An expert leading the search for missing teenager Jay Slater has revealed the “extremely dangerous” terrain he must scour after the Tenerife police called off their search.
Christopher Pennington, a former British military serviceman, began to conduct his own search after the Civil Guard’s efforts found no sign of the 19-year-old from Lancashire.
Jay has now been missing for three weeks after he was last seen on June 17 in Masca – an 11-hour walk north from his accommodation in Los Cristianos.
His family are still demanding answers and so Christopher has not stopped his efforts to find the young lad. So far he has come across a pair of black sungalsses with one lens missing, spotted near where Jay’s phone last pinged.
Christopher has now amassed more than 30,000 followers on TikTok as people follow his journey to hopefully find Jay and bring him home to his heartbroken family.
His latest search mission has focussed on the Parque Rural de Teno region, known for its mountainous terrain that has hindered the search so far.
He told Mail Online: “This area has not been searched properly. You can tell, the authorities have stuck to the paths because they’ve assumed Jay did too, but that’s not how you conduct a thorough search.”
Christopher followed Jay’s exact route at the same time of day, driving the winding roads from near the Papagayo nightclub to the Casa Abuela Tina Airbnb in Masca at 5:30am on Saturday.
He said: “I didn’t go more than 15km an hour. Because of the hairpin turns, you’ve essentially got to crawl up. It’s dark, it’s extremely dangerous. Arriving up here that early, it felt eerie. Let be me frank, it’s scary up here on your own in the darkness.”
Christopher also attempted to trek through the shrubbery and bushes where he found the sunglasses, noting that “you’d have to be mad” to willingly attempt that.
He said: “If Jay came off the path and went through there, like I’ve just done, he wouldn’t leave the path again. You’d have to be mad.”
Also assisting in the search for Jay is local Juan Garcia and his sniffer dog Caperucita. Garcia said the search area is a “labyrinth” and trying to find Jay has been like “looking for a needle in a haystack”.
He told the outlet: “The police have searched here with a helicopter, but it’s a labyrinth of bushes and you can’t see much from the air. We really are looking for a needle in a haystack.’