Jay Slater’s dad Warren rages ‘everything stinks’ as identity of mysterious ‘Johnny Vegas’ is finally revealed
JAY Slater’s dad has spoken of the family’s anguish amid growing belief that others are involved in the missing teen’s disappearance – and insists: “Everything stinks”.
Desperate Warren, 58, returned to the mountainous region in Tenerife where the 19-year-old vanished on June 17 to resume the search in the hope of finding a breakthrough.
But as suspicions grow over the roles played by the last people to see and speak to him, Warren said: “Everything stinks.
“It’s just a riddle and I don’t know the outcome.”
He added: “My starting position, I’ve said this from day one, ask the two men who’ve taken him.
“And then start from there. If you and I took a young girl to the Lake District and she then went missing, do you think they would have let us go back to Spain?
“And they’ve just let them walk out. One of them’s just done nine years, hasn’t he? For a big drugs thing.
“We’re going round and round in circles.
“If they want to go and search a house they have to go to court first.”
Jay vanished after returning to a £40-a-night Airbnb with convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, 31, and another as yet unidentified male.
Both men have been ruled as “not relevant” by police – and Ayub has protested he has “nothing to hide”.
Today, it was claimed by ex-cop Mark Williams-Thomas that Ayub goes by the name “Johnny Vegas”.
It was a mysterious nickname that had been swirling round the case for weeks, and that was originally assumed to be the second man.
He left after spending the night at the remote cottage in Masca and then telephoned friend Lucy Mae Law, 18, to say he was “lost in the middle of nowhere”, with no water and only one per cent left on his phone battery.
Spanish police searched for 12 days but called it off last weekend with no trace of Jay.
His family are now leading fresh attempts to find him within the rugged terrain high up in the mountains overlooking the party island.
Warren added: “I was quite disappointed last Saturday when they did the search, they said the whole island was going to turn out.
“Let all the big boys do it, the police told me the big, big search was Saturday.
“We got down in that valley at 2pm and there wasn’t a soul.
“They might have been there I don’t know, they might have been there before me.
“But I was quite disappointed because I expected every fire engine, ambulance…to be looking for him.
“You need Columbo.”
Mr Williams-Thomas – who has been working with the family – today posted a sensation video update on the case.
He claimed that his digging had Jay had come into contact with an “established criminal network” in Tenerife.
But he did not elaborate – and could not say whether or not think link had anything concrete to do with his disappearance.
He also revealed that “Jonny Vegas” was Jay’s new pal Ayub.
Ayub provides details of Jay’s trip back from the music festival to the Airbnb – in which he left after saying he wanted some food.
The bricklayer, Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, has been missing for almost three weeks after going missing in the early hours three weeks ago.
He was attending the NRG music festival in Tenerife on his first “lads holiday” – before leaving the night out with two men.
He returned with them to their Airbnb in the mountain village of Masca.
The following morning Jay is believed to have tried to get back to his accommodation in Los Cristianos.
But after a phone call with his friend Lucy Mae Law in which he is said to have revealed his battery was 1 per cent and he cut his leg on a cactus – he vanished.
The search has been the subject of intense interest – and many questions remain over what happened to Jay on his night out.
Both men have been ruled out of the investigation.
Other mysteries around the case focus Jay allegedly admitting he stole a “Rolex watch” worth £12,000 on the night he disappeared.
But the case has also sprung up countless conspiracy theories and become an obsession for online sleuths.
Hundreds of thousands of Facebook detectives has signed up to various chat groups as they pour over detail.
Cops used sniffer dogs, drones, a helicopter, dozens of volunteers and mountain rescue experts but to no avail .
They officially called off the search last Sunday.
And Jay’s uncle Glen Duncan yesterday angrily hit out at the police investigation, saying he wished he could “burst into the police station” and saying he fears a “third party” could have been involved.
He told The Sun yesterday
that he doesn’t believe police are taking the search seriously and labelled it a “massive let down”.
He said: “I don’t know if they’re following up every single lead. I feel like marching down there myself and bursting into the police station.
“What are they actually doing now, the police, I mean they’re not searching with the helicopter are they?
“Are they doing door to door inquiries or sitting there looking at CCTV images?”
Jay’s devastated uncle vowed: “We’re still holding onto hope – we have to because we don’t know.
“It’s just torture every day. It’s got to a point now where the sadness has gone and it’s just anger.”
He also drew a heartbreaking comparison to the case of missing girl Madeleine McCann, saying – like her family – they will never give up hope.
The family’s GoFundMe set up to help fund the search for Jay has reached over £50,000.