Friends of missing teenager Jay Slater have hit back at trolls branding them "drug mules" as wild conspiracy theories continue to rage in the wake of his disappearance.
The 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, left a rave in Tenerife by car with two British men and stayed the night at an Airbnb in the middle of a rural village before vanishing. The trip was Jay's first ever time travelling abroad.
He was last heard from on the morning of Monday, June 17 as he attempted to make his way back to the touristy town of Los Christianos, where he had been staying with friends Lucy Law and Brad Hargreaves. But despite a huge two-week-long search operation, Jay has not been seen since.
His best pal, Brad Hargreaves, who joined him on the trip, has now slammed baseless conspiracy theories branding him a "drug mule", as he took to Instagram to defend himself.
The teenager wrote: “Thinkin' I’m involved in it all is beyond me. We’ve been mates for years, came on our first holiday together and unfortunately, this has happened. We ain’t drug mules or whatever... people need to know the facts before talking s*** on the internet...”
Jay's other friend, Lucy Mae Law was the last person to speak to him before he vanished. She previously told officers how Jay had called her on the morning he went missing saying he was disoriented, needed water, and that his phone was only one percent of batter left. The 18-year-old shared a new image of herself with Jay this week, captioning the photo with a crying emoji.
Meanwhile, Jay's heartbroken mum Debbie Duncan shared in a new update that the family are "extremely overwhelmed" by the kindness of local hikers helping track the teenager down, despite the official search being abruptly called off by Spanish police after two weeks.
Posting to an official Facebook group for the teen, a message reads: “Debbie and family would like to thank the local hiking group who have worked tirelessly planning routes and searching for Jay they are extremely overwhelmed with the kindness of them all. Thank you.”
It comes after investigators turned their attention to an alleged 'stolen Rolex', as British detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who flew to Tenerife to help find Jay, revealed the teenager had posted a video on Snapchat boasting about the theft of a £12,000 Rolex just hours before he vanished.
He explained: "On route, Jay posted a Snapchat saying that they had taken a £12,000 Rolex from a person. We have been unable to validate this in terms of a reported theft. However, friends of Jay he would not make this up and the watch was the subject of a later conversation between them."
A GoFundMe page set up to help find the missing teenager has now surpassed £50,000 in donations from over 4,000 members of the public.