Jay Slater's mother has described her 'horror' after she was shown pictures of her son's dead body by Spanish police. Debbie Duncan said she thought her 'heart would stop beating' after seeing the images of her 'beautiful' 19-year-old son, who was found dead in the hills of northern Tenerife.
She has returned to the island for a new documentary following Jay's disappearance in June 2024, which triggered a major search operation across the Spanish holiday destination. In the documentary, Debbie makes the trip back to Tenerife as she continues to wonder whether her son suffered in his final moments.
Return to Tenerife for documentary
Joined by Jay's uncle Glen Duncan, she visits Tenerife's Rural de Teno national park to retrace his last known movements. The 57-year-old tells Channel 5's Cause of Death that she was presented with photographs of Jay's body by Spanish police when she went to retrieve her son's mobile phone, reports the Mirror.
Debbie said: "I did think about it (viewing his body) and thought, I don't think I can. But then, when we had to go back to Tenerife to get paperwork from the courts and to collect his phone, to my horror there were images of Jay. I thought my heart was going to stop beating. Whenever people say, 'How did you know it was Jay?' Well, it was Jay. My beautiful boy."
Emotional visit to departure point
In the documentary, she also visits the location where Jay departed from the road, and became emotional as she laid flowers for her son, who she declared would be 'so sorry for the mistakes he made'. The documentary was recorded just weeks after Ms Duncan obtained the delayed Spanish post-mortem examination results concerning her son's death, which verified he died following a fall into the ravine.
During the programme, she also discusses the findings from both the Spanish and Home Office post-mortem examinations with pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd. Dr Shepherd, who carried out the Home Office post-mortem, told The Sun that it was crucial Ms Duncan 'knew the truth' given the 'trolling' she had endured.
Cause of death confirmed
He explained: "She wanted to know how his injuries would have affected him. I was able to tell her that yes, it was an awful injury, and yes, it killed him. But the head injury was so severe that it probably would have killed him immediately. It was the end - there was no pain and suffering."
Jay's remains were found four weeks after he vanished in an isolated location near Masca. Yet, following his disappearance, conspiracy theorists suggested he was missing because of a 'revenge attack' and challenged his mother's apparent composure. Even following the 2025 inquest which determined he had died on 17 June 2024, with wounds consistent with a 'heavy fall from height', false allegations about the case persisted.
Speaking on This Morning earlier this year, Ms Duncan said: "It's just never ended, two years on almost, and they just keep coming - it's going round in circles, the comments about, 'He was involved in the mafia and drug dealing', and then it gets really personal. [Trolls have been] calling his family, calling me [saying] 'they're drug dealers... he had a bad upbringing', it just got really personal. They don't know us, they don't know our family, they don't know Jay but yet they just judge... and the conspiracies started almost immediately."
Jay vanished while on his first holiday away from his parents, having left with two men he'd encountered during the trip. The pair took him to their Airbnb in Masca village, roughly 20 miles from the NRG music festival and Papagayo nightclub in Playa de Las Americas. After departing the accommodation, Jay rang his friend Lucy Law to explain he'd become lost in the mountains, and informed his other mate Bradley Geoghegan he was walking back after missing a bus. He was declared missing when he failed to return to where he was staying.
