A FRIEND of Jay Slater allegedly called ‘Johnny Vegas’, one of the men he partied with before he disappeared, on the morning of June 17.
Ayub Qassim, a convicted drug dealer who says he goes by the nickname Vegas, claims he received a panicked call about Jay being “in a ditch somewhere.”
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Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas – who is investigating in Tenerife – shared a bombshell update on X today.
The former police officer – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case – said he tracked down Qassim and questioned him about the bizarre mystery.
Mark said: “Ayub provided me with an account of what he says happened that morning, Monday 17th June.”
The investigator describes Qassim’s version of events – including Jay’s insistence on leaving the Airbnb early that morning despite the offer of a ride.
Mark continues: “Ayub says, he tells him, man, just relax. I’ll drop you off in town when you wake up properly.
“He [Jay] it was, no, no, no, no. I am hungry. I need a scran. And the woman told me that I can take a bus every 10 minutes to Los Cristianos.
“He [Ayub] then says he got a call from Jay’s friend saying he’s in a ditch somewhere and got cut by a cactus.
The identity of the friend who called Ayub was not released by Williams-Thomas.
Lucy Mae Law, who traveled to the island with Jay, is believed to have been the last person to speak to him.
He apparently called her in a panic, lost in a mountainous area, with low phone battery and no water.
That was the last time his phone rang and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Lucy previously told how she tracked down the two men at the Airbnb and questioned them about her friend’s disappearance.
At the time, she said it was “weird and suspicious.”
Some reports suggest that Lucy knows both men – although it’s unclear how.
And Williams-Thomas yesterday debunked a conspiracy theory circulating around an image claiming to show Lucy with Ayub – saying it wasn’t true.
Despite police clearing the two Brits to return to the UK, there have been calls for police to speak to them again amid the ongoing mystery of Jay’s disappearance.
The family believes it could be instrumental in helping to find him.
Mark continued in his video update: “The evidence still strongly supports that Jay left the Airbnb suddenly, walked for 30 minutes before pulling off the road.
“However, as part of this investigation, we sought to identify and speak to as many people as Jay had contact with whilst in Tenerife.
“The result of this excavation opened up an established criminal network with links to drugs, violent crime and theft.
“You will understand that at this stage I cannot expand further on what we know now.
“However, at this time, I cannot say if this network has anything to do with Jay’s disappearance, but I am keeping an open mind as we continue to investigate.”
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THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF JAY SLATER
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday 8th July marks three weeks since Jay Slater, a 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, went missing in Tenerife.
The apprentice bricklayer, who flew to the popular holiday island for a rave festival with friends Lucy Law and Brad Page, made headlines across the country.
On Sunday, June 16, the three left for one of the events at the Papagayo nightclub.
In the early hours of Monday the 17th – Lucy and Brad were ready to go back to the hotel, but Jay wanted to continue the party.
It was then that he left the south of the island and headed to an Airbnb in the northwest with two Brits.
The Sun revealed the identity of one of them – convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, who spent nine years behind bars in the UK.
For days, it was thought that the second mystery man was called ‘Johnny Vegas’.
On Sunday, former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who is investigating in Tenerife, said Qassim told him he is in fact the man behind the nickname ‘Johnny Vegas’.
We still don’t know the identity of the second man – who remains a key part of the puzzle of Jay’s mysterious disappearance.
Qassim claims he took Jay and his friend back to the dorm and said everyone went to sleep.
In the morning, he offered to take the teenager back to the Los Cristianos resort after a nap, but Jay, hungry and tired, said he wanted to leave immediately.
Lucy, the last person to speak to Jay, claims that she received a panicked call from him shortly after he left the holiday, saying that he was lost and thirsty, that his phone was about to die, and that he had been cut off by a cactus. .
Jay had been seen by the Airbnb owner that morning wandering near the Teno Rural park – a nearby mountainous region.
He is believed to have attempted the 11-hour walk back to his hotel, despite the supposed offer of a lift and more buses scheduled for the day.
It was there that his phone last rang – and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Mark Williams-Thomas said he left Airbnb quickly and was “scared.”
Strangely, Qassim says he was woken up that morning by a phone call from Jay’s unidentified friend, saying he was “in a ditch” somewhere and had been “cut by a cactus.”
Jay’s friend Lucy claimed to have “located” the two men at the Airbnb after he disappeared – interrogating them on the morning of Jay’s disappearance.
Some reports suggest that Lucy knew both men, although it is unclear how.
She dubbed his disappearance “strange and suspicious.”
The two men were questioned by Spanish police officers on June 17, but were quickly deemed “irrelevant” to the investigation and allowed to fly back to the UK.
Police spent nearly two weeks searching for Jay in the mountains of Tenerife, searching a 2,000-foot ravine, before calling it off on Sunday, June 30.
Jay’s family has repeatedly criticized the Spanish investigation into his bizarre disappearance.
His uncle, Glen Duncan, is convinced of “third party involvement” and has pointed the finger at the two men Jay returned with on Monday morning.
And the teenager’s devastated father Warren Slater says ‘everything stinks’
He told The Sun: “My starting position, I said this from day one, ask the two men who took him – and then go from there.”
A number of unanswered questions remain, about why Jay would have traveled so far with two older men he did not know, why these men would have taken him in, and why he braved the mountains of Tenerife without a phone battery, water or protection. thermal. for a full day hike.
Qassim, who The Sun revealed was jailed for nine years in 2015, previously insisted: “Jay got home alive and left home alive.”
He said: “I let the old man stay at my house because he had nowhere else to go.
“All his friends abandoned him.
“I know Jay, through friends, I’m not going to bring someone back to my house if I don’t know him.
“I’m doing the old man a favor and now my face is all over the news. It’s a little crazy. I didn’t even do anything.”
Jay’s own family returned to the mountains of Tenerife yesterday to continue searching for the teenager.
Police called off their mammoth efforts last Sunday.
Jay’s exhausted uncle, Glen Duncan, told The Sun he is now convinced other people were involved in his nephew’s disappearance.
He said: “I have been thinking about third party involvement from the beginning.
“There are only a few things that have already been released.”
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
