Holiday Scot found dead in field after car hijack alert
POLICE are probing the death of a Scottish holidaymaker on the sunshine isle of Tenerife.
They are examining claims the man ran amok in the hours before his death, crashing a stolen car before his body was later found on waste ground.
Spanish officials believe the man, named on the island as Kevin Daffurn of Shotts, Lanarkshire, may have been drinking prior to the discovery on Friday evening.
They are linking his death to the earlier theft of a Spanish woman’s car.
They believe the 30-year-old stole the Mitsubishi and crashed it before attempting to take two other vehicles.
Police hunting the carjacker, who fled the crash scene on foot, did not immediately link the two.
But it became apparent the dead man – found barefoot and wearing the same shorts and hotel wristband he went out with on Thursday after jetting to Tenerife with two friends – was the runaway.
A police source said: “Investigators are awaiting the results of the autopsy but the inexplicable actions of this man give rise to suspicion he was out of his mind on drink and possibly drugs.
“Police were told by his friends during a verbal interview that he was a very conflictive person after alcohol.”
The bizarre series of events began just before 2pm on Friday at a shopping centre.
A woman in a Mitsubishi was injured after leaping out of the vehicle as it was driven off by a thief who had jumped into the car.
The carjacker crashed shortly afterwards on the TF-1 motorway.
He then tried to steal another car then a motorbike, before stunning witnesses by jumping over the central reservation and fleeing the scene on foot.
Some four hours later, two holidaymakers spotted a man’s body on waste ground by a roundabout leading to Los Cristianos. There were no visible signs of any injury.
The police source said: “The events were crazy, like something out of a film.
“The woman in the Mitsubishi leapt out of the vehicle fearing she was being kidnapped. She suffered bruises and some other injuries, but she was not seriously hurt.
“The tourist crashed the car, then tried to steal another and a motorbike and ended up running along the hard shoulder before jumping over the central reservation.
“He could have been trying to get to his hotel but at the moment it’s not really clear.”
He added: “The dead man arrived on Thursday with two friends. They will be formally interviewed shortly.”