The family of missing teenager Jay Slater are set to launch an enormous search-and-rescue operation on Tenerife in a final desperate bid to find him
Slater, 19, was last heard from on 17 June after embarking on a perilous 11-hour walk back to his holiday accommodation.
But despite the official land search being called off by Spanish police on 30 June, Slater's mother, Debbie Duncan, and her family have vowed to remain on the island until they find him.
The family now plans to use a significant amount of the £50,000 raised through a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign to hire specialist search teams and have been given permission by the Guardia Civil to proceed.
The decision means external search teams are welcome to launch a detailed search "without any problem" but must notify officers for "proper coordination".
The family are thought to be planning a major ground search over a very wide area of wilderness in the Masca region on the west of the island, where Slater was last spotted.
Their private search team - which is expected to cost tens of thousands of pounds to fully deploy - must liaise with police to ensure "good management of information and resources".
It came after the teenager's furious father Warren blasted officers for failing his son.
He said: "I've gone past the sadness bit and I'm angry, if that makes any sense. I'm angry that nothing's happened."
Slater, an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, went missing after attending a music festival in popular beach resort Playas de las Americas.
He was last heard from around 8.15am on the day he disappeared, calling friend Lucy Law and telling her he planned to walk back to his holiday apartment after missing a bus. His phone had one per cent battery, he was thirsty, and disoriented. He claimed to have been injured on a cactus.
Nearly two weeks of extensive searches involving emergency services, mountain rescue teams, drones, and helicopters culminated in a massive search on June 29.
Despite these efforts, the Guardia Civil ended the official search a day later, though the case technically remains open.
The new search for missing Jay Slater will be funded by his family's GoFundMe campaign
PAJay's mother Debbie has been vocal about the "deep distress" the family is enduring.
She said: "I feel like I'm living in a nightmare that I can't wake up from.
"Jay is a normal guy who is in his third year of an apprenticeship, and he is a very popular young man with a large circle of friends."
She added: "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.”
The wild Masca region of Tenerife where Jay Slater went missing
Reuters
To bolster their search efforts, Jay's family turned to the public for help.
They managed to raise the huge sum through a GoFundMe campaign which will now be spent to hire specialist search-and-rescue teams, equipment, and other necessary resources to continue the search fully independently.
His family has been awaiting official permission to bring in external search teams, which has now been fully granted.
The local community in Tenerife has joined in the search in the last two weeks with volunteers distributing flyers and providing help to support Jay’s family.
News of the fresh search comes just two days after a former detective claimed Slater "admitted to friends" he stole a £12,000 Rolex watch and was trying to sell it just hours before he vanished.
Mark Williams-Thomas, who is probing his disappearance from a remote area on the island, claimed the teenager's friends said he sent them a message shortly before he vanished in which he admitted stealing the watch.
Police officers confirmed they had investigated reports of a fight at Papagayo Beach Club, where Slater had been on the night before he went missing, amid reports of a stolen watch.
Missing Jay Slater with devastated mum Debbie Duncan
PAEarlier this week Spanish authorities denied Slater's disappearance was being treated as a crime.
The Guardia Civil insisted the case technically remains open and that a “parallel” investigation is ongoing. But a local judge was told officers have seen "nothing" that yet suggests a criminal offence has taken place.
A judicial source said: “There is no evidence of criminality at this stage in this case. That is not to say things will not change, because the case remains open but right now that’s the situation.”
