A haunting new theory about the disappearance of Jay Slater has emerged.
As previously reported, the 19-year-old from Lancashire in the UK went missing on June 17 after spending the evening with two British men in an Airbnb in Tenerife.
Before his disappearance, Slater attended a rave with friends Lucy Mae Law and Brad Hargreaves at Papagayo nightclub during the NRG music festival.
The following morning, he called his friend Lucy Mae Law to say he was about to begin a 10-hour walk back to where they were staying. He also told her that he was lost and thirsty, and that his phone battery was critically low.
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The missing teen vanished without a trace while walking through the mountainous region of Rural de Teno Park, where his cell phone was last tracked.
On Sunday (June 30), the Spanish Civil Guard revealed that the search for Slater around the Rural de Teno Park area had come to an end, but that the case remains open.
Now, a journalist covering the investigation, who has spoken to authorities and volunteers on the ground, has shared a new theory that could explain why Slater's phone last pinged in a dangerous mountainous area.
After conversing with an ex-British Army officer, journalist Nick Pisa speculates that the teen's device may have been tossed away.
Pisa notes that the phone's GPS location could only be likely "if the phone was thrown" into the terrain, adding: "We're not obviously being kept up to speed, but [the former officer] did tell me that he thought where the ping came from was rather surprising because it was really steep to get to, and it was covered in undergrowth and cacti," per GB News.
"He said to get there you'd have to need a machete. Or he suggested someone had thrown the phone into that growth," he continued, adding that expert climbers are "still searching with the backing of Jay's family," despite the Civil Guard's "active search" ending.
Slater's friend Lucy Mae Law was one of the last people to speak to him around 8AM on the morning he went missing.
After nearly three weeks, Lucy broke her silence to share a new picture of the missing teenager.
In the heartbreaking picture, the pair are seen sitting together posing for a selfie. It was posted along with a crying face and blue heart emoji.
Lucy previously described the situation as "weird" and said: “There’s something weird going on. It is suspicious. In two days you’re telling me someone’s not seen him. There’s a restaurant 10 minutes away that he would have seen or walked past. It’s suspicious and it’s weird," per The Mirror.
"Fair enough it didn’t open for another two hours but if that were me I would have sat and waited at the restaurant till it opened," she continued. "As soon as it opened I would have said, ‘Please can you put my phone on charge’ and then I would have rung someone, I would have rung a taxi."
Despite officials disclosing that the active search for the teen has been called off, Slater's loved ones have vowed to "continue to search" for the teenager.
Rachel Hargreaves, a close family friend currently in Tenerife, told the Telegraph: “Nothing has changed. We will continue to search for him.”
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