Slater travelled to Tenerife with two friends to attend the NRG music festival last Sunday. He left the festival at some time between 3am and 6am in the car of two other British men he met that night.
At 7.30am, he posted a picture on Snapchat showing him smoking a cigarette at the doorway of a cottage in Parque Rural de Teno, more than 30 miles from where the festival was held to the south of the island.
Spanish island Tenerife is a popular holiday destination for Brits.Credit: Elena-studio
At about 8am, Ophelia Medina Hernandez, the owner of the two-bedroom Airbnb property where Slater had travelled to, came across the teenager standing at a nearby bus stop.
He asked when the next bus was to Los Cristianos, a resort area where he was staying, and she signalled it was not for another two hours. Instead of waiting, Slater decided to walk.
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After setting off, he rang friend Lucy Law, who had joined him at the music festival, and said he was lost, thirsty, had 1 per cent charge left on his phone, and had cut his leg on a cactus.
His phone died shortly after the call. Its last location was north of the cottage, near the village of Masca.
It is here that much of the search has been concentrated over the past week. Mountain rescue workers, volunteers, drones, dogs, and helicopters have so far been unable to uncover any trace of the teenager.
About 15 of Slater’s friends and family members have flown out to help search. Debbie Duncan, his mother, and his brother have been on the island since Tuesday.
“It’s just traumatic, and it doesn’t feel real. It’s just awful, it’s horrendous,” Duncan said. “He’s just a great person who everyone wanted to be with. He’s good looking, he’s a popular boy.”
Many more have posted on the Facebook page dedicated to finding Slater, which had more than 468,000 members before it was paused after conspiracy theories about his disappearance began to appear.
More than £28,000 ($53,000) has also been raised through a GoFundMe page set up by Law to “get Jay Slater home”.
Lancashire police have offered to provide additional resources to the search but said the Guardia Civil rejected the offer saying it has “the resources they need”.