Jay Slater's friend pens heartbreaking tribute after body found in search

A police spokesperson said the body was found on Monday morning by a Civil Guard mountain rescue group.

The family has been notified and an autopsy will take place shortly, with the case then being transferred to a Tenerife court to determine the cause of death, the spokesperson said.

Now, Slater's close friend Brad Hargreaves, with whom Jay travelled to Tenerife on his first holiday without his parents, has posted an emotional tribute on Instagram after the tragic news.

He wrote: "No words. Nothing be the same without you Rest easy brother love you always." Brad also posted a public story with another picture of the two of them at Creamfields Festival along with broken heart emojis.

Slater went missing on June 17 and his phone was last traced to the Masca ravine in a remote national park on the Canary Islands archipelago. On June 30, Spanish police said they had ended a search for Slater that had involved dozens of officers, rescue workers and volunteers using dogs, drones and a helicopter.

However, they said Guardia Civil officers had maintained a "continuous and discrete search" in the area for the whole 29 days.

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Slater's last known location after he left the NRG music festival was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island, which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.

He had gone to an Airbnb in Masca, but rang his friends Lucy Mae and Brad to say he was going to attempt the walk back.

The property was rented by 31-year-old Ayub Qassim, also known as Johnny Vegas, from east London and was searched by police.

Qassim and another man staying at the property were deemed 'irrelevant' by Spanish police investigating the case. Hargreaves says he had been on a video call with him before his disappearance - when he heard him go "off the road".

The remains were found with Slater's possessions and clothes and it is understood it was discovered close to the site of his mobile phone's last location, LBT Global said.

Slater's mother, Debbie, said on July 13 the family had arranged for a team of experts with specialist dogs to fly in over the weekend from the Netherlands.

"Jay is just a normal hardworking young lad from Lancashire who is very loved by all who know him," she wrote in a statement, asking people to pray for him and his family.