There is panic in Tenerife as ‘serial killer’ fears explode after a spate of mysterious disappearances.
The search for missing British tourist Jay Slater on the holiday island of Tenerife was one of the biggest news stories of the summer. The 19-year-old disappeared in the early hours of June 17, 2024, after attending a music festival with friends.
After setting off to walk back to their accommodation, he ended up getting a lift with two men to a village in the mountains and the last sighting of him was near a bus stop. He later called a friend and told her he was “lost”.
Despite a range of increasingly outlandish theories put forward by armchair detectives, his body was recovered in a remote ravine on July 15 and a post-mortem later established he died from head injuries consistent with a fall from height.
But Slater is by far from the only tourist to go missing on the island in such mysterious circumstances this year.
Expat news website The Olive Press has been covering the disappearances in recent weeks, prompting one reader to ask if there “could be a serial killer on the loose”?
At least 12 people are known to have disappeared from Tenerife and La Gomera so far this year, according to the latest figures.
Spanish teenager Nicoll Andrea was last seen on August 20, according to the Spanish missing person’s database SOS Desaparecidos. Now 17, she was 16 when she went missing from Arona, Santa Cruz.
Also missing since April 24 of this year is 71-year-old Belgian Marc Francis. He is feared to have been murdered after the dismembered body of his wife, Laura Gastón, aged 66, was found by a fisherman floating in the sea off the east coast of Tenerife near Arico.
Reports said she was missing one hand and both legs and her head was wrapped in a plastic bag.
In June, the Spanish Guardia Civil working with Belgium’s Federal Police said they had made three arrests – two in Belgium and one in Tenerife – in connection with the gruesome case. No further updates have been provided since then.
Some of the missing persons appeals are launched by friends and family, without any official involvement, so details can be vague.
Earlier this month, an appeal was launched for a woman named Andrea, who may be a Dutch dual national. She has been missing from the resort of Los Cristianos since “early 2024”.
Somebody from the Missing Persons Tenerife group on Facebook told The Olive Press: “The alarm was initially raised by a local musician, who had allowed her to spend a few nights in his motorhome in the popular holiday resort of Los Cristianos, as she had nowhere else to stay and no income. He was dismayed to find that she had vanished.”
And now another appeal has been launched for a British man named “Pete”, thought to be from the Middlesbrough area.
It states: “Our friend has been missing since Tuesday the 1st of October last seen in Las Americas area. He’s called Pete if anyone’s seen him please could you get in touch his family are worried.”
Meanwhile, the authorities are working to identify a body that was found by a hunter in September. The human remains, which are believed to have been there “for some time” was discovered in a ravine between the towns of Arona and Adeje.
Olive Press reports that around 28 people have gone missing on the island since 2015. They include German national Oliver Heise, 23, who was last seen on August 4, 2022, in Monte de Esperanza in Santa Cruz during a solo backpacking holiday.
Reporter Laurence Dollimore, who has been covering the spate of disappearances for The Olive Press, wrote: “Many visitors to Tenerife are unaware of the dangers its landscape can hold.
“The volcanic island is filled with deep ravines and troughs, as well as dense forests that one can easily become lost in.”