who will get her vote on 4 July.
With an average age of around 61, she is a homeowner who lives in a suburb or a small town like Whitby, who voted in favour of Brexit and is less likely to have gone to university.
‘Panicking’ Rishi Sunak in final weekend of campaigning to save his own seat
Rishi Sunak’s Labour opponent in his Richmond and Northallerton seat in Yorkshire has accused him of “panicking” as the prime minister campaigned to save his own seat in the last weekend before polling day.
After election campaigners for Nigel Farage were filmed voicing violent racist and homophobic slurs, the leader suggested such people end up in his party because ‘they haven’t got the BNP to go to anymore’. But when it comes to hate speech, Reform has got form, says Femi Oluwole
Starmer urges voters not to forget Conservatives’ record in office
At the major rally in London, featuring a video message of support from Sir Elton John and a speech by comedian Bill Bailey, Sir Keir went on the attack over the Conservatives’ record in office since 2010.
“Don’t forget what they have done, don’t forget Partygate, don’t forget the Covid contracts, don’t forget the lies, don’t forget the kickbacks, don’t forget the cronyism, don’t forget the division, the scapegoating of minorities, the failure to invest, the trips to the bookies, the decimation of your public services.
“Telling working people ‘we’re all in it together’, the people who hurt your family finances, swanning around the House of Lords, after giving tax cuts to the richest 1% that crashed our economy, don’t forget any of it.”
But Sir Keir said “we can heal the wounds, bring our country together, return politics to service, and start to build a new Britain”.
Jay Slater search scours caves, ravines and cliffs
“Why would anybody come to Masca?” asks Wayne Bennett, 39, from Wiltshire.
He’s just arrived in Tenerife with two friends on a pre-booked holiday, and Masca was first on a list of recommended places to go by his car rental agent.
To call it a village is generous. At most, a dozen houses and villas are dwarfed on all sides by towering volcanic cliffs. The road through barely lets two cars pass.
To get there, it’s a vomit-inducing rollercoaster of a road that at times seems like you’re driving through the sky.
It attracts view-seekers, hardcore hikers and nature lovers, mostly from Germany and mainland Spain. It’s miles away, figuratively and literally, from the typical Tenerife party scene.
“There’s just nothing, is there?” says Wayne, looking slightly disappointed.
What Wayne and his friends didn’t know, until we told them, was that this was where 19-year-old Jay Slater spent the night before he went missing.
They’d all heard of Jay’s story, but were surprised to find themselves just across from the rented holiday flat he was last seen leaving on 17 June.
On that morning, Jay was seen walking up the steep mountain road away from the village. His friend, Lucy Mae Law, said that he called her and told her he had no water, was on 1% battery and that he was lost.
His phone’s location pinged somewhere near a mobile phone mast at the crest of the valley. And then Jay vanished, without a trace.
The 'massive search' that wasn’t
On Saturday, almost two weeks on from Jay's disappearance, authorities in Tenerife organised a public search to try to comb through the area.
Emergency workers had been combing the Masca valley and other nearby ravines, caves and paths daily, with no luck.
They hoped that the call for a “massive search” would bring experienced amateur climbers and hikers to the area to comb through the undergrowth, looking for any clues as to what happened to Jay.
On the day, fewer than a dozen volunteers turned up.
All in all, including the professionals, 30 people in total were tasked with combing a massive and difficult-to-reach search area. For most of the morning, there were more journalists than rescue workers at the rendezvous point.
Police forces around the world act in different ways when it comes to dealing with the media, and here in Tenerife the policy appeared to be not to comment on an active investigation.
There were no appeals for help, no posters and no interviews. It was left to Jay Slater’s father and elder brother to put up posters in the town of Santiago del Teide at the foot of the national park.
Then a - partial - change of heart. Just before Saturday’s search began, Brigadier Cipriani Martin of Spain’s Guardia Civil patiently gave answers to British and local journalists explaining what stage the investigation was at.
Because of that two-week window without information, many believe a vacuum was created which was, in turn, filled by conjecture and theories of conspiracy.
Wild rumours spread on TikTok, Reddit and Facebook led to real life harassment and trolling. Jay’s family said that fake messages on social media were stopping them from getting real information that could actually help their search.
One person they did thank was climber and TikTok personality Paul Arnott, who landed on the island a week or so after Jay’s disappearance and has been helping with the search.
We saw him on the morning of the open search, looking tired and frustrated.
“I’ve been checking loads of different areas” he said. “On some days I’ve been with police and mountain rescue. Those guys have told me where to search.”
He’s also been relentlessly posting on TikTok - dozens of videos a day - to his 280,000 followers. It’s a staggering number, and almost half of them have discovered him since he started posting about Jay Slater.
We asked him what he would say to those who said he was doing this to promote his own profile.
“I do social media anyway," he said. "I film mountain stuff. His family wanted help and exposure, and that’s what I do.”
Lancashire Police said in an earlier statement that it had made an offer of support to Spain's Civil Guard but had been told the agency was "satisfied that they have the resources they need".
A set of dilapidated farm buildings drew the attention of search teams
The area being searched has grown as time has passed.
In the first few days after we arrived, the teams of firefighters, civil guards and mountain rescuers concentrated on the area closest to the house Jay had left on the morning of 17 June.
A team of a dozen council workers scoured the area of land below the outcrop of rock the cluster of small houses were built on.
When nothing was found, the search moved to the next valley, where Jay's phone last pinged.
At the bottom of the valley, partly hidden by dense undergrowth, lie a few dilapidated farm buildings.
Search dogs were deployed and officers carried out extensive work in the buildings.
Had Jay been there? Was there evidence that he might have come looking for something to drink?
For three or four days, police cars were parked up in the valley. The track to the buildings was closed off by the police and, as we left the area late one night, a patrol car with its headlights on stood guard.
It seemed as though this could be the breakthrough the police had been after.
But then, the next morning, the cars were gone, the track opened up and the search relocated elsewhere.
We trekked down to see why they’d spent so many days in this particular area and found a treasure trove of abandoned items in the wrecked rooms: an empty bottle of sun cream, boxes of tea bags, bottles of water, women's clothes on hangers, and an old mattress.
Each area had been checked for any sign of Jay having been there but with the police moving on to other search areas, it appears nothing in there was deemed to be important to the investigation.
Jay Slater’s disappearance has an effect on so many people, none more so than his mother and father, who have been in Tenerife since he went missing.
They have called in the support of friends and family to help them cope.
With every passing day, the worry can only be getting worse and that’s what has prompted so many people to donate money to help them. Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan said the funds had been used to help Tenerife’s mountain rescue teams as well as provide help for the family’s living costs on the island while they wait for news.
The concern is shared by others too. Taking part in the weekend search was Livia Karczewski. The 40-year old mother lives in Tenerife and regularly walks in the area Jay was last seen in.
"Sometimes the ground is a little difficult around here," she says. "There are a lot of stones. You need good shoes, you need to be careful. It's not easy, you have to be prepared."
We ask her what made her come out here to join the search. Her answer was simple: “I wanted to come and be here because I have a son who’s the same age as Jay. I think if something was to happen to my boy, I’d appreciate it a lot if others helped to find him.”
As the search drew to a close, it was evident there had been no breakthrough. A helicopter flew back to its base, the drones were packed away and the search teams went home for the night and the waiting for Jay Slater’s family continues.
Let’s take a quick look at the front pages of some of the newspapers this morning, which are dominated by the election.
The Observer carries a pledge from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to "relight the fire" of optimism among the British people if his party forms the next government.
Labour plans to "hit the ground running" and launch a housebuilding blitz within days of gaining power, Starmer and his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves tell the Sunday Times.
But speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claims Labour would "bankrupt people in every generation" through tax rises and make it harder for people to buy their first home or start a family.
And the Sunday Express leads with a warning by Rishi Sunak that Labour would "do irreversible damage within just 100 days of coming to power". He cites the party's plans to scrap the Rwanda asylum scheme and to charge VAT on private school fees.
