An ex-cop has said that two important steps need to be taken to find Jay Slater, the British teen who has gone missing in Spain.
The Lancashire teen has been missing since Sunday June 16 after he left a rave in Tenerife. The British 19-year-old called a friend on Monday morning to tell them he was lost and that he had hurt his leg, and then communications abruptly stopped.
Missing persons expert Charlie Hedges has spoken out about what the police could and should be doing six days into the search.
READ MORE: Missing Jay Slater webcam has amateur sleuths glued in hope clues will suddenly appear
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He said that one of the most important things for police to do is to construct a profile of Jay with everything from his personality to his fitness level.
(Image: PA)
This profile will help them to determine the choices that he made that night, and also how capable he would have been to clamber along the 2,000ft Masca ravine, the main site of the police search.
It is not unlikely that he succumbed to the elements, given that TV doctor Michel Mosley also died while on holiday from element exposure earlier this month.
The former Thames Valley Police officer said the second most important thing is for the police to tell online sleuths to back off, as the Facebook page dedicated to finding him has grown to 40,000.
(Image: PA)
He said they may cause more harm than good by muddying the investigation, and preventing real witness statements and evidence from coming forward.
Hedges has also reminded online sleuths that this is ultimately a terrible and distressing time for the Slater family, and that they should remain respectful and observant of that.
The facts of the case as of June 22 are that Jay’s last known location was at the Teno Rural Park, a 10-hour walk from his AirBnB in Los Cristianos.
(Image: MEN Media)
He had left his friends at the NRG festival to go somewhere else with two men he had met that night. The next morning he called his friend Lucy Law, telling her he was stranded, needed water, and his phone was about to die.
The two men have not come forward, and are believed to have returned to the UK.
Lancashire police have offered to help, but the Spanish police say they are satisfied with the resources they have at hand.
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