Missing Jay Slater’s mom pleads ‘we simply need to discover him’

Jay Slater’s mother has tonight told of her ‘pain and agony’ of her son’s disappearance in Tenerife as she pleaded that ‘we just want to find him‘. 

Debbie Duncan, 55, tonight issued the agonising plea saying ‘our beautiful boy’ had ‘his whole life ahead of him’. 

The loving mother has been on the Spanish island since June 18, having flown out there a day after the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished. 

Today, she and Jay’s father Warren Slater, 58 spent more than two hours talking to cops at the Guardia Civil HQ in Playa des las Americas – 16 days after he was last seen on a mountain road an hour away in the isolated village of Masca.

In a statement issued by British overseas missing persons charity LBT Global, Debbie tonight gave an insight into what her son is like as a person, calling him a ‘normal guy’ who is a ‘very popular man with a large circle of friends’. 

‘We are a very close family and are absolutely devastated about his disappearance,’ she said.

Jay Slater’s mother Debbie has tonight told of her ‘pain and agony’ of her son’s disappearance in Tenerife as she pleaded that ‘we just want to find him’

Debbie pictured with Jay’s father Warren Slater leaving the Guardia Civil in Playa de las Americas

‘Words cannot describe the pain and agony we are experiencing. He is our beautiful boy with his whole life ahead of him and we just want to find him.’

She went on to thank the Spanish police’s ‘tireless’ efforts to find her missing son having scoured the terrain for 12 days. 

And she took the opportunity to hit out at the ‘vile’ conspiracy theories that have swirled on social media and the internet about Jay’s disappearance, describing their impact on the family as ‘distressing’. 

‘We do not have any information on his whereabouts,’ she added. 

‘The Guardia Civil have worked tirelessly up in the mountains where Jay’s last phone call was traced.

‘They conducted a land search for 12 days which involved every resource they had available.

‘Although the land search ended, the Spanish police still continue with their investigations into why Jay had travelled to the location so far away from his accommodation.

‘We offer our sincere thanks to the Spanish authorities who continue to follow lines of enquiries.

‘We are aware of the conspiracy theories and speculation on social media and some websites, and can only describe this as vile, the negative comments are extremely distressing to our family.

‘We also embrace the love and support we have received from across the globe. It has not gone unnoticed, especially his home town in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire.

‘As a family we would like the world to respect our privacy at this present time.’

It comes as two plain-clothes officers returned to search the Airbnb where Jay stayed just before he disappeared.

He went back to the remote cottage in the village of Masca with two British men in the early hours of Monday morning after a rave in Playa de las Americas on June 17.

Jay left the £40-a-night two bedroom property called Casa Abuela Tina at 7.30am and posted two pictures from it on Snapchat.