The family of missing UK teen Jay Slater has issued a new statement following the Spanish Civil Guard's decision to stop searching the area where he vanished.
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The 19-year-old - from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire - had been visiting the island of Tenerife to attend the NRG music festival with his friends Lucy Mae Law and Brad Hargreaves.
After an evening partying at Playa de las Américas, Jay opted to stay out with two men he had met several days prior - rather than return to his shared accommodation with Lucy Mae and Brad.
After taking a roughly one-hour car journey back to their Airbnb rental property at around 5:30AM on the morning of June 17. Jay took a photograph on the steps of the Masca property and shared it to Snapchat at around 7:30AM.
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Over the next 90 minutes from when that Snapchat image was shared, Jay left the property and opted to try and walk back to his vacation apartment - a journey that would have taken him more than 10 hours.
Between 8:00AM and 9:00AM, he made a video call to Brad and a phone call to Lucy Mae. He told his friend of his intention to walk back to their accommodation - adding that he was thirsty and his phone was critically low on battery.
Brad revealed in an interview that he heard Jay go "off the road" and encouraged him to share his location.
Jay's last tracked location was in the mountainous Rural de Teno area. Lucy Mae reported him missing shortly after 9:00AM. He hasn't been found since.
Spanish authorities have vowed to keep the case "open" and will act upon any further tip-offs - but they have stopped searching the area where Jay vanished.
Jay's mom - Debbie Duncan - has now released a statement with the public, along with a new photo of her son.
The statement reads, in full: "My son, Jay Dean Slater, came to the holiday island of Tenerife on the 13th of June with his friend to attend a music festival. On the 17th of June after not returning to his apartment he was reported as a missing person. Jay is a normal guy who is in his 3rd year of an apprenticeship, and he is a very popular young man with a large circle of friends.
"We are a very close family and are absolutely devastated about his disappearance. Words cannot describe the pain and agony we are experiencing. He is our beautiful boy with his whole life ahead of him and we just want to find him.
"We do not have any information on his whereabouts. The Guardia Civil have worked tirelessly up in the mountains where Jay's last phone call was traced. They conducted a land search for 12 days which involved every resource they had available. Although the land search ended, the Spanish police still continue with their investigations into why Jay had travelled to the location so far away from his accommodation.
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"We offer our sincere thanks to the Spanish authorities who continue to follow lines of enquiries.
"We would like to say to the press/news/reporters, that although we do not want to lose the momentum of Jay's disappearance, we really would like to maintain our privacy and crucially let the Spanish police get on with their investigations without hindrance from press.
"We are aware of the conspiracy theories and speculation on social media and some websites, and can only describe this as vile, the negative comments are extremely distressing to our family. We also embrace the love and support we have received from across the globe. It has not gone unnoticed, especially his home town in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire.
"As a family we would like the world to respect our privacy at this present time."
The new photo can also be seen below:
As of this writing, the a spokesperson for the Spanish Civil Guard has confirmed: "There are several lines of investigation" still ongoing, with the Manchester Evening News reporting that authorities were seen inspecting the Airbnb on June 2.
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