A coroner has concluded that Jay Slater, the 19-year-old British teenager whose disappearance in Tenerife sparked a month-long search last summer, died after accidentally falling down a remote ravine. The inquest in Preston heard that Slater suffered fatal head injuries from a 20-to-25-metre fall in a dangerous, inaccessible area.
Coroner James Adeley ruled the death as accidental, stating that no one else was involved and there was no evidence of threat, assault, or duress. The inquest heard Slater had taken ecstasy, cocaine, possibly ketamine, and alcohol on the night of 16 June before attending the NRG music festival with friends at a nightclub in Playa de las Américas.
Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished the following morning after going with two men to an Airbnb in the mountain village of Masca. He attempted a 14-hour walk back to his holiday apartment in Los Cristianos, telling friends he was 'in the middle of the mountains' and needed a drink. His phone battery died, and he had no water as temperatures rose.
A mountain rescue team found his body on 15 July in the steep ravine. His mother, Debbie Duncan, paid tribute at the inquest, saying: 'He was very loved and our hearts are broken.' The coroner expressed hope that the examination of facts, rather than conjecture, provided some consolation to the family.
