Spanish police are investigating the growing conspiracy theories online surrounding Jay Slater’s disappearance, The Telegraph understands.
Since the British teenager went missing in Tenerife on Monday, June 17, people have been posting bizarre speculation about his disappearance.
Two theories which have been suggested are that the 19-year-old has been kidnapped, or that he is simply hiding.
Mr Slater, who had attended a music festival on the island on Sunday, June 17, was last heard from the following morning when he told a friend that he was lost in the mountains and desperately thirsty.
As the search for him entered its ninth day on Tuesday, a source close to Spain’s Guardia Civil told The Telegraph that conspiracy theories are being actively investigated.
They said: “Yes, of course it (conspiracy theories) is being investigated. From the beginning they have been considering all possibilities.”
Warren Slater, Mr Slater’s father, has criticised the police for a lack of communication with the family. Some family members have travelled to Tenerife as the search continues.
Mr Slater snr told Sky News: “The mountain police have been brilliant but I don’t know how the other police force works.
“They could be doing everything, but if they are doing something, they’re not telling us what they’re doing.”
The search for the apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire is focused on the mountain village of Masca, near where his phone last pinged.
CCTV footage released by family
On Monday, his family released a CCTV image of a figure walking through Santiago del Teide, a town a few miles away, captured at 6pm last Monday.
Although the image is blurry, they believe it could be Mr Slater, which would mean he was alive 10 hours after he was last heard from.
The Guardia Civil has not confirmed the sighting but told The Telegraph that “nothing has been ruled out”.
Meanwhile, Mr Slater snr has been putting up missing posters in the town over the last two days.
He said: “I just want him to be found, simple. 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 have found out something. Somebody.
“It is a living hell. Unless you’re going through it, you cannot explain.”
Mother ‘saddened’ by speculation
Other wild online theories have seen people compare Debbie Duncan, Mr Slater’s mother, to Karen Matthews, who faked the kidnapping of her daughter Shannon 16 years ago.
Some have questioned what more than £34,000 raised on a GoFundMe page will be used for.
Ms Duncan said she felt “let down” by the theories. “I am really saddened by all your comments. You seem to be so bothered about this GoFundMe page,” she wrote on Monday.
“I really hope I am not taking my son home in a body bag. I really cannot believe the British public are not supporting me in trying to find Jay.
“This may happen to any of you one day. Very let down by you all.”
Mr Slater, who travelled to Tenerife with two friends to attend the NRG music festival, left between 3am and 6am in a car with two other British men he had met that night.
At 7.30am, he posted a picture on Snapchat showing him smoking a cigarette at the doorway of a cottage in Parque Rural de Teno, more than 30 miles from where the festival was held in the south of the island.
At around 8am Ofelia Medina Hernandez, the owner of the cottage, which is rented out on Airbnb, saw the teenager standing at a nearby bus stop.
He asked when the next bus was to Los Cristianos, the resort where he had been staying, and she said it was not for another two hours. Instead of waiting, Mr Slater decided to walk.
After setting off he rang his friend Lucy Law, who had been with him at the music festival, and said he was lost, thirsty, had 1 per cent charge left on his phone, and had cut his leg on a cactus.
His phone ran out of power shortly after the call, and its last location was north of the cottage.
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