An investigator probing the disappearance and death of British teenager Jay Slater in Tenerife has shed light on why the youngster left a property unaccompanied. Mark Williams-Thomas conducted interviews with Jay’s family, friends, and key witnesses in the aftermath of his disappearance on June 16 last year. Jay had attended the NRG music festival with friends at the Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas before heading to an Airbnb apartment in the early hours of the next day.
This apartment was the last place Jay was seen alive, prior to the discovery of his body on July 15 by a Spanish Civil Guard mountain rescue team near the village of Masca on the Canary Island. Mr Williams-Thomas has now revealed details of his conversation with Ayub Qassim, who rented the Airbnb, about the last time he spoke to Jay on the morning he left the apartment.
According to Mr Qassim: “He (Jay) said to me ‘Pal I’m off, this woman told me I can get a bus every 10 minutes’, I told him that he’s mad, there’s no bus that’s coming here every 10 minutes, chill out for a bit and I’ll drop you off later on.He said, ‘No, no I’ve got to go to Los Cristianos, I need to scram, I need to chip out’. There’s nothing more that I could do.”, reports the Daily Record.
I saw him walk off maybe down the steps. I maybe shut the door and said if you need me…” The last sighting of Jay alive was chillingly marked by a Snapchat image he sent to a friend, showing two knives at the AirBnB in Lancashire with the ominous caption: “I’ve got these for my protection.
“When questioned about the photo, Mr Qassim claimed ignorance, stating, “I was asleep upstairs this is the first I’ve heard of knives,” and added, “I let him come to my house. “Mr Qassim notably did not appear at the inquest into Jay’s death last month.The proceedings were halted on the insistence of Jay’s mother, Debbie, who argued that the inquest should be postponed until all crucial witnesses could be located to testify.In an emotional appeal, she urged those who had been with her son on the island to come forward with information, saying, “We want these people to be sat in front of us, because our son went on holiday and didn’t come back, so there’s questions we need to ask.”
Debbie emphasised that the inquest must be delayed until key individuals, including her son’s friend Lucy Law, who is thought to be vacationing on the island, as well as Brandon Hodges and Bradley Hargreaves, are found to provide their accounts.