The body discovered by Spanish rescuers in Tenerife on Monday has been formally identified as that of Jay Slater, the 19-year-old from Lancashire who went missing four weeks ago. A court spokesperson confirmed that fingerprints taken from the remains matched those of the teenager, who disappeared after attending a music festival on the island.
According to a statement from the High Court of Justice in the Canary Islands, injuries on the body indicated that Slater's death was caused by an accidental fall. The statement said: "We have a positive identification and more data, fingerprint tests show that the body is [that] of Jay Slater and that the death was caused by trauma consistent with a fall in a rocky area."
Slater had been staying with friends on the coast and attended the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas. He left the festival with two men and went to their Airbnb in the remote Rural de Teno national park, approximately an 11-hour walk from his accommodation. He was last seen walking alone near the village of Masca. At around 8.30am on 17 June, he called a friend, Lucy Law, saying he was lost, thirsty and had only 1% battery left on his phone.
His mother, Debbie Duncan, said confirmation of his death was the "worst news". "I just can't believe this could happen to my beautiful boy," she said. "Our hearts are broken." In a social media post, Law paid tribute: "Honestly lost for words. 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."
The Guardia Civil said a mountain rescue team found Slater's body during a ground search, exactly four weeks after he went missing. The terrain was so inaccessible that a helicopter was required to recover the body. Search efforts had involved dogs, helicopters and drones, with volunteers from Spain and the UK joining the operation. LBT Global, a British charity supporting the family, is assisting with the next steps, including repatriation of the body. Matthew Searle from the charity appealed for privacy and an end to "hurtful comments on social media and elsewhere", referring to conspiracy theories that have circulated online.
