The mother of Jay Slater, the British teen who has been missing in Tenerife for four days, has opened up on the "living nightmare" of the ongoing search for her son.
Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was last heard from on Monday morning when he told a friend on holiday that he was planning to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus - a journey expected to take around 11 hours on foot.
His mother, Debbie Duncan, had flown out to the Canary Islands the following morning to help with search efforts - and though Slater had told a friend that he was lost on Monday, Duncan has said she fears he has been kidnapped.
His mother had received a haunting message on messaging app Snapchat saying "kiss goodbye to your boy, you're never going to see him again, he owes me a lot of money" - but in a heartbreaking new interview, she has revealed the trauma of living through the race to find her son as it rolls into its fourth day.
Duncan said: "It's an absolute nightmare, it's like a dream, it's not happening"
PA/ITN
Speaking to ITN, Duncan said: "It's an absolute nightmare, it's like a dream, it's not happening... I wouldn't wish this on anybody.
"I just want my baby back. Just please, anyone who can help, just look for him - he's out there somewhere, or somebody knows where he is - we just need to find my baby.
"His first holiday abroad, saving up for this event, [he was] absolutely buzzing about it... Three days into the NRG festival and this has happened.
"Now I just wish I hadn't encouraged him to go - I should have said: 'Don't go to Tenerife!'"
MORE AS THE SEARCH FOR JAY SLATER CONTINUES:
Jay Slater posted a picture at a house of 'two English lads' an hour before his disappearance on Tenerife
Handout/Instagram
The tearful Duncan said: "He's just an ace person. Everyone loves being in his company. He's the life and soul, a beautiful boy, a good looking boy. He needs to be here.
"I said to him as well, I said: 'Jay, please have your wits about you, you're in a foreign country, just stay together'."
Slater's friend Lucy - who had travelled with him to the NRG music festival - told the Manchester Evening News (MEN) that he had gone to stay with people he had met on holiday after a night out.
She said she had received a call from the teenager at around 8.15am on Monday after he missed the bus; he had told her he was trying to walk back, but he said he was lost, needed a drink of water and had minimal battery left on his phone.
Slater's phone then cut off, with his last location showing as the Rural de Teno park - a mountainous area popular with hikers.
It then emerged that Slater posted a photo on his Snapchat account of a hand holding a cigarette at 7.30pm, just an hour before phoning Lucy.
In the photo, the person holding the cigarette appears to be wearing a long floral robe or dress. Their face cannot be seen in it. The location is tagged as Parque Rural De Teno.
Slater's mother has also revealed that she has received prank calls from trolls who have set up fake GoFundMe pages in her son's name in a heartbreaking turn of events following his disappearance.
And in another misleading twist, Spanish police had been forced to move their search for the 19-year-old to the other side of the island following a false sighting.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard confirmed "the search operation has moved to the south of the island" in Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas.
And though the spokesman did not offer any more detail, he added: "It's obviously down to information that's been received as the investigation has progressed.
"As things stand at the moment the search in the mountainous area near Masca in the north has been halted."
Duncan told MailOnline: "It was a false alarm but with good intention - someone thought they had seen him get into a car with two other guys but it was wrong."
As the hunt continues, a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson has said: "We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities."
