Jay Slater’s mom is ‘at her wits’ finish with fear’

Missing teenager Jay Slater’s mother says she’s at her wits’ end with worry – as his friends flew to Tenerife to help with the search for him.

Speaking as the hunt for the apprentice bricklayer entered its ninth day, Debbie Duncan revealed how among those who had travelled to the Spanish holiday island was her son’s former girlfriend, Jessica Ingham.

School finance officer Debbie, 55, told MailOnline: ‘It’s been a week now and it’s been awful. I’ve barely slept and I’m at my wits’ end.

‘The Spanish police are doing a good job and we are getting updated from the consulate so we just put our faith in them.

‘I know people in the UK have come forward as well who were at the festival and they are giving details of what they know but I’m not being told about that.

‘Jay’s very good friends from home have also been over and have put up posters. They are good kids and like me just want him home.’

The friends who were happy to speak to the MailOnline also lashed furiously at online speculation and said: ‘Imagine if he was your son or brother, think about his poor mum.’

Despite an extensive search by police and mountain rescue teams with dogs, drones and a helicopter there has been no trace since he vanished following a rave in Playa de las Americas in southern Tenerife.

MailOnline has spoken to four of his closest pals – including Jessica – after they flew out to the Spanish island to help look for him and support his frantic mother and all travelled from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire.

The group spent the weekend combing the harsh and unforgiving terrain of the Masca gorge where his mobile phone ‘pinged’ for the last time seven days ago after he had left a rave with two mystery men.

Engineer Jessica, 19, said: ‘What really gets me is all these online detectives who have got nothing better to do than spread malicious rumours and gossip, it’s not helping the situation.

‘People need to remember he is a missing person, and his mother is absolutely sick with worry and she doesn’t need to read all kinds of rubbish that are being written about him.

‘It’s really awful and these keyboard warriors need to take a step back and think about how Debbie is feeling and imagine if it was their son or brother that was missing, some people have been really hurtful.

‘He’s my ex boyfriend but we still keep in touch and he means a lot not just to me but all of us.’

Sources told MailOnline that Debbie was in such a state she was ‘on the verge of a breakdown’ after nine days with no news and no leads about her son who disappeared after a rave after party at Playa de las Americas in south Tenerife.

The last confirmed sighting of Jay was a local woman who saw him around 8.15 last Monday walking briskly uphill, towards Masca gorge which is around 19 miles from Playa de las Americas, in the Parque Rural de Teno.

He had sent his friend Lucy Mae Law, 19, two Snapchats messages from an AirBnB he had gone to with the two British men who he had met at the afterparty being held at Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas.

The woman said Jay had asked about buses to Los Cristianos but when told he had missed one and the next one wasn’t for two hours he started to walk the wrong way up the mountain.

At 8.50am Lucy said she heard from him to say he was ‘lost in the mountains, with no water and one percent’ on his mobile phone battery, with a cut leg after brushing against a cactus.

Debbie has told MailOnline there has been an unconfirmed sighting of someone who looked like Jay on a bench with two men by a church at Santiago de Teide around 15 miles from Playa de las Americas at 6pm the day he vanished.

Jay’s best friend warehouse worker James Currie, 19, said:’ We have just got to keep on hoping that he is out there somewhere. We can’t give up on him. It’s as if a piece of us is missing.

‘We came out here to look for Jay because he is our friend, we’ve known him since primary school, he is our mate and he’s one of us.

‘But we are also out here to support Debbie and his dad and brother. They are in pieces, and they don’t need to read some of this wild speculation that’s out there.

‘He’s my best friend. I love him to bits, we all do and I can tell you if it was one of us missing he would be out there looking for us.

‘This sort of thing doesn’t happen to a lad from Lancashire. It’s like something from Netflix. He’s on his first holiday with his friends and he goes missing, it just doesn’t make sense.’

Bartender Aaliya Duxbury, 19, said: ‘We all just want him home as quickly as possible. He is somewhere on this island and that’s why we came out here to find him.

‘James is right, a piece of us is missing, he makes everyone smile and is such a happy guy, we couldn’t just stay at home and do nothing. He has to come home he just has to.

‘It’s just not the same within him. It just doesn’t seem real, it’s just a nightmare that we want to end and as the others say we don’t need all this awful speculation.

‘These people need to show some empathy and compassion, a person is missing and his mum is worried sick.’

All four spent hours searching the Masca gorge, looking in abandoned shepherd huts and joined Jay’s father Warren, 58, and his brother Zak, 24, when they paid an emotional visit to the scene.

Petrol station attendant Saul Wilkin, 19, said: ‘That was tough to watch. They were in pieces, crying and it set us all off as well when we were up there.

‘Seeing the terrain for ourselves we realised just how harsh it is up there but we have to keep hoping that he is out there somewhere.

‘The place is covered in cactus and the paths are slippery and rocky, we were falling when we were up there and to think our friend is up there is just so upsetting.’

When asked about the possibility of Jay being taken, Jessica immediately said:’I’m convinced of it. I don’t see how there has been no sign of him. It makes me think someone has him.

‘The area is busy with hikers and holidaymakers, it’s broad daylight and so someone would have seen him but they haven’t so it can only mean someone has him.

‘I don’t see why he would have come off the road and walked into the ravine it doesn’t make sense and Jay would never let his mobile go down to one percent.

‘There are things that don’t add up but he knows what he’s doing and he wouldn’t go wandering off in the mountains with no battery on his phone.

‘I really do think he’s been taken and whoever has him needs to let him go and get home to his family and friends. We miss him and love him to bits.’

Jessica added:’When we met Debbie she was devastated and she gave us all a big hug and it made us feel better and her as we were all together.

‘But no mother should have to go through what she is going through. It’s not fair on her and it wouldn’t be fair on anyone in that position.

‘This was his first foreign holiday, he should be back home at work now with his friends, it’s just awful.’