Jay Slater’s family have offered a message of hope from the former missing persons boss for a positive detail

A former Missing Persons chief has offered the family and friends of missing Lancashire teenager Jay Slater a glimmer of hope as search efforts continue to try to find him in Tenerife.

Speaking on GB News on Wednesday, Mike Neville, former head of Lambeth Missing Persons Unit, revealed that a key positive aspect of Jay’s case was that he had spoken to a friend shortly before he was reported missing – a crucial development that meant that search efforts could be focused on a smaller area.

Drawing similarities between Jay’s disappearance and that of beloved TV doctor Michael Mosley, who was tragically found dead after disappearing on the Greek island of Simi earlier this month, Mike explained: “Hopefully this will come to a successful conclusion. It’s like the Mosley tragedy here, because when you look at the park, it’s a similar environment.”

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“But because he made that phone call, they might be able to pinpoint that area. It’s different in that way to Mosley, it’s a narrower area. The police will run all kinds of search teams and use helicopters and possibly drones. The park ranger will know certain trails and where best to look. I am sure that the Spanish police will organize a professional and coordinated search.”

In addition, host Andrew Pierce also pointed out that Jay is much younger than Michael Mosley had been and may be better equipped to deal with the difficult environment as a healthy young man.

“Looking at the photos of him, he’s a fit boy, let’s just hope he’s found a water source and my prayers go out to his mum and the rest of his family,” added Andrew. “Hopefully he’s just dehydrated and the police can treat him.”

Mike went on to point out that another positive aspect of the case was that the last known sighting of Jay was far from the sea, which would have added another layer of danger to the case. “The good thing here is that it’s far from the sea,” he said. “The danger is if people go into the sea. That really is a problem. He seems to be on land on that island.”

Jay, originally from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was last heard from on Monday when he phoned his friend to say he was trying to get back to accommodation after a night out – a journey that would take 11 hours on foot.

In the call to his friend Lucy, Jay revealed that he had gone to stay with people he met at a rave, but after missing the bus back to his accommodation, he was trying to make the trip on foot, but his battery was dead, he was lost and they need water. His last location before his phone died was shown to be the Rural Park of Teno, a mountainous area popular with hikers.

Search efforts remain ongoing.