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2 months ago
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The mother of Jay Slater has today paid tribute to her 'beautiful boy' after the missing British teenager's body was tragically found in Tenerife.
The 19-year-old, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, vanished following a night out on the Spanish island on June 17, prompting a huge search operation involving police, volunteers and family members which spanned almost a month.
On Monday morning, the Spanish Civil Guard tragically discovered a body with the apprentice bricklayer's possessions and clothing, near to where his phone last pinged.
The Canary Islands High Court of Justice has now confirmed that it was Jay, whose body was found near the village of Masca. Officials also revealed documentation belonging to Jay was discovered with the body.
At a court hearing on Tuesday, a spokesman said: 'Fingerprinting confirms that the body belongs to Jay Slater and the death was due to multiple traumas compatible with a fall in the mountainous area.'
In a statement issued through charity LBT Global, Jay's mother Debbie - who flew to Tenerife to search for her son - said: 'I just can't believe it - we're here with the embassy staff waiting for an update and now it's come - the worst news.' She added: 'I just can't believe this could happen to my beautiful boy. Our hearts are broken.'
Matthew Searle, from LBT Global, said the charity was working with the family to sort out the next steps of taking his body home and the recovery of his belongings.
He said: 'The announcement does seem to confirm that Jay died of injuries consistent with an accidental fall from a considerable height. There will of course be many more hurdles for the family to face in the coming days and we will work with them to make this horrific time as easy as possible.
'We are working with the family now to sort out the next steps of taking Jay home, recovery of his belongings and laying him to rest back.. We will not be releasing details of travel timings or funeral arrangements at this time and ask again for privacy for the family. I ask now that this is the end of all the hurtful comments on social media and elsewhere'.
A family spokesman told MailOnline before the hearing: 'The whole family is absolutely broken. They are devastated. It's not the outcome they were hoping for.
'Initially they thought how could he be so close and yet be missed but now having seen the location they appreciate the remoteness of it and there is no criticism of the search.
'It looks as if he fell from a height so he would most likely have been killed instantly and he wasn't there for a long time. There will be a PM [post-mortem] in Tenerife and probably one in the UK and repatriation should be within a week or so it's all time dependent.'
The family update followed Jay's best friend Lucy Law penning an emotional tribute to the 'happiest and most smiley person'.
Jay had jetted off to Tenerife for an eight-day holiday with Lucy and another friend, Brad Hargreaves, before he vanished.
In a heart-wrenching Instagram post published last night Lucy wrote: 'Honestly lost for words. Always the happiest and most smiley person in the room, you was one of a kind Jay and you'll be missed more than you know.
'I'm sure you'll 'have your dancing shoes polished and ready' waiting for us all. We all love you buddy. Fly high.'
Brad, meanwhile, wrote: 'Nothing be the same without you. Rest easy brother. Love you always.'
It comes after the Spanish Civil Guard revealed that they had continued a 'discreet search' despite saying they had stopped looking in the area on June 30.
The shock decision after just 13 days led to amateur sleuths vowing to continue their own search through the rugged Tenerife mountains, while Jay's family refused to give up and leave the Spanish island.
The high-profile investigation saw internet sleuths jet out from the UK to Tenerife, while platforms such as TikTok and Facebook were awash with vile conspiracy theories which Jay's mother claimed 'hindered' efforts to find him.
Announcing the discovery of a body yesterday, the Spanish Civil Guard said: 'Given the complexity of the case, the discovery has been 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 curious onlookers.
Jay, 19, vanished on the island of Tenerife last month, prompting a huge search effort which involved police, volunteers, family members and even TikTok sleuths.
The apprentice bricklayer was attending the three-day NRG music festival with friends before his disappearance.
Video from the early hours of June 17 shows Jay partying the night away at Papagayo nightclub in the tourist resort of Playa de las Americas in the south of the island.
At around 5am, Jay left the Veronicas strip and got into a Seat Leon hire car with convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, 31, and Qassim's unnamed friend, who he had met earlier on the holiday.
They travelled to Qassim's £40-a-night Airbnb, Casa Abuela Tina, in the remote village of Masca - around an hour's drive away from Playa de las Americas.
While in the car Jay sent a Snapchat message to his friends boasting that he had just stolen a £12,000 Rolex watch from a reveller and was going to sell it for £10,000.
At Casa Abuela Tina, Jay posted a picture on Snapchat at 7.30am of him standing in the doorway of the property having a cigarette - with the location tagged as being in Rural de Teno park, near Masca. The men he went back with were deemed 'not relevant' to the investigation by Spanish police.
Half an hour later, the teenager decided to try and make his way back to his accommodation and was spotted at a bus stop outside the Airbnb.
After missing a bus, he called his friend Lucy Law between 8.15am and 8.30am, telling her he was attempting to walk back to his accommodation - a journey that would take around 11 hours.
In the frantic last phone call, Jay said he had 'cut his leg' on a cactus and had 'no idea where he was'.
Lucy 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 per cent'.
Jay's phone ran out of battery shortly after with his phone last pinging in the Rural de Teno park at 8.50am.
At around 9.04am, Jay is reported missing and his friends spend the day searching but to no avail.
The following day, local police and mountain rescue teams scoured the rugged landscape and his family flew out to Tenerife to join the search.
On June 19, the search was temporarily moved to the Los Cristianos area in the south of the island because of a potential lead, but this is quickly discounted and the search returned north.
Jay's mother, Debbie Duncan, said she feared her son had 'been taken against his will'.
Emergency workers continued to comb bushes, overgrown terrain, hillsides and rivers back in the Masca valley, but failed to find the missing teenager.
Jay's family are 'absolutely broken' after a body was found. He is pictured here with mother Debbie Duncan (left) and brother Zak Slater (right)
Jay's father Warren Slater and brother Zak pictured during a search and rescue last month
The Spanish police also came under fire for rejecting support from the Lancashire Constabulary back in the UK.
On June 28, after having no luck in finding Jay, the Spanish police appealed for a mass army of volunteers such as firefighters and mountaineering experts but only six people turned up the following day.
On June 30, Spanish police then called off the search but insisted the case 'remains open'.
Jay's family and friends stayed in Tenerife, while TikTok sleuths also vowed to continue helping.
One TikTok detective subsequently quit the search after saying he and his group had not received any of the money raised to help find Jay on GoFundMe.
But Jay's mother hit back, claiming she had given him £740 of her own money for accommodation, adding: 'We don't need hikers, we need experts.'
TikTok explorer Paul Arnott was also helping in Tenerife, as was detective-turned-investigator Mark Williams-Thomas.
Nevertheless, Spanish police officers were discreetly continuing their own search of the mountains.
On July 14, Debbie spoke of her 'heartache' and criticised 'awful comments and conspiracy theories' about her son's disappearance.
Jay Slater's best friend Lucy Law (right) posted an emotional message to the 'happiest and most smiley person' after a body was found near where his phone last pinged
In a heart-wrenching Instagram post published last night Lucy wrote: 'Honestly lost for words. Always the happiest and most smiley person in the room, you was one of a kind Jay and you'll be missed more than you know'
Jay's friend Brad Hargreaves, who went on holiday with him and flew back last week, paid a poignant tribute on Instagram on Monday
A video released on Monday showed police mountain rescue experts moving through difficult terrain on foot, scaling mountains and picking their way through thick undergrowth
Part of the clip shows two members of the search team (pictured) being winched out of the area by helicopter after the body (not pictured) had been found and recovered
A 13-day search by police using drones, dogs and a helicopter failed to find any trace of Jay
In a statement released through LBT Global, Ms Duncan said: 'As we approach four weeks of our beautiful Jay's disappearance, we cannot put into words the heartache we are suffering as a family.'
Ms Duncan said the family wish to thank the public for 'their continued support and well wishes' and praises the British Embassy and police for 'doing all they can to support us'.
But she also criticised 'awful comments and conspiracy theories' posted on social media, which she branded 'vile' and says were 'hindering' people trying to help locate the teenager.
Just 24 hours later, a body was found by Spanish police.
Charity LBT Global said that 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 on Monday.
The force said Jay could have fallen in the steep and inaccessible area where the body was discovered.
The body was lifted out of a ravine — described by police as 'steep and inaccessible' — by a helicopter belonging to a regional government emergency and rescue group.
The £40-a-night remote Airbnb in the remote village of Masca where Jay spent his final hours before going missing
Jay Slater's final Snapchat at 7.30am on Monday June 17, taken at remote Airbnb before he went missing
Jay's mother Debbie Duncan and father Warren Slater leaving the Guardia Civil in Playa de las Americas on July 2
Volunteers searching for Jay in Masca after the teenager went missing
It will likely be transported to the northern city of La Laguna where an autopsy will be performed in the coming days.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard said that the 'lifeless body of a young man in the Masca area after 29 days of constant search'.
They added: 'Given the complexity of the case, the discovery has been possible thanks to the incessant and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard during these 29 days.'
Parts of the countryside were 'preserved' so they were 'not filled with curious onlookers', they told Sky News.
Officers continued: 'All indications indicate that it could be the young British man who has been missing since June 17 - in the absence of full identification.
'The first investigations reveal he could have suffered an accident fall in the inaccessible area where he was found.
'We are awaiting the results of the autopsy.'
Supporters raised more than £54,000 to help fund the hunt for the teenager.
Questions have been raised about what will happen to the money given by generous strangers after a body was found following a month of searching.
There has been a flurry of new donations since the tragic update was revaled.
A GoFundMe spokesperson told The Sun it is in 'regular contact' with Jay's family to work out the next steps for dealing with the money over the next few weeks.
The Telegraph reported that the money will be used towards the funeral and repatriation costs.
The family began to withdraw money two weeks ago to help with the search.
Jay's mother Debbie previously said the money was also being used to support mountain rescue teams, her own accommodation and food costs.
The cash was used to fly in a team of specialist rescue volunteers yesterday as five people and four dogs were deployed, with a sixth person joining today.
The group were sent by the non-profit organisation Signi Zoekhonden, based in the Netherlands, who have about 20 years experience in searching for missing people.
Signi Zoekhonden contacted Mr Slater's family after reading about the case and promised to deploy drones as part of their search, subject to flight permission being granted by local authorities.
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