Jay Slater missing in Tenerife: Live updates as search teams discover body believed to be missing 19-year-old
While formal identification has not yet taken place, the remains were found with the 19-year-old’s clothes and possessions near his last known location.
Members of a mountain rescue team from the Spanish Civil Guard discovered the body near the village of Masca today.
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Hide Ad“We are saddened to announce that a body found in Tenerife does look to be that of Jay Slater,” announced LBT Global, a charity which supports the families of British people missing overseas.
A spokesperson for the group said: “It is understood the body was found close to the site of his mobile phone’s last location.
“Although formal identification is yet to be carried out, the body was found with Mr Slater’s possessions and clothes.
“A post-mortem examination and forensic enquiries will follow.
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Hide Ad“LBT Global are supporting the family at this distressing time and ask for everyone to afford them space and privacy to come to terms with the news.”
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Tenerife’s Guardia Civil said on Monday that officers are waiting for the results of a post-mortem examination to confirm that Mr Slater died as a result of an accident.
The force added that Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, could have fallen in the steep and inaccessible area where his remains were discovered.
The 19-year-old had attended the NRG music festival with two friends before his disappearance on June 17, and his last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island, which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.
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Hide AdHe had travelled to an Airbnb in Masca rented by two men he met on a night out, but the pair were later ruled “not relevant” to the case.
His family endured conspiracy theories and “awful comments” posted online during the search for the apprentice bricklayer, while supporters raised £50,000 to help fund the hunt for the teenager.
Spanish police called off the search for the apprentice bricklayer at the end of June after helicopters, drones and search dogs failed to find him.
But in its statement on Monday, the force said teams had never stopped searching for the missing teenager.
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Hide Ad“The discovery was possible thanks to the incessant and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard during these 29 days, in which the natural space was preserved so that it would not be filled with onlookers,” its statement read.
You can find the latest updates on the investigation into Jay Slater’s disappearance in our live blog...
LIVE: Body found in search for missing Jay Slater, 19, in Tenerife
Key Events
- Jay Slater search teams discover body believed to be missing 19-year-old
- Police in Tenerife searching for missing Oswaldtwistle teen Jay Slater issue statement
- A huge group of family and friends from Oswaldtwistle head to Tenerife to help the search
- Mother of missing Lancashire-born Jay Slater issues desperate plea to son: "We just need you home"
- Snapchat video shows Jay smiling and laughing night before
- Full timeline of Jay's disappearance
New video shows helicopters searching mountains
New video shared by police in Tenerife shows helicopters circling the mountains for Jay while specialist sniffer dogs from Madrid joined the search.
Yesterday, it was announced that rescue teams extended the search area, focusing on three main ravines.
Day 10 in search for missing Jay Slater
The search for Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire has now entered its 10 day.
We’ll be bringing you the latest updates in our rolling live coverage today.
Spanish police said to be exploring whether Jay Slater's criminal background is relevant to search
The criminal past of Jay Slater is being explored as a possible line of enquiry by Spanish authorities as they wish to know if it's ‘relevant’ to his disappearance.
Back in 2021, Jay was involved in an assault case which saw an eight-member gang attack Tom Hilton with a machete, golf club and an axe, leaving him with severe injuries and fighting for his life.
Jay Slater search party rescues different Brit trapped in gorge
Spanish police searching for Jay have rescued another British holidaymaker who Rescue teams searching for Jay Slater in Tenerife have rescued a ‘disorientated’ British holidaymaker who they found trapped in a gorge near where the teenager went missing.
Concerned locals reported the man to police after the 51-year-old, from Scotland, went hiking in the heat and failed to return hours later. Rescue teams broke off their search for the 19-year-old after being alerted to the other missing man, who they found trapped at the Asomada Gorge.
TV investigator and author Mark Williams-Thomas, who previously took an interest in the Nicola Bully case in Lancashire - said he has offered to fly out to the island to 'find out whether a third party was involved'.
He also vowed to 'track down' the two men, who are thought to be British, that Jay is said to have stayed with in the Airbnb rental the night before he vanished. He offered his assistance to the family for free and says he has reached out to them.
"I would quickly be able to do establish whether or not there are suspicious circumstances - but I'd need total access to everything and to speak to all the witnesses involved," he said.
"Having feet on the ground and looking at the scenario and circumstances, I know I will get to the bottom of this in three days."
Sighting outside church unconfirmed
There has not yet been any police response, official or otherwise, to reports of a possible sighting of Jay outside a church in Santiago de Teide around 6pm last Monday.
Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan said a witness had gone to police and claimed to have seen him ‘looking worse for wear’ and sitting on a bench with a pair of men, just over three miles away from the village of Masca where the missing teenager had spent time in an Airbnb.
Day 9: Search continues for missing Jay Slater in Tenerife
There has not yet been any police response, official or otherwise, to reports of a possible sighting of Jay outside a church in Santiago de Teide around 6pm last Monday.
Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan said a witness had gone to police and claimed to have seen him sitting on a bench with a pair of men, just over three miles away from the village of Masca where the missing teenager had spent time in an Airbnb.
Jay Slater: What we know so far about teenager missing in Tenerife
Jay Slater search updates and timeline as fears grow for 19-year-old missing in Tenerife
TV sleuth who probed Nicola Bulley case joins search for Jay Slater
A private investigator who helped search for Nicola Bulley has offered his services to the distraught mum of missing Tenerife teenager Jay Slater.
Search for missing teenager in Tenerife enters second week
The search for a British teenager who went missing during a holiday in Tenerife has entered its second week.
Jay Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, disappeared following an attempt to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus.
The apprentice bricklayer, 19, had attended the NRG music festival on the island with two friends before his disappearance and was last heard from on Monday last week.
The walk from Mr Slater’s last known location, Rural de Teno Park in the north of the island, to his accommodation would have taken about 11 hours on foot.
A fundraiser set up by the last person to speak to Mr Slater hit its target of £30,000 on Sunday.
The GoFundMe created by Lucy Law to “get Jay Slater home” had received £33,000 in donations by Monday morning.
Ms Law said her friend told her in a frantic phone call last Monday at 8.30am that he was “lost in the mountains, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, he desperately needed a drink and his phone was on 1%”.
Search teams in Tenerife narrowed their efforts over the weekend on small buildings close to where his phone last pinged.
Officers from the Guardia Civil in the Canary Islands could be seen circling two structures at the bottom of a ravine in Rural de Teno Park on Sunday.
Efforts appeared to be solely focused on the one area after days of searches in the village of Masca and the surrounding landscape.
The efforts come after the teenager’s mother issued a direct plea to her missing son, saying: “We just need you home.”
Debbie Duncan said she had “not slept” since the 19-year-old disappeared.
Mr Slater was last seen wearing a white T-shirt with shorts and trainers, and carrying a black bag.
Timeline: The search for missing teenager Jay Slater in Tenerife
The search for Jay Slater in Tenerife is continuing over a week after he was last heard from on the Spanish island.
The apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, disappeared following an attempt to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus in the north of island.
Here are the key updates so far from the search for the 19-year-old:
Sunday June 16
Mr Slater attended the NRG music festival with friends at Papagayo nightclub in the tourist resort of Playa de las Americas in the south of the island.
Monday June 17
In the early hours of Monday he goes to stay in an apartment in the north of the island with people he had met over the course of the night.
7.30am
Mr Slater posts a picture on Snapchat from the doorway of the property he stayed at overnight, tagged as being in Rural de Teno park.
8.30am
He calls his friend, Lucy Law, telling her he had attempted to walk back to his accommodation after missing his bus – a journey that would take more than ten hours.
In the frantic last phone call, Mr Slater said he had “cut his leg” on a cactus and had “no idea where he was”.
Ms Law said her friend told her he was “lost in the mountains, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, he desperately needed a drink and his phone was on 1%”.
Mr Slater’s phone runs out of battery shortly after with his last known location being in Rural de Teno park.
9.04am
He is reported missing.
Tuesday June 18
After friends spend the previous day searching to no avail, local police and mountain rescue teams scour Rural de Teno park for Mr Slater.
His family fly out to Tenerife to join the search.
Wednesday June 19
The search is temporarily moved to the Los Cristianos area in the south of the island due to a potential lead, but this is quickly discounted and the search returns north.
Mr Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, said she feared her son had “been taken against his will”.
Thursday June 20
The search returns to Rural de Teno park, around the village of Masca.
Emergency workers met in various locations throughout the day, combing bushes, overgrown terrain, hillsides and rivers but failed to find the missing teenager.
Friday June 21
Spanish police reject an offer of support from Lancashire Constabulary as the hunt continues.
Police, firefighters and search and rescue personnel combed a vast area of land in and around the village of Masca.
Search and rescue personnel carefully looked through dead palm trees covering a river at the bottom of the hillside near to an Airbnb property Mr Slater had reportedly been driven to.
The owner of the property told reporters she saw Mr Slater walk up the road past her property but did not see him again after that – describing the situation as worrying.
Saturday June 22
Mr Slater’s mother issues a direct plea to her missing son on the sixth day of the hunt, saying: “We just need you home.”
Firefighters appeared to conduct the majority of the searches as they wore helmets to tackle dangerous hillside terrain in Tenerife.
The search parties seemed noticeably smaller compared to other days – with only a handful of emergency workers visible in the village of Masca and the surrounding areas.
Sunday June 23
Search teams narrowed their efforts on small buildings close to where Mr Slater’s phone last pinged.
Officers from the Guardia Civil in the Canary Island could be seen circling two structures at the bottom of a ravine in Rural de Teno Park.
Efforts appeared to be solely focused on the one area after days of searches in the village of Masca and the surrounding landscape.
Monday June 24
The search for Mr Slater enters an eighth day.
Huge update as cops narrow in on spot where Jay Slater’s phone pinged
Search teams attempting to locate missing Lancashire teenager Jay Slater have narrowed their efforts on small buildings close to where his phone last pinged in Tenerife.
Mother of missing Lancashire-born Jay Slater issues desperate plea to son: "We just need you home"
The mother of Jay Slater has issued a direct plea to her missing son on the sixth day of the hunt for the British teenager, saying: “We just need you home.”
Debbie Duncan told the PA news agency she has “not slept” since the 19-year-old disappeared on the Canary Island of Tenerife.
Speaking about what message she would have for her son, Ms Duncan added: “We just need you home – we just need him home.”
Read more here
"I'm not coping very well at all...": Mother of missing Jay Slater says she refuses to give up on search for her son
The mother of missing British teenager Jay Slater has said she has “not slept” and “can’t give up” on her son.
Asked how the family was coping with the situation, Debbie Duncan told the PA news agency: “We’re not. I’m not coping very well at all. I’ve not slept, I’m exhausted. It’s been awful.
“I can’t give up on him, I just can’t.”
Jay Slater's mum says she doesn't know if Spanish authorities were 'insulted' by offer of UK police help
Debbie Duncan, the mother of missing 19-year-old Jay Slater, has told PA news that she does not know whether the Spanish authorities turning down an offer of help from the UK was because they viewed it as ‘an insult’.
Questioned on whether the Spanish authorities should have accepted help from Lancashire Constabulary, Ms Duncan said: “I believe they said they’ve got enough resources and they don’t need the help from English police.
“I don’t know if they find it an insult – I really don’t know. I really don’t know. They say they’ve got enough resources to get on with the investigation… I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Asked if her head was spinning from the past few days, she said: “It is, it is. People say: ‘Yeah, I understand’ – no, you don’t, you don’t understand.”
Missing teenager’s Instagram ‘mysteriously accessed since vanishing’ in Tenerife
Jay Slater’s Instagram has reportedly been mysteriously accessed since he vanished from a remote part of the island of Tenerife on Monday.
New Rave Generation festival issue statement as search for Jay Slater continues
The music festival which missing teenager Jay Slater attended in Tenerife has released a statement as the search for him reaches its sixth day.
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