A body has been found in the hunt for missing British teenager Jay Slater – who vanished on the Spanish island of Tenerife almost a month ago.
The 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, had not been heard from since the morning of June 17.
Although Spanish police are awaiting full identification, they say that ‘everything is pointing to it being a young British man’ who could have ‘suffered an accident or fall in the inaccessible area where he was found’.
Possessions and clothes belonging to the teenager were found alongside the body, missing persons organisation LBT Global revealed.
They said the body was found close to to the last known location where Jay’s mobile pinged near the remove village of Masca, north-west Tenerife.
Jay had attended the last night of the three-day NRG music festival in Playa de Las Americas before going back to a £40-a-night Airbnb in Masca with two older British men he met out there.
As he tried to walk back to his accommodation in the southern part of the island, Jay called a friend to say he was lost, severely dehydrated and only had one per cent battery on his phone.
His disappearance, which has sparked wild conspiracy theories online from cruel trolls, led to a huge search and rescue mission, with Spanish police scouring the mountainous landscape around the Rural de Teno national park in Masca.
It is the latest development in the search for the missing teen which comes after:
Sunday June 16: Jay and his friends, including Lucy Mae Law, party at the final day of the NRG music festival at Papagayo night club in the resort of Playa de las Americas, Tenerife.
Monday June 17: Between 3am and 6am BST, Jay goes back to an Airbnb with two men after they leave Playa de las Americas in a car.
7.30am: Jay shares a photo on his Snapchat account, which shows him standing at the doorway of a house with the location Parque Rural de Teno.
Between 8.30am and 9am: Jay calls Lucy and says he is ‘lost in the mountains with one per cent battery and no water’ and has missed a bus back south and was attempting to walk. It would take 11 hours.
The call cuts out and the phone’s last location is a path in the rugged Rural de Teno national park, which is popular with hikers.
Grainy CCTV, released on June 24, shows a possible sighting of Jay at Santiago at around 6pm – nearly ten hours after his mobile phone last pinged in the Rural de Teno Park at around 8.50am.
The CCTV is taken close to a church, San Fernando Rey, where Jay’s mother told a man has come forward to say he saw someone matching her son’s description sitting on a bench with two men.
Tuesday June 18: Friends search the area but there is no sign of Jay and he does not return to his accommodation.
Local police and mountain rescue teams start hunting for Jay – and his mother Debbie flies to Tenerife.
Wednesday June 19 – Spanish police use drones, dogs and a helicopter but Jay is not found. They change their search to Los Cristianos because of a possible sighting, but it is ruled out and they return to Rural de Teno.
Thursday June 20: Guardia Civil, mountain rescue, firefighters and volunteers continue to search the national park.
Friday June 21: Lancashire Police offer support but it is declined by the Spanish police.
Saturday June 22: Search teams continue scouring the national park and Debbie says: ‘We just need you home.’
Sunday June 23: Police examine outbuildings at the bottom of a ravine where his phone last pinged.
Monday June 24: learns Spanish police are investigating whether Jay’s past is relevant. Jay’s family focus on the area of Santiago de Teide – where the grainy CCTV they think is Jay was taken.
Tuesday June 25: Jay’s mother issues a heartbreaking plea for her son to come home as more friends fly out to Tenerife. TV investigator Mark Williams-Thomas is seen outside Airbnb Jay went to.
Wednesday June 26: Mr Williams-Thomas tells the two men that Jay went back with to ‘come forward with crucial information’
Thursday June 27: Jay’s mother says she is in talks to withdraw some of £36,000 from GoFundMe to help with rescue efforts and living expenses.
Friday June 28: Police in Tenerife call for an army of volunteers to help them scour the rugged terrain.
Saturday June 29: Only six volunteers show up to help with the search. Investigators also say the two men Jay went back with have ‘no relevance’ to the case.
Sunday June 30: Spanish police officially end the search for Jay Slater. They say the investigation ‘remains open’, however.
Monday July 15: A body is found in the hunt for Jay Slater. His possessions and clothing are discovered next to human remains. Spanish cops say it points to an ‘accidental fall’
However, the official search was called off after just 13 days, prompting backlash from his desperate family who claimed they had been ‘left in the dark’.
Today, a spokesman for the Civil Guard said: ‘After 29 constant days of searching the body of the young man has been found in the Masca area.
‘The discovery has been possible thanks to the tireless and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard over these 29 days.
‘Everything is pointing to the body being that of the young British man who disappeared on June 17, pending full identification.
‘Initial inquiries are pointing to him having suffered an accident/fall in the area where he was found.’
In a fuller statement the force added: ‘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.
‘Thanks to the unceasing and constant search carried out by the different units of the Civil Guard, in which it has not stopped to look for the young man every day in the area of Masca, where he allegedly had disappeared the GREIM officers have found the dead body of the young person in a very inaccessible area.
‘The results of the autopsy are awaiting confirmation that it is an accident.’
GREIM officers led the search after Jay disappeared on June 17 after he left an Airbnb in Masca.
A visible search involving helicopter and sniffer dogs continued for nearly two weeks before police announced it was being halted.
They had not said in public it was continuing and there had been little outward sign of it going on on a more reduced scale.
Police said on June 30 after calling in volunteers for a ‘last push search’ a day earlier: ‘The search operation has now finished although the case remains open.’
A well-placed source added: ‘The daily operation which has been going on in and around Masca close to where Jay was last seen has been brought to an end.
‘If any information comes in that merits a new search though it will be acted upon.
‘My understanding is Jay’s parents have been informed of what obviously is a major development.
‘Nothing of any relevance was found during yesterday’s large-scale search.’
Jay was last seen by a local resident in Masca in north-west Tenerife just after 8am on June 17 walking northwards along the road out of the village after stopping to ask her for directions as he tried to get back to his accommodation in southern Tenerife.
His phone last pinged near to a look-out point where search teams gathered on June 29 to begin the last day of the operation.
Friend Lucy Law said Jay had called her shortly after he was last seen to say he was thirsty and had no water and just one per cent battery on his phone.
The investigation has been subjected to wild speculation online, through platforms such as TikTok – while a number of internet sleuths also flew to Tenerife to help the search.
Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan had yesterday criticised the ‘awful comments and conspiracy theories’ posted on social media, which she branded ‘vile’ and said were ‘hindering’ the investigation.
Ms Duncan yesterday posted an update on the GoFundMe page set up for her son’s search, which has raised more than £53,000.
She revealed how the family had called in rescue experts from the Netherlands to help find the teenager after Spanish police ceased their land search.