Found Deceased Jay Slater, 19, missing on holiday in Tenerife, 17 June 2024

[ohthesharkbabe]

Sorry, I'm late to the discussion, but has there been any mention of the Tom Hilton story, or has that been discounted?

 

[suzyjackson]

Sorry, I'm late to the discussion, but has there been any mention of the Tom Hilton story, or has that been discounted?

The historic case has been mentioned many times, what do you mean by discounted?

 

[GTB72]

From article linked above.


Local Ofelia Medina Hernandez revealed overnight how she had seen the teenager walking the wrong way along a twisting mountain road shortly after he stopped her outside the house to ask about bus times.

She said: “"He was alone when I first saw him just before eight o’clock on Monday morning. He asked me what time the bus went by although he didn't tell me where he wanted to go.

"I told him it came at ten and because he obviously didn't understand he asked me the same question again and this time I put my fingers up to indicate it was ten o'clock.

"Then I went back home briefly before starting to drive to the town of Buenavista del Norte and that's when I saw him again, but this time walking on the road out of the village on the same side as me.


The missing lad seemed okay. I imagine he'd been drinking if he'd been at a festival but it didn't show in the way he spoke to me and I remember thinking when I saw him so far up the road as I went to Buenavista that he was going fast. He wasn't trying to get cars to stop when I saw him but I don't know if anyone then picked him up.

"It's a twisting country road but it's not dangerous. But if he was trying to head south he was going in completely the wrong direction and the bus stop is in the village, not where he was heading. I only found afterwards he was apparently trying to get back to Los Cristianos. He didn't ask me where the bus was going, just what time the next bus came by.

Ebm to add link.

masca to santiago del teide bus - Google Search

Bbm.

Posted this upthread. Looks as if the poor lad was too disoriented to take in the information.

 

[kesus]

In case anyone is wondering, on the Facebook group there doesn't appear to be an option to sort the posts (at least for me on desktop). I've noticed that this seems to be the case with a few Facebook groups. I assume it's something the admin can configure.

Anyway, you can force it to sort chronologically by appending ?sorting_setting=CHRONOLOGICAL to the end of the URL, e.g. Log into Facebook

They've put up a post recently saying they're no longer going to update, so may not be useful anymore, but still hopefully useful for future reference.

 

[Curiousraccoon]

I think I read originally that the two men said to Lucy that a neighbour told Jay that the buses go every 10 minutes.
It seems though, she was showing him 10 fingers to say it was at 10am (because he couldn't understand her speak Spanish). He may have figured it out while waiting at the bus stop. This is just my speculation though, trying to put some bits and pieces together, we don't know.

 

[DoctorRose]

I wonder if he thought her holding up ten fingers meant the bus comes in ten hours?

 

[GTB72]

I wonder if he thought her holding up ten fingers meant the bus comes in ten hours?

Interesting. Hadn't thought like that. You never know.

 

[Pseudonymph]

I think he was walking in the wrong direction because he didn’t realize traffic drove on the right and not the left. That is a very simple explanation. He probably hadn’t paid attention to that or not ridden in a car before the previous night (in the dark, when his mental state was altered) and it’s his first trip overseas. At only 19, he just doesn’t have the life experience to make all good decisions.

 

[Curiousraccoon]

I wonder if he thought her holding up ten fingers meant the bus comes in ten hours?

I don't remember if anyone mentioned it, but it might be that he only wanted to walk to Santiago Del Teide to catch the transfer bus which might be going more often? (there would have been two transfers if he had taken buses) He didn't have to intend to walk the entire way.

 

[thinair]

I wonder if he thought her holding up ten fingers meant the bus comes in ten hours?

I doubt this is the case, "minute" in spanish is "minuto" and slang for it is also a homophone of minute, so it would have been understood if she had tried to tell him 10 min in spanish before holding up 10 fingers, but it is possible.

 

[GTB72]

I doubt this is the case, "minute" in spanish is "minuto" and slang for it is also a homophone of minute, so it would have been understood if she had tried to tell him 10 min in spanish before holding up 10 fingers, but it is possible.

Ebm - Incomplete original post
Indeed. A miscommunication due to language difficulties.

 

[ohthesharkbabe]

The historic case has been mentioned many times, what do you mean by discounted?

Apologies, I'll read through all the previous posts.

 

[Dotta]

I think he was walking in the wrong direction because he didn’t realize traffic drove on the right and not the left. That is a very simple explanation.

That is exactly what I think.

After all,
in a country with a different system
(right vs left hand )
one should expect a bus from the opposite direction than in home country.

I don't think he realised it.
And went in wrong direction.

<modsnip: Removed statement of fact that is not supported by any source >

JMO

 

[Lincoln34]

I really hope he is found alive, but, given the time that has passed since his disappearance, wouldn’t scavenger activity be something to look for? Birdwatching Tenerife Platform - Local Birding Guides

 

[wtiger]

agree that would be a very realistic way forward sadly

 

[sundaaaay]

Search focusing on three main ravines

I assume it is these three ravines, a 3 kilometre stretch as the crow flies but extremely challenging terrain on foot and arguably one of the most dangerous places to go missing on the entire island. Yet paradoxically the only location nearby where there is a trickle of water and shade.

Barranco de Masca is the most famous and used most by hikers, described as very challenging.
Barranco Juan Lopez is less frequented by hikers, described online as very difficult to follow the path and dangerous.
Barranco Del Retamar is not typically taken by hikers and I believe there is no planned route

 

[Artis]

What does it say in relation to his victim friendly status or how does it connect with his missing status?

He has to be found.
Nobody is perfect but if they're lost they're entitled to a decent search using all possible resources.

Nobody has said otherwise. He can be both a missing person and the perpetrator of a violent crime.

 

[DoctorRose]

I doubt this is the case, "minute" in spanish is "minuto" and slang for it is also a homophone of minute, so it would have been understood if she had tried to tell him 10 min in spanish before holding up 10 fingers, but it is possible.

That’s true but at least in my experience I can be completely sober and gather nothing from Spanish even though I know plenty of Spanish words. If it’s too fast, if Im tired, or actually especially if the speaker is using a mix of Spanish and English and I am not sure which language to listen for. Granted I have ADHD and my auditory processing is slow regardless of language. But hungover and/or sleep deprived that might be comparable. Not that it matters immensely at this point, I just think it’s possible he didn’t gather a darn thing she said to him.

 

[Ruthbullock]

No real point other than it’s interesting, but Ophelia the neighbour owned the air bnb

Jay hols flat owner says she saw him 'walking fast' up ravine before he vanished

JAY Slater was spotted “walking fast” up a dangerous ravine by the owner of the Airbnb he stayed at with two strangers. The 19-year-old, from Lancashire, vanished on Monday morning afte…

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[Ruthbullock]

Yet here the owner (not named as Ophelia) is quoted as seeing him walk past the house and didn’t see him again- so couldn’t possibly have also driven past him. There must be a case of lost in translation somewhere

Search for Briton missing in Tenerife focuses on village and valley

Jay Slater, 19, has not been heard from since Monday when he said he needed water and had 1% battery.

www.bbc.co.uk