A former Metropolitan Police officer has given his top three theories on what has happened to Jay Slater as the frantic search for the British teenager missing in Tenerife continues.
Peter Kirkham spent more than 20 years in the force, working his way up to Detective Chief Inspector, and he has voiced his concerns for Jay as the search enters its twelfth day.
Kirkham painted a grim picture of where the 19-year-old from Lancashire could be as search teams, friends, and family scour the mountainous northwest region of the island.
His three theories revolve around Jay falling into a ravine, being kidnapped, or deliberately disappearing, and locals have echoed the concern that he may not be found for months.
Kirkham wrote for The Mirror: “In the circumstances as first reported, and in particular the last phone call he is known to have made, the most obvious theory is that Jay Slater became lost whilst trying to walk back through a remote and difficult area totally unknown to him.”
He added: “He may also have fallen into a ravine or something similar and have become injured and incapacitated … Sadly, if this is the explanation, after such an extended period missing, it is unlikely that Jay will be found alive.”
Kirkham’s second theory hinges on Jay having a “somewhat chequered past” and needing to “deliberately disappear”. Since his disappearance, it’s been revealed that he was involved in a machete attack on a young man whose skull was left “split open”.
Kirkham said the police will be “pursuing lines of enquiry” into this to identify whether him deliberately disappearing is a “viable possibility”.
Finally, the officer’s third theory states that Jay could have been kidnapped. He wrote: “This could be a spur of the moment thing, arising from a spontaneous situation which has arisen, or a pre-planned thing arising from a longer-term conflict or dispute.
“The spontaneous version need not involve anyone with any significant criminal history and so could involve anyone. Nor does it need to involve any intent to cause him any harm – it could have been some sort of accidental illness or injury followed by panic on the part of others present.”
Kirkham says the possibility of Jay being kidnapped needs “urgent investigation” after he met two men while at a rave and went back to their Airbnb.
The owner of the property is the last person to see him after he walked off to get back to his accommodation in Los Cristianos – an 11-hour walk from the Airbnb near Masca.
The former Met officer wrote: “The two men – who reportedly say that Jay left them in good health – are the key start point here and the police in Tenerife should be prioritising investigation of this line of enquiry.
“If, as has been reported, the men are British and back in the UK then this is again an area in which the UK authorities have hopefully been engaged to assist.”
