Jay Slater’s devastated mum Debbie Duncan has broken her silence on a GoFundMe campaign to help bring her son home after it raised over £33,000 in four days.
The fundraiser was set up by Jay’s friend and the last person to hear from him, Lucy Law, who said she got a phone call from him at 8:30am last Monday saying “he was lost in the mountains” in Tenerife.
She wrote in the bio of the campaign: “I woke up to a phone call off Jay at 8:30 AM saying ‘he was lost in the mountains, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, he desperately needed a drink and his phone was on one percent’.”
Though Lucy maintained it was set up with permission from the family, people quickly began demanding Debbie speak out as it was not made clear what the money would be spent on.
On Sunday, Debbie issued an update under the GoFundMe thanking everyone for their support and claiming that the family had not yet used any of the money.
She posted: “Hi everyone, this is Debbie, Jay’s mother. Thank you all for your generosity and kindness during this difficult time. I wanted to confirm that this is the only GoFundMe fundraiser approved by our family.
“We have not yet withdrawn any funds and are currently covering the expenses, such as the trip to Tenerife and accommodation, ourselves.
“The funds will remain on hold with GoFundMe until we post a further update on this page. We are extremely worried and are doing everything we can to find Jay. Please continue to share our fundraiser far and wide.
“Your support means the world to us, and we are grateful for any help you can provide. Thank you again.”
Jay disappeared last Monday after attending a rave with Lucy. He left with two men and travelled to an Airbnb for the night – the owner of which was the last person to see him after he enquired about buses back to his hotel.
The Airbnb was in Masca, a mountainous village northwest of the island, but his hotel was in Los Cristianos the south – roughly an hour’s drive away.
Search and rescue teams were quickly mobilised and a member of one of them revealed that their mission is currently focussed on three key areas.
They told the Mirror: “We are concentrating our search in three ravines, over an area of at least 30 square kilometres. We still have hope that he’s alive – up until the last moment when the last hope is lost.
“We’ve been up and down but, until now, nothing. We haven’t found anything. This morning we concentrated on searching from down below up Masca, along the path until it almost reaches the ravine, at the high part, without finding anything.”