Whereabouts of Jay Slater's friends revealed after witness appeal during inquest
Several of the 19-year-old's friends failed to turn up for proceedings.
Friends of tragic teen Jay Slater have been tracked down after failing to appear at an inquest into his death opened in late May.
The 19-year-old was found dead last year, a month after he went missing following a night out in Tenerife with friends on June 17.
The night before he disappeared, he stayed with two men in a rented Airbnb, who spoke to local and British press about him. Lucy Law, Bradley Hargreaves and Brandon Hodgson also gave statements to the media.
However, they did not turn up at the inquest, which was temporarily halted after Jay's mum issued a desperate plea to locate them, the Mirror reports.
Some of them have been found, with the Daily Mail reporting their last known whereabouts as the inquest is due to resume, with several tracked down abroad.
Lucy Law, 18, was one of two friends who travelled to Tenerife with Jay from Lancashire last year, and helped launch early search efforts, assisting his family when they arrived on the island.
In an emotional tribute when his body was found, she wrote: "Always the happiest and most smiley person in the room, you was one of a kind Jay and you'll be missed more than you know.
"I'm sure you'll 'have your dancing shoes polished and ready' waiting for us all. We all love you buddy. Fly high." She also went to Jay's funeral, but failed to appear at the inquest.
She is said to have returned to Tenerife for a holiday, according to her stepfather, who added she was also away when she was called to give a witness statement at the inquest earlier this hear, as her family were not aware it was ongoing at the time.
Another friend from home who travelled alongside Jay was Bradley Hargreaves, who regularly spoke to the media after searches got underway. The day Jay went missing, Bradley was sent his location, putting him in the small village of Masca.
His tribute when Jay's body was found read: "Nothing be the same without you. Rest easy brother. Love you always." He did not appear at the inquest either, having told the coroner's office he would be away on a holiday booked in October, believed to be in Greece.
Brandon Hodgson was the third friend Jay went to Tenerife with, and was one of the last people the teen spoke to before he disappeared. Investigator Mark Williams-Thomas said Brandon, now 20, had got a text from Jay which read: "I've started walking".
Brandon said: "He was laughing at first, then he sent me his location. On the phone he said to me 'I've been walking for half an hour', I told him to go back and he said, 'I've already been walking for half an hour, I'm not going back, I don't want to go back, I just want to go home."
He is now said to be "liaising with police" after officers went to his home in the lead-up to the inquest with a witness summons, but did not get an answer. It has been established he is also abroad, in an undisclosed location.
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Ayub Qassim, another British man but not one of Jay's friends, had invited the teen back to his Airbnb in the village of Masca the night before he went missing. The convicted drug dealer, also referred to as "Johnny Vegas" had let him stay overnight, and claimed he told him he would drive him back after the teen said "this woman told me I can get a bus every 10 minutes".
Mr Qassim told Mark Williams-Thomas: "I told him that he's mad, there's no bus that's coming here every 10 minutes, chill out for a bit and I'll drop you off later on. "He said, 'No, no I've got to go to Los Cristianos, I need to scram, I need to chip out'. There's nothing more that I could do.
The Metropolitan Police attempted to serve a witness summons at his last known address in Barking, East London, but were told by neighbours that he now lived abroad.
Steven Roccas, known as "Rocky" was staying with Mr Qassim at the Airbnb, but little more information is known about him beyond this. He kept his head down while Mr Qassim explained his last contact with Jay, and his identity was only revealed at the inquest.
The Met Police had also tried to serve a summons at his London address, but found he no longer lived there before tracking him to a business using an email address he had given Spanish police.
However, the premises was shuttered, having reportedly been closed for three years, and Mr Roccas has still not been traced.
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