Brad Hargreaves, the close friend of missing teenager Jay Slater, has broken his silence to reveal the harrowing details of their final conversation, painting a picture of a desperate and disorientated young man fighting for survival.
In an exclusive interview, Hargreaves recounted the panicked phone call he received from the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer on the morning of June 17th. Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was last seen in the remote Rural de Teno park in north-west Tenerife.
"He was on the phone and said, 'I'm lost, I need water, I haven't got a clue where I am,'" Hargreaves disclosed. The distressing call revealed Slater was attempting to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus, a journey that would have taken a gruelling 11 hours on foot.
The situation grew increasingly dire as Slater's phone battery dwindled. "His phone was on 1%. He was just trying to get a signal. I was telling him to go back to the road, but he said he was lost and he needed a drink," Hargreaves added, describing the futile attempt to guide his friend to safety.
Hargreaves was one of the last people to see Slater alive at the NRG music festival before he left with two men he had met that day. Spanish police have since confirmed these two individuals are not considered suspects in the case, labelling them as mere witnesses.
The search for Jay Slater, which has now entered its third week, is being treated as a missing person's case. Despite extensive efforts by the Guardia Civil, including sniffer dogs, drones, and mountain rescue teams, no significant trace of the teenager has been found.
Jay's mother, Debbie Duncan, has flown to Tenerife to aid in the search, enduring what she describes as a "living nightmare." The family's anguish is compounded by the lack of concrete leads, though they continue to hold onto hope.
This tragic story has captured national attention, highlighting the dangers young travellers can face in unfamiliar terrain and the agonising wait for answers that families must endure.
