The Spanish authorities announced on Monday that they had discovered the remains of a young man on Tenerife Island, in the vicinity where British teenager Jay Slater had gone missing last month. Jay Slater, a 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from England, vanished on June 17 while holidaying on Tenerife, one of the popular Canary Islands. The missing persons organization LBT Global, which has been managing communications with the media on behalf of his family, stated on Monday that the body found “does look to be that of Jay Slater,” and was located near the last known location of his mobile phone.
“Although formal identification is pending, the body was found with Mr. Slater’s belongings and clothing,” according to the LBT Global statement.
Spain’s Civil Guard, the national police force, reported that after 29 days of search efforts, their rescue teams discovered the body of a young man in the Masca area, a village nestled in the island’s mountains, on Monday morning. The remains were found in a steep and hard-to-reach location by members of the Civil Guard’s Mountain Rescue and Intervention Group, as stated in the official announcement.
The Civil Guard mentioned that the available evidence indicates the body could be that of Mr. Slater, although formal identification has not yet been completed. It appeared that the individual may have experienced an accident or fall in the rugged terrain, the Civil Guard added.
In a photo provided by his family, Mr. Slater is pictured. Credit…LBT GLOBAL/Family via Facebook
In June, Mr. Slater attended a music festival on Tenerife with friends, including Lucy Law, who recounted the last time she saw him on an online fundraising page for his family. Ms. Law shared that on the final night of the festival, on June 16, Mr. Slater left with two individuals he had met there to visit their apartment in a more secluded part of the island.
Ms. Law received a phone call the next morning from Mr. Slater, stating that he was lost and thirsty in the mountains, with his phone battery running low. Around the same time, he also called another friend who mentioned that Mr. Slater had decided to descend “a little drop” next to a road. This was the last communication anyone had from him.
Mr. Slater’s disappearance garnered significant attention from the British media and was closely followed by online enthusiasts, some of whom traveled to Tenerife to assist in the search. The high interest in the case also led to various conspiracies and baseless theories. Debbie Duncan, Mr. Slater’s mother, described her son in a statement on Sunday as “a typical young man who loves life, with a bright future ahead of him.”
