Jay Slater's best friend Lucy breaks her silence to share new picture of the missing teenager, 19, nearly three weeks after he vanished in Tenerife

Jay Slater's best friend has broken her silence to share a new picture of the missing teenager nearly three weeks after he vanished in Tenerife. 

Lucy Law posted a picture on social media of the apprentice bricklayer, 19, who was last seen at around 8am on June 17.

The photo showed Jay and Lucy sat together posing for a selfie and was posted along with a crying face and blue heart emoji.

Lucy was one of the last people to hear from Jay before his disappearance. They had been at a rave in Playa de las Americas together before Jay travelled back to a £40-a-night Airbnb cottage in the remote village of Masca with two older British men.

As he tried to walk the 11 hours back to his hotel, Jay called Lucy to say he was lost, in desperate need of some water and his phone battery was on 1 per cent.  

Spanish police focused their search on the mountainous village and Rural de Teno National Park in north-west Tenerife where his phone last pinged.

But on June 30, the search and rescue mission was dramatically called off after nearly 14 days, leaving his desperate family 'in the dark'.

It comes as:

• MailOnline revealed the 31-year-old British man who Jay Slater visited in AirBnb before vanishing is a convicted drug dealer who insists the missing teen 'came to the house alive, and he left the house alive'
• MailOnline revealed the first picture of Briton who booked £40-a-night Airbnb where missing teen Jay Slater stayed hours before he vanished 
• Spanish police return to search the Airbnb where Jay Slater stayed just before he disappeared in Tenerife
• Missing Jay Slater's family are being targeted with fake 'ransom demands' 
• Jay's mother Debbie urges police to keep going with investigation
• Jay Slater volunteers say they WON'T give up search for missing 19-year-old
• Jay's 'disappointed' family meet with Spanish police after search is called off
• Spanish police END hunt for missing teen 14 days after Brit disappeared in Tenerife 
• Jay's father reveals he is 'disappointed' after just six volunteers turn up to join the hunt 

Jay's family have been advised to fund an independent search party after Tenerife's Civil Guard ended their hunt for him 'prematurely'.

Army reservist and private investigator Juan García, is among those advising Jay's mother on how to continue with a private search. 

Speaking to the Times, he said that 'two weeks is too premature to end the search'.

'[Slater] could be alive somewhere — someone can drink from rainwater and eat plants. The family should not give up hope,' he said.

Jay had been attending a three day NRG festival which ended on Sunday, 16 June in Papagayo beach club in South Tenerife. 

His friend Lucy- who had gone to the festival with him - said Jay had gone to stay with people he met after a night out. 

She received a phone call from Jay at around 8am on Monday morning saying he'd missed his bus and was trying to walk back but was lost, needed a drink and only had 1% battery on his phone. The phone call then cut off. 

The teenager's phone died at around 8.50am, with his last known location registered in the remote Rural de Teno park, more than ten miles from the popular resort Guía de Isora.

Jay was reported missing at around 9am the same morning and police launched a mountain rescue. 

Mountain rescue crews and sniffer dogs had been searching the mountainous area of north-west Tenerife for the 19-year-old up until this afternoon. 

But suddenly police focus shifted to the tourist hotspots of Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas in south Tenerife, after a false sighting of him getting out of a taxi.

It later emerged the report was false and police, having wasted precious time in the blistering 27C heat, were forced to move attention back to their original site. 

The 19-year-old had gone back to the remote cottage in the village of Masca with two British men in the early hours of Monday morning after a rave in Playa de las Americas on June 17.

Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, left the £40-a-night two bedroom property called Casa Abuela Tina at 7.30am and posted two pictures from it on Snapchat.

Spanish police dramatically called off the search for Jay on Monday but said their investigation into his disappearance was ongoing.

It came as one of the British men who the missing teenager spent his final hours with claimed Jay Slater found himself at the Airbnb cottage at the centre of the mystery because as 'all his friends left him'.

Ayub Qassim says he invited the apprentice bricklayer, 19, from Lancashire, back to his £40-a-night rented holiday cottage after a rave in Tenerife hours before he vanished on June 17.

The 31-year-old, who booked the Airbnb under the name Ayub Abdul, broke his silence, telling MailOnline: 'He came to my Airbnb alive and he left my Airbnb alive.' 

MailOnline exclusively revealed that Qassim was jailed nine years ago for being the mastermind behind a sophisticated operation to flood Wales with Class A drugs.

Spanish police searching for Jay spoken to Qassim and the unnamed friend known only as 'Johnny Vegas' as part of their inquiries but concluded they were 'irrelevant' to the investigation. 

Jay was last seen by a witness walking off in search of a bus stop close to the Airbnb at around 8am on Monday, June 17. He called a friend to say he was making the 11-hour walk back to his hotel in Playa de las Americas but has not been heard from since. 

Former detective Peter Bleksley criticised Spanish police, suggesting they may be afraid a proper investigation would hit tourism on the island. 

Mr Bleksley told the Sun: 'This island is so heavily dependent upon tourism, is there reluctance on behalf of the police to actually delve as deep as they should.'

A private investigator also claimed Jay Slater could be alive somewhere 'drinking rainwater and eating plants' as he urged the missing teenager's family not to give up hope. 

Army reservist and private investigator Juan García, is among those advising Jay's mother to access the £48,000 GoFundMe towards funding the private search.

Speaking to the Times, he said that 'two weeks is too premature to end the search'.

'[Slater] could be alive somewhere — someone can drink from rainwater and eat plants. The family should not give up hope,' he said.

His family have been advised to fund an independent search party after Tenerife's Civil Guard ended their hunt for him 'prematurely'.