The detective-turned-TV investigator who exposed Jimmy Savile’s evil crimes and probed the disappearance of Nicola Bulley today offered to help Jay Slater’s mother find her missing son.
Mark Williams-Thomas revealed he ‘reached out’ to Debbie Duncan this morning amid mounting speculation over what happened to the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer.
Jay vanished on Monday after going to a three-day energy music festival in Tenerife – sparking a week-long investigation by Spanish police.
But the case has piqued the curiosity of armchair sleuths who have spread wild conspiracy theories about his disappearance on social media. In a post on Twitter/X, Mr Williams-Thomas said: ‘I have this morning reached out to missing Jay Slater’s mum offering the help of my team to get her answers as to what has happened to Jay.
‘Lots of speculation about what could have happened and if they give me total access and with feet on the ground I will very quickly be able to say if his disappearance is him alone or if it has third party involvement’.
It comes after one of Jay’s friends blasted Spanish police over their search. Lucy, 18, was the last person to speak to Jay when he called her at around 8am on Monday morning from a secluded mountain pass in Masca. She now says local police are ‘not doing a good job’.
Jay had contacted her last Monday to say he was ‘lost in the mountains with no water’ and one per cent battery on his mobile, with the phone’s last signal close to the Masca gorge beauty spot.
The walk from Jay’s last known location to his accommodation would have taken about 11 hours on foot.
Lucy, who attended the NRG music festival with Jay, said he told of not being aware of his surroundings, desperately needing a drink but having no water.
Police are currently searching for Jay in the Teno Nature Reserve, referred to as ‘malpais’ by locals — a word that translates into English as ‘badland’.
In a statement released late on Friday, Lancashire Police said it had ‘made an offer of support to the Guardia Civil’ but this was declined after local cops said they were ‘satisfied that they have the resources they need’.
Lucy blasted: ‘We are having to do this all by ourselves as Spanish police are not doing a good enough job.
‘They don’t even speak English. It’s been a very slow process here so we need the British police to come out and help them.’
She told of wanting to ‘bring him home to his family’, adding: ‘That is all we want, all that we need.’
There has also been criticism of the Spanish police by people raising concerns on the many Facebook groups set up to help find Jay or discover what happened.
One poster commented: ‘I really think they should get British police up there searching – I also think it’s extremely wierd how he has not been found yet.’
Another asked: ‘I’m not sure if I have missed this and apologies if I did – but why have the Spanish Police not done a press call or an update?
‘Why have they not shared with the press/general public what they are doing ?
‘I know they declined help from the UK police but to not ask for help from the general public and put out even a minimal update etc seems weird.’
It was also suggested, about donations to a GoFundMe page set up to help rescue efforts: ‘Just had a thought. That 30k in the bank. Send 250 public people to Tenerife and I bet we come back with Jay quicker than the Spanish police.’
When asked how she felt that the offer from British cops to help had been declined, Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan told : ‘I had a screaming and shouting day when I had the meeting with the police.
‘I know the Spanish police mean well, but the problem we are having is the language barrier, we just don’t seem to be getting told. I’m sure they are doing their best.
‘They told me they had used dogs and drones and then they said Lancashire police had offered their resources but they turned it down, but I think that would have really helped.
‘I would feel happier if our people were over helping. It’s just so difficult not knowing where he is, the area and the terrain is rough, but the police were saying that now there are too many people up there and it could interfere with their investigation.
Meanwhile, Jay’s distraught father Warren, 58, has fought back tears as he told of just wanting ‘my boy back’ as he and Jay’s brother Zak, 24, visited the spot where his phone last pinged and hugged each other in emotional scenes.
Choking back tears Warren, wearing a bucket hat, sunglasses and black t shirt, said: ‘He’s my son. I just want him back.’
The visit came as a bombshell new video of missing Jay dancing shirtless in a Tenerife nightclub just hours before he disappeared has emerged.
Warren and Zak were joined by other family and friends at the place which has been the focus of attention all week by police.
The pair journeyed to a remote gorge above the village of Masca, 19 miles from the party resort of Playa de les Americas at an altitude of 3000ft to where Jay’s mobile phone last pinged on Monday morning.
They looked on as mountain rescue teams and civil protection units with high-powered binoculars scanned the cactus strewn ravine looking for clues.
Friends of Jay who had flown in from Britain were also among the group and they spent several hours at the scene as search teams explained what they were doing.
Warren and Zak also visited the Air BnB where Jay had gone after the festival with two British men and from where he sent two Snapchat messages to his friend Lucy.
In the new clip of Jay which has emerged, he is seen dancing shirtless in Papagayo nightclub which is at the end me of the notorious Veronica’s Strip area of Playa de las Americas.
The after-party is known to have wrapped up at 5am and an hour later Jay was with two mystery British men at their £40-a-night AirBnB 19 miles away at Masca.
It was here that a woman made the last confirmed sighting of Jay at about 8.15am, saying he was walking at pace up the hill and away from Playa de las Americas.
Jay’s mum Debbie, 55, who has flown out to Tenerife from her home at Oswaldtwistle, told there had been a sighting of someone resembling her son at around 6pm the day he disappeared by the church at Santiago de Teide which is back towards Playa de las Americas.
She said the man had told police he was ‘with two men sitting on a bench by the church looking a little worse for wear’ however at the moment it has not been confirmed this was Jay.
Since he disappeared wild theories have flooded the internet and social media which is not publishing but his mother Debbie fears he may be ‘being held against his will’.
Police have said they are keeping an open mind on what has happened and have used helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs as part of the search for him.
Debbie has revealed her choice not to attend with them has caused her to be on the receiving end of vile social media trolls who have compared her to Karen Matthews.
Debbie said: ‘People keep saying on social media why aren’t I up there and calling me the new Karen Matthews, I just can’t face it.
‘I don’t want to go up there in case I see something that I don’t want to. I’m just hoping everything will turn out for the better. If I went up there I would just break down.
‘The last few days have been awful. I just need him back. He is a handsome lad from Lancashire and he shouldn’t be missing in Tenerife.’
Karen Matthews, dubbed ‘Britain’s worst mother’ was behind the fake kidnap of her own nine-year-old schoolgirl daughter Shannon Matthews which horrified the nation in 2008.
Earlier this weekend a bombshell image which is the last known photograph of Jay was uncovered. It is believed to have been taken at Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas in the early hours of Monday morning.
It shows Jay in the grey sport top with green shoulder edging that he was wearing when he went missing, with Lucy alongside him.
She has been questioned again at length by Spanish police separately with officers wanting to go through timings once again with her although there is no suggestion of anything untoward.
It comes as a GoFundMe set up by Lucy to help look for Jay has raised £27,000, speedily approaching its £30,000 target.
Rescue teams have been scouring a 2,000ft-deep ravine in the remote, desert-like Teno Nature Reserve in a bid to find Jay on the seventh day of searching.
His concerned mother Debbie still believes he may have been kidnapped.
She has vowed to stay in Tenerife for ‘as long as it takes’ – as it emerges a new sighting of her son is being investigated.
Speaking to , Debbie, 55, said: ‘Someone has come forward to say they saw someone who they thought was Jay walking back down the road sat on a bench.
‘He was with two men looking a bit worse for wear, and they were by a church, this guy has come forward and told the police about it and they are looking into it. We don’t know if it was Jay for sure, but it’s a start.
‘They said it was about 6pm which is ten hours after he was seen by the lady in the village. But if it was him what was he doing there and who are these two men?
‘All I know is that I am going to stay here for as long as it takes, I’m not going home unless it’s with Jay. I’m not going anywhere until they find him.’
The sighting has not yet been officially confirmed.
The strain is telling on Jay’s mother Debbie, who said: ‘My energy levels are just zero, I am going through every emotion, screaming, crying, I’ve just not slept for days.
‘It’s just so upsetting for all the family, we just don’t have any ideas, there are just so man stories flying around about what might have happened and I don’t want to know.
‘I’m ignoring all of them and I don’t want to say anything just in case he is being held against his will.’
It comes after his worried friends said on behalf of his mother that an unknown person is using his Instagram as it’s been frequently active, but it isn’t Jay.
They also claim that Jay’s friends and family have had their accounts hacked and false information shared.
The apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was last heard from on Monday after an attempt to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus.
The admin of the Facebook page called Jay Slater Missing, Rachel Louise Harg, wrote: ‘Some people are actually this sick in the head, there are people hacking my accounts and Jay’s family’s, making it pure lies and pretending we are all in it.’
She said Debbie is ‘broken’ and slammed the mystery person using the account as ‘cruel’.
The last confirmed sighting of Jay was at 8.15am on Monday when a woman saw him walking through the village of Masca, 19 miles from the party resort of Playa de las Americas.
But Ophelia Medina Hernandez, the last person to see Jay, told The Times: ‘People don’t get lost here.’
She saw him next to a bus stop, adding: ‘He was walking normally but a bit quickly.’
Meanwhile the owner of holiday rental, Casa Abuela Tina – where Mr Slater is understood to have stayed with two acquaintances – today voiced her worries about the teen after spotting him walking alone down the hills on Monday.
She said: ‘It’s dangerous walking around here, it’s easy to lose yourself. He walked up the road when I saw him for the last time.
‘He was alone. He was walking normally, though he was fast.’
Ophelia shared that Jay has also asked about catching the bus from the area before making the journey on foot – which was the only route.
She aired her concerns about the teenager, but in the height of the media frenzy she stated: ‘We are not to blame.’
The property, which is listed online as a holiday home, is believed to have been rented by two men Jay was with the night before whilst attending the NRG festival.
On Friday, search and rescue personnel joined officers from the island’s Guardia Civil near the village of Masca where they appeared to focus on a specific area of overgrown terrain.
Some officers used binoculars to survey the landscape before heading towards the bottom of the hillside.
On Thursday, a helicopter flew over Rural de Teno park in the south of the Spanish island as search teams followed various footpaths in the area.
Footage released by the Guardia Civil on Thursday showed the views from the helicopter as it scoured the hillside.
The video, posted to the force’s X account, showed officers searching in bushes and overgrown terrain with dogs.