Jay Slater police outline new theory of exactly what happened to missing teen after body found

Jay Slater

Spanish police have outlined a new "likely" cause of death in the case of Jay Slater after human remains were found in Tenerife

PA/ Reuters
Georgina Cutler

By Georgina Cutler


Published: 15/07/2024

- 14:08

Police are awaiting full identification but say that 'everything is pointing to it being a young British man'

Spanish police have outlined the "likely" cause of death in the case of Jay Slater after human remains were found in Tenerife.

A "lifeless body of a young man" has been discovered in Rural de Teno national park, the Civil Guard has said.


Officers have now suggested a new theory about what could have happened to the missing 19-year-old.

A spokesperson for Guardia Civil police said it is likely that the cause of death was an "accident or fall".

Jay Slater Spanish police have outlined a new "likely" cause of death in the case of Jay Slater after human remains were found in TenerifePA/ Reuters

Police are awaiting full identification, but say that "everything is pointing to it being a young British man" who vanished on June 17.

The force added that the body was found in an "inaccessible area" near to where Slater vanished and an autopsy will determine whether the death was an accident.

The Civil Guard said in a statement: "Officers of the Civil Guard belonging to the Mountain Rescue and Intervention Group (GREIM) have located this morning the dead body of a young man in the area of Masca, belonging to the municipality of Buenavista del Norte.

"All indications suggest that it could be the young British man who had been missing for 29 days, who may have died due to an accidental fall in the rough and inaccessible area where he was found."

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Officers added that: "The results of the autopsy are awaiting confirmation that it is an accident."

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

Possessions and clothes belonging to Slater were found alongside the body, according to the charity LBT Global.

The human remains were reportedly discovered close to the site of the last location of the 19-year-old's mobile phone.

Jay Slater and his mum Debbie Duncan

Spanish police said the body was found in an "inaccessible area" near to where Slater vanished

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Slater went missing on June 17 and his phone was last traced to the Masca ravine in a remote national park.

The teenager - from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire - travelled to an Airbnb in the village of Masca with people he met at the NRG musical festival on Sunday, June 16.

He spoke to his friend Lucy Law at 8am local time the following day to say he had missed his bus, his phone had just one per cent battery and he would walk home instead.

Guardia Civil officers insist that a "continuous and discrete search" of the area has been carried out over the last 29 days.

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