A FORMER Met detective claims he has uncovered a bombshell new clue in the case of missing Brit teen Jay Slater.
Mark Williams-Thomas – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case – said he has passed on a “significant new piece of information” to Spanish police.
Jay Slater, 19. vanished in Tenerife on June 17
Former Met police officer Mark Williams-Thomas
Jay’s dad Warren Slater has spoken to The Sun about the desperate search for his son
The Airbnb where Jay stayed before he vanished
Ex-cop Mark, who is on the ground in Tenerife, has been investigating Jay’s disappearance.
He has been in close contact with a number of witnesses including Jay’s family and friends, and has been updating cops on his findings.
Mark was the first to share an initial description of the two men Jay left a rave with in the hours before he vanished.
The Brit teen stayed at an Airbnb rented by Ayub Qassim and a second unnamed man for several hours on June 17 before he disappeared.
Mark has since revealed exactly what happened between them in the early hours of that morning before Jay was last seen.
He claims that the apprentice bricklayer left the accommodation “scared” before embarking on an 11-hour trek back to his hotel on the south of the island.
Today in a video update shared to X, Mark revealed: “We know now that Jay took certain actions while at the rental because he was clearly worried about his own safety.
“This was shortly before he decided to leave.
“In the last few days, I have received a significant new piece of information which I’ve shared with both the British and Spanish police.
“This provides some clarity as to why Jay left in a hurry and did not want to return to the rental even though his phone was about to go flat.”
The ex-cop wouldn’t reveal more details about the new piece of information in his update.
After spending days digging into the bizarre case, Mark said he has spoken to a host of people getting in touch with information.
He revealed “amongst these many contacts we have received valuable information that we’ve been able to turn into useful intelligence”.
But he also warned: “I know the Internet is awash with theories. Some are massively wild speculation. Others have elements of the truth.
“But overwhelmingly, many are just made up.”
Mark has been posting updates on his investigation via X, revealing how he believes the teen’s case has links to an “established criminal network with links to drugs, violent crime and thefts”.
Today he added: “We’ve still not found evidence of a third party criminal involvement in Jay’s disappearance, although we have opened up links with dangerous criminal underworld of drugs and associated crime.
“We have a number of outstanding actions that still require completing and remain open minded with our investigation.”
Yesterday Jay’s desperate dad Warren Slater, 58, spoke to The Sun about the search for his son.
He vowed to not stop looking for the 19-year-old after the official search effort drew to a halt.
Warren and Jay’s brother Zak, have been hiking through the mountains in Tenerife every day trying to find any sign of Jay – who disappeared on June 17.
He was last seen on walking uphill in the remote village on the northwest of the island.
Jay had gone back to the holiday let in a desolate park after a night of partying.
In the morning, he attempted the 11-hour walk back to his own accommodation after missing the bus.
Jay made a frantic final call to friend Lucy Law to say he was lost.
Returning to the Valley of Barranco de Juan Lopez, near the village of Masca, where Jay’s phone last pinged, Warren said: “We are still out looking. What more can we possibly do?
“I’ve said before, I need an army to help me. People don’t understand the vastness of it.”
He added: “I’d love to be able to fly a drone and sit here all day scouring the whole area. Why would you go down there? Why leave the road?”
Mark gives an update on Twitter todayTwitter
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF JAY SLATER
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 8 marks 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.