Jay Slater search breakthrough as 'two key people' at centre of manhunt

The British investigator looking for Jay Slater in Tenerife said he needs to speak to "two key people", as he joined the hunt for the missing Lancashire teenager.

Detective Mark Williams-Thomas said: "These are the two men that took Jay back to that holiday rental in the hills."

He said they had already spoken to the police, but were now back in England. Speaking during a press conference held in Tenerife this afternoon, Detective Williams-Thomas said he believed the case should have been treated as a "critical incident" from the start.

He said: "I think the problem is that the starting point of this investigation for the Spanish authorities has been one of the missing persons. I don't know whether that's increased or whether it's decreased from a starting point. If this was in it was in the UK, I would have started investigating as a critical incident."

He said he believes the men "may return" if asked, but he hasn't spoken to either of them yet.

He added: "I can talk about, you know, other witnesses who are instrumental. There's lots of names been mentioned.

"Those people are cooperating fully and have said that at any stage the authorities will come back to the UK, to Spain, they will do. The Spanish authorities are doing what they're doing. I don't know what they're doing."

Detective Williams-Thomas also said that Jay's family were united and "still live with the hope" that he will return.

He told the press: "Since I've been here, I've watched the family. I spent yesterday with them and today and the night before. They are very, very united family. They are very supportive and they want me to find out what happened to Jay."

Jay travelled to Tenerife with two friends in mid-June to attend a music festival. He disappeared on the morning of June 17, after leaving a party with two Britons who he had met the night before. 

Mr Williams-Thomas said he is appealing to speak, not just to the two men who Jay went back to the Airbnb with, but also to 'people who know more'.

"There are people out here who know more," he adds. "There are people out here who have information, who have seen Jay, who had contact with Jay whilst he was here. If you were in those clubs on that evening when the early hours of that morning, please come forward.

"You may be reluctant to pass that information to the police. Please use the hotline we will circulate so that people can give us that information."

The last known sighting of Jay was by the owner of the Airbnb in which Jay and the two Brits stayed together for a few hours, who said: "He was alone. He was walking normally, though he was walking fast."

The teen phoned his friend Lucy at 8.30am that same day, telling her he was running out of battery on his phone, had been cut by a cactus and was without water.  

A missing person report was filed around 9am, prompting a major and still ongoing search operation.