The inquest into the death of Jay Slater, the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer who went missing on a holiday in Tenerife last year, continues today at Preston Crown Court.
Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was found dead in a ravine in the Parque Rural de Teno on July 15 2024, a month after he vanished. He had travelled to the island with friends Lucy Law, Brad Hargreaves and Brandon Hodgson for the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas.
At the initial hearing in May, senior coroner Dr James Adley said Lucy and Brad "cannot be located", with Lucy believed to be in Tenerife and Brad reportedly abroad. Coroner's officer Alice Swarbrick said Lucy was thought to run a tanning products business in Tenerife. Brandon was said to be liaising with police but was also outside the UK at the time.
Jay's mother, Debbie Duncan, made a desperate plea for the friends to attend, saying: "These people to be sat in front of us, because our son went on holiday and didn't come back, so there's questions we need to ask." The coroner promised efforts to find them so she could have the "answers you want".
The inquest has heard details of Jay's final calls. At around 8.15am on June 17, he telephoned Lucy saying he was "in the middle of nowhere" and dehydrated, with just one per cent of his phone battery remaining. He was attempting to walk back to his accommodation from an isolated Airbnb, a journey that would have taken 11 hours on foot. The call cut off suddenly at 8.50am. Brad later described speaking with Jay on This Morning, saying he heard stones sliding as Jay walked on a gravel path.
