The leader of the mountainside search for missing Jay Slater has said the two British men who were with Jay Slater at a rural Airbnb rental the night before he went missing are of ‘no relevance’ to the police investigation. Cipriano Martin, head of the Civil Guard’s Greim mountain rescue unit said: “They have already spoken to the men and it didn’t have any point of relevance to the case.” Asked whether Jay’s family will take part in today’s search, he said: “All week they’ve been participating because we’ve seen them and they’ve seen us in several places. They’ve been actively participating.”
READ MORE: Every word said at police press conference as search for Jay Slater continues in Tenerife
The Spanish policeman’s statement came as officers from the Civil Guard held their first press conference since Jay Slater went missing in Tenerife on the 13th day of the search. The Civil Guard gave the new statement as it geared up for a full day of searching, in a renewed effort to find the missing 19-year-old from Lancashire. Today, June 29, marks the beginning of a new, ‘massive search’ for Jay after the Civil Guard sent out a call to arms to urge all emergency services and experienced hikers and mountaineers to join police as they hunt for the teenager.
During the press conference this morning at Mirador La Cruz de Hilda, one of the focal points for the search, the Civil Guard spoke of the difficulties officers have faced while trying to find Jay. “We know to a certain science that he was here because the coverage of his phone its undeniable that he was around this point. And that’s where we have difficulties, because once you turn off your phone, it can no longer be traced,” they said. “So while he was walking – and we don’t know how long he could have walked for – with his phone switched off, no antenna is going to pick that up. And the technology we have – it traces phones, but not people. We have certain clues, and we have to stick to those.”
The Civil Guard leader was asked ‘the two English men – when did he and when will you talk to them?’ Mr Martin said: “The part of the investigators on the case – which isn’t us, we are in charge of actually doing the search on the mountain – they are the ones in charge of doing the investigation. They have already spoken to the men and it didn’t have any point of relevance to the case.”
