Matthew Jackson

Matthew Jackson



Age:
18
Missing since:
18th December 2009

18 year old Matthew Jackson has been missing in Tenerife, Canary Islands, since around 2am on the 18th of December.

Matt was on holiday with his girlfriend, staying at the Pearly Grey Ocean Club hotel in the village of Callao Salvaje, near Playa de las Americas.

He was wearing a Red & White Lacoste T-Shirt, (as seen in the photo), Grey/Beige Brown Three Quarter length trousers and a pair of Yellow flip-flops.

It is important that anyone with any information, however small, comes forward.

Please download the missing poster below and display it and send it to anyone else who can.


Do you have any information?:


Missing Abroad is running a confidential hotline based in Spain for information. Please call (+34) 976 362 100

From the UK you can call our 24 hour central freephone information hotline on 0800 098 8485. Calls will be free from landlines but may be charged from mobiles.

If you prefer you can email any information to operations@missingabroad.org



All information will be treated in the strictest confidence and you do not need to leave your name.

British soldier missing in Tenerife weeks before he is due to go to Afghanistan

By Gerard Couzens
Last updated at 1:58 AM on 24th December 2009

Squaddie Mathew Jackson missing in Tenerife.

Missing: Matthew Jackson vanished in Tenerife after what his girlfriend Amy thought was a prank

A British soldier due to be sent to Afghanistan early next year has gone missing on holiday in Tenerife.

Matthew Jackson, 18, disappeared around 2am last Friday during a night out with his girlfriend.

The pair were staying at a hotel in the south west of the island.

Distraught Amy Taylor was today being comforted by Matthew's mum Lyn after she flew to Tenerife from her home in Crawley, west Sussex and appealed for help to have him back home safe and well for Christmas.

He vanished after jumping over a wall near the sea on the way back to their hotel in what Amy took for a prank.

Matthew, a driver with the 16th Signal Regiment, was on Christmas leave and is expected back at his base at Elmpt Station in Germany on January 4.

He was due to be sent to Afghanistan in February to drive the life-saving Ridgeback armoured trucks - although doctors had delayed his new posting after detecting an eye problem.

Matthew and Amy, 18, were four days into a week-long holiday at the Pearly Grey Ocean Club resort in the quiet village of Callao Salvaje near Playa de las Americas, when he went missing.

Special needs worker Mrs Jackson, 49, said: 'They'd been out for a few drinks and had a petty row on the way back to the hotel.

'My son's got a terrible habit of lurking behind trees and jumping out at people shooting 'boo' to scare them.

'The last time Amy saw Matthew he had just jumped over a wall people sit on and dangle their legs over near the hotel.

'"It's a wide wall with a 6ft wide strip of gravel the other side between it and rocks that drop about 12ft down into the sea.

'She thought it was another one of his pranks and he was going to jump out from behind the wall and scare her as she walked past.

'She continued on to their hotel and waited for him but he never showed.

'At first we thought he might have bumped into some other lads and gone off with them for the night, even though it's totally out of character for Matthew.

'But he only had a few euros on him and the police told us yesterday his bank cards haven't been used.

'We're hoping and praying he's not fallen in the sea but we have to face up to the fact it's a possibility.

'I'm trying to keep myself strong for Amy.'

She said the couple had been dating for two years and had been talking about getting engaged.

Matthew's older sister Claire has set up a Facebook appeal site.

Local bar owners in Tenerife have put up pictures of the teenager.

Police have searched the sea near to where Matthew was last seen with a patrol boat and helicopter but bad weather has meant divers cannot get near to the rocks his family fear he may have fallen down.

Mrs Jackson,said: 'We're just hoping at the moment that Matthew's had a knock on the head and maybe doesn't remember where his hotel is.

'We were looking forward to a family Christmas together and we desperately want him back home safe and well so we can spend Christmas Day together.

'He was really looking forward to going to Afghanistan and he definitely would not have gone AWOL because of that.'

His regiment are going in February and Matthew was to follow a few weeks later.

Matthew was wearing a red and white Lacoste T-shirt, grey three-quarter length trousers and yellow flip-flops when he went missing.

A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Tenerife said: 'We are searching for Matthew. We were informed of his disappearance at lunchtime on December 18, the day he was last seen.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1238042/British-soldier-missing-Tenerife-weeks-to-Afghanistan.html#ixzz0eq0nH1PP