A TV detective has claimed he knows the real reason why tragic British teenager Jay Slater left an Airbnb in the early hours of the morning before his death.
Mark Williams-Thomas, a former police officer turned TV sleuth, is known for presenting a documentary which exposed Jimmy Savile and investigating a number of high-profile cases, including missing Maddie McCann and the PPE scandal.
Promising to get ‘answers’, he flew out to Tenerife to meet with the 19-year-old’s family after Jay vanished in June while on a three-day holiday with friends for a music festival.
But as the mystery surrounding the teen’s disappearance grew, ‘vile’ and ‘distressing’ conspiracy theories began to emerge that dogged efforts to find the missing apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle.
Among the vicious rumours circulating included wild claims Jay had been targeted by a criminal cartel on the island for allegedly stealing a watch from a gang member – something his family vehemently denied happened.
Jay’s grief-stricken mother, Debbie Duncan, was even terrorised by ruthless online trolls, who sent her thousands of messages, pictures and videos – including twisted mock-ups of her son being tortured and held hostage.
Speaking in August, the tearful 56-year-old said: ‘I don’t even have the words to describe how sick these individuals are… I have been terrorised by trolls.’
Mark Williams-Thomas, a former police officer turned TV sleuth, claimed in a video he knows the real reason why tragic British teenager Jay Slater left an Airbnb before his death
Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, disappeared while on a three-day holiday for a music festival
Jay Slater pictured before he went missing in Tenerife, seen with his mother Debbie Duncan
Jay vanished after attempting to walk back to his lodging after missing a bus from this Airbnb
Spanish police have previously searched the Airbnb (pictured) where Jay was seen
Jay went to the remote cottage – called Casa Abuela Tina, meaning Grandma Tina’s house – at 5am on June 17, the day he vanished
Jay posted this Snapchat of himself standing on the steps of the Airbnb villa
Tragically following a month-long search, the teen’s body was eventually found just a few feet from his last known location.
It’s still unknown why Jay decided to leave the Airbnb he had been staying at on a walk that resulted in him falling down a treacherous and inaccessible ravine, but Mr Williams-Thomas now claims he knows the reason.
It comes as former officer revealed the impact of the ‘huge amount of misinformation’ surrounding the case, admitting some of what he was told in the ‘early days’ wasn’t ‘accurate, wasn’t correct’.
In a video on social media, he said: ‘There’s a huge amount of misinformation. When I went out there, I took a lot of videos.
‘Some of the information which came to me in the early days wasn’t accurate, wasn’t correct and I needed to validate it.’
He went on to say he’d had a ‘long conversation’ with Jay’s mother Debbie and they get on ‘very well’.
‘This is a mother who lost her child. This case hit headlines worldwide and took on a life of its own. People became fascinated and as a result of that there were lots of conspiracy theories.
‘I was very clear from Day One this looked like a tragic accident. There were considerable issues – I haven’t revealed the details of these issues – exactly why Jay left in the manner he did. Why didn’t he return?
‘These things I’ve kept to myself at this moment in time. Maybe, when the time is right, I will reveal those.
‘I’ve got to be very careful. What I don’t want to do is upset the family with any more trauma than they have already had and so it would be something I would work very closely with Debbie and the family on to reveal that information.
Mr Williams-Thomas flew out to Tenerife to meet with the missing 19-year-old’s family after he vanished in June and promised to get ‘answers’
Jay’s family and many others laid the 19-year-old to rest at his funeral on August 10, and asked he be allowed to rest in peace without conspiracies spiralling about his death
The order of service for Jay’s funeral featured a picture of the teenager smiling
Jay’s body was brought to Accrington Crematorium Chapel by horse-drawn carriage
People put blue ribbons up all around the church in memory of the teenager
‘Maybe the time will be right soon, but not right now.’
In another video, he said: ‘The evidence still strongly suggests that Jay left the Airbnb suddenly and walked for 30 minutes before wandering off road.
‘At this stage, I cannot explain any further what we now know.‘
Replying to a critical comment on his post, Mr Williams-Thomas slammed ‘wild speculation’ on social media which was prevalent about Jay’s case.
He said: ‘Perhaps we should tell every police office to stop what they are doing and let every crime be solved by the internet detectives. It’s called speaking to witnesses and obtaining evidence.
‘My posts have confirmed facts – you are right some of the internet posts will be correct, but others are wild speculation.’
The £40-a-night two-bedroom Airbnb Jay vanished from is in the village of Masca around 19 miles from Playa de las Americas, Tenerife.
Jay went to the remote cottage – called Casa Abuela Tina, meaning Grandma Tina’s house – at 5am on June 17, the day he went missing.
The 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, near Manchester, went missing on June 17
Jay’s mother Debbie and father Warren in Tenerife while they were hunting for their son
Flowers and messages left by the family of Jay by roadside near the spot he was found
He left the property at around 7.30am, posting two pictures from it on Snapchat, before possibly setting out to catch a bus back towards his holiday apartment elsewhere on the island.
Jay was last seen walking uphill and made a final call to friend Lucy Law to say he was lost, that his phone was almost out of battery, and that he needed water.
During the search for the missing teenager, the Facebook page managed by Lucy to help find him was flooded with abusive comments and conspiracy theories.
There were even multiple fake GoFundMe links posted to raise money for the search, before the genuine fundraiser was created.
The boss of the missing persons charity which was supporting Jay’s family throughout vowed to wage war on cruel trolls who sent misleading and untrue tip-offs about the youngster.
Matthew Searle, chief executive of LBT Global, says he received hundreds of malicious emails, phone calls and messages with false information about the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer after he disappeared on June 17.
He has passed messages sent to him and Jay’s mother, Debbie Duncan, to police to investigate under telecommunications laws. The malignant messages included false ransom demands from people claiming to have Jay in their custody.
Others included claims that Jay had been seen in a Sainsbury’s in Basingstoke, watching a football match in Germany and on a Eurostar train.
Mr Searle said the bad actors had delayed genuine investigations into Jay’s disappearance because he had to ‘follow up every single lead’.
And it has only added to the pain felt by Jay Slater’s family after the teenager’s body was found on July 15 at the bottom of a ravine in the Barranco Juan Lopez valley on Tenerife’s west coast.
Jay’s disappearance captured the attention of people across the world, who became heavily invested in the search for the young man – with echoes of the disappearance of Nicola Bulley, who vanished in January 2023.
TikTok conspiracy theory rabbit holes and ‘find Jay Slater’ groups on Facebook became sources of speculation and harmful, unproven rumours about where Jay had gone on the day he vanished.
His body was found after a month-long search just a few metres from his last known location
A dog in the search team which searched for Jay Slater in June
This continued despite pleas from the family to stop sharing ‘awful comments and conspiracy theories’ online – as attention-seeking TikTokers flew out to Tenerife and filmed themselves in the valley where Jay had disappeared.
In launching a TikTok account to document the search for his son, Warren Slater urged conspiracy theorists to ‘allow Jay to rest in peace’, before sharing clips from the family’s hunt around the Spanish island.
Jay’s father initially launched his new social media account thanking people for their support and generosity while the search for his son was still ongoing, before sharing an array of pictures and videos taken while Jay’s family were in Tenerife.
In a standalone clip, Mr Slater posted a video of himself at the place Jay stayed in June, and tracked the hill which Jay headed towards.
He posted to confirm the account is his and he clarified the previous video was taken during the family’s time on the island, to quash suspicion that the father had returned.
‘I haven’t been back to Tenerife ever since I came back from looking for my son,’ he said.
‘The videos that I’ve been posting are just documentation of what I was up to, where I was searching, things I was looking at while I while I was out there and that’s it.’
His original post launching the account on August 15 had asked that people ‘stop talking about Jay online’ and ‘adding to the conspiracy theories surrounding his death’.
‘Please respect our wishes and allow Jay to rest in peace,’ Mr Slater added.
And Jay’s heartbroken mother Debbie Duncan, who travelled to Tenerife to search for her missing son, said five unanswered questions continue to torment her a month after his body was found, including why he left the Airbnb.