HUNT FOR JAY
Jay Slater mountaineer enlisted by family reveals 3 major issues hampering search effort after scaling barren mountain
Watch Sun man Paul Sims recap the latest on Jay Slater out in Tenerife
A MOUNTAINEER who was enlisted by Jay Slater's family has revealed the three biggest issues hampering the search effort.
Shane Yerrell has been with the devastated family as they scour the barren mountainous region where the teen's phone last pinged on June 17.
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The Kilimanjaro and Mount Olympus climber jetted off to Tenerife this week to help tackle the treacherous Masca terrain where cops believe Jay might've got lost.
The search for the 19-year-old entered its fourth week on Monday with no trace yet of the Brit.
Spanish cops halted their own search after just two weeks on Sunday 30 June but have been adamant that their investigations remain open.
Jay's family were left heartbroken by the news of the search ending and took matters into their own hands.
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Dad Warren, 58, uncle Glen and older brother Zak, 24, have all been seen scouring the mountainous village of Santiago del Teide on Monday.
They have been joined by volunteers from across Europe in the hunt for any sign of the teen.
The altitude and the heat makes it really difficult and the mountain is massive
Shane Yerrell
Mr Yerrell, who has been part of the search party for a few days now, has quickly understood why it has been so tricky to make progress.
He said: "It's really not easy. I struggled on the mountain and so did his family, but it didn't bother them because their priority is powering through to find Jay.
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"The altitude and the heat makes it really difficult and the mountain is massive.
"You go over one edge and then there's another bit. It's unbelievable out there. It would take weeks or months to cover."
Jay Slater's Dad furious over search
Warren has voiced similar concerns over the sheer size of the area they need to look.
He warned it would take "an army 10 years" to search the whole area as the distraught father pleaded with Interpol and British cops to help.
Mr Yerrell, who is the mayor of Waltham Abbey in Essex, also spoke out on how the family are feeling after a turbulent last week, the revealed.
Dad Warren has blasted the official search operation claiming "everything stinks".
The climbing expert continued: "They're just living on hope. It's awful - they've got no answers. They don't know whether Jay is alive or dead.
"They are doing everything to find him. They're not just out for an hour, they're out all day 9.30am until 6pm.
"I feel for all of them, his dad in particular. I'm a parent and my child is only a few years younger than Jay. The whole thing is heartbreaking not having any answers."
He returned home to Essex on Tuesday morning but vowed to do all he could to support the family.
Mr Yerrell last year was embroiled in a row after he mistakenly raised £20,000 for a woman who was later revealed to have lied about being raped - with the mayor then working to recover the cash and donate it to charity.
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The search has been the subject of intense interest - with many new riddles plaguing the case every day over what happened to Jay.
A source close to the probe announced on Tuesday that cops are still hopeful of finding the teenager alive despite the time that has passed.
They insisted that the investigation had not yet classed Jay as "missing feared dead".
It comes as The Sun revealed that British police still cannot get involved despite emotional pleas from Jay's dad Warren.
Desperate Warren has remained hopeful that they will find Jay but has been vocal about the family's anguish over the case.
"It’s just a riddle and I don’t know the outcome," Warren added.
"We’re going round and round in circles."
He continued telling the : "From the bnb, he's a fit lad, 25 minutes you can get to the top, to where the cafe is. If he's followed the road and been where we've been today, it's took him an hour and a half.
"Dozens of cars would have gone past him. We got here at 9am and the 10am bus passed us. And it would have passed him. I've been up here three weeks and I've never seen as many cars."
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Jay's uncle Glen Duncan has also angrily hit out at the police investigation - saying he wished he could "burst into the police station" amid fears a "third party" could have been involved.
It comes as Jay's best pals have reportedly flown home to the UK as the missing Brit's family continue their desperate search.
The mysterious case of Jay Slater
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 8 marked three weeks since Jay Slater, a 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished in Tenerife.
The apprentice bricklayer, who flew out to the popular holiday island for a rave festival with friends Lucy Law and Brad Page, has made headlines around the country.
On Sunday June 16 the three of them headed off to one of the events at Papagayo nightclub.
In the early hours of Monday 17 - Lucy and Brad were ready to head back to their hotel, but Jay wanted to keep partying.
It was then that he left the south of the island and headed to an Airbnb in the northwest with two British men.
The Sun revealed the identity of one of them - convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, who spent nine years behind bars in the UK.
For days it was thought that the second mystery man went by the name ‘Johnny Vegas’.
On Sunday former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who is out in Tenerife investigating, said Qassim told him he is in fact the man behind the nickname ‘Johnny Vegas’.
We don’t yet know the identity of the second man - who remains a key part of the puzzle in Jay’s mysterious disappearance.
Qassim claims he drove Jay and the friend back to their accommodation and said they all went to sleep.
In the morning he offered to drive the teen back to the Los Cristianos resort after a nap, but Jay, hungry and tired, said he wanted to leave immediately.
Lucy, the last person to speak to Jay, claims she had a panicked call from him soon after he left the holiday let, telling her he was lost and thirsty, his phone was about to die and that he’d been cut by a cactus.
Jay had been seen by the owner of the Airbnb that morning wandering around near the Rural de Teno park - a mountainous region close-by.
He is believed to have been attempting the 11-hour trek back to his hotel, despite the alleged offer of a lift and more buses scheduled for the day.
It was there that his phone last pinged - and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Mark Williams-Thomas has claimed he left the Airbnb quickly, and was “scared”.
Bizarrely, Qassim says he was woken up that morning by a phone call from an unnamed friend of Jay, saying he was “in a ditch” somewhere and had been “cut by a cactus”.
Jay’s friend Lucy claimed to have “tracked down” the two men in the Airbnb after he vanished - quizzing them on the morning of Jay’s disappearance.
Some reports have suggested Lucy knew the two men, although it is not clear how.
She has dubbed his disappearance “weird and suspicious”.
Both men were questioned by Spanish cops on June 17 but quickly deemed “irrelevant” to the investigation and cleared to fly back to the UK.
Police spent almost two weeks searching for Jay in the Tenerife mountains, scouring a 2,000ft ravine, before calling it off on Sunday June 30.
Jay’s family have repeatedly slammed the Spanish investigation into his bizarre disappearance.
His uncle, Glen Duncan, is convinced of “third party involvement”.
And the teen’s devastated dad, Warren Slater, says “everything stinks”
He told The Sun: "My starting position, I’ve said this from day one, ask the two men who’ve taken him - and then start from there."
A number of unanswered questions remain, over why Jay would have travelled so far with two older men he didn’t know, why said men would have taken him in, and why he braved the Tenerife mountains with no phone battery, water or heat protection for a day-long walk
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