What happened to Jay Slater? Three unanswered questions about British teen’s disappearance on Tenerife
The body of British teenager Jay Slater has been found in a ravine nearly a month after he went missing in Tenerife.
The 19-year-old was last heard from on Monday 17 June, when he phoned his friend Lucy Law at 8.15am to say that he was lost, dehydrated and had 1 per cent phone battery.
After attending the New Generation Rave music festival on Sunday evening, the apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire travelled to a remote Airbnb near the village of Masca with two men he had met at the event.
His phone’s last location was recorded at 8.50am in the Rural de Teno national park, a mountainous area, popular with hikers.
Following a vast search, the Spanish Civil Guard said on Monday – 29 days after he went missing – that a body had been discovered by mountain rescue specialists in a steep and “very inaccessible” area near Masca.
The Canary Islands High Court of Justice confirmed the identity of the body with the use of fingerprint technology on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the court said the post-mortem examination report determined the injuries he sustained were consistent with an accidental fall.
Why was Mr Slater in the national park?
In his last Snapchat post at 7.30am, Mr Slater tagged Parque Rural de Teno Buenavista del Norte, an area in the northwest of the island, known for its rugged and sparse terrain.
He is believed to have travelled to the area during the early hours of Monday morning with two British men, without realising the distance from his apartment in the tourist area of Los Cristianos.
Around an hour later, he phoned his friend Lucy to tell her he had missed his bus, and was planning to make the 11-hour walk back to Los Cristianos, in the southwest of the island.
He told her he had cut his leg on a cactus, was unsure of his location and had barely any phone battery to use a maps app to make his way back.
Before a body was found on Monday, search teams had scoured the area, with police previously deploying helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs to help with the search.
The terrain is difficult, with deep ravines dropping from the main road and coarse shrubbery and cacti spreading across the mountainside. Experienced hikers have previously lost their way and died in the Masca Valley, yet no clue has been offered as to why the teenager would leave the safety of the main road.
Why did he choose an 11-hour walk instead of waiting for a bus?
Despite being pointed towards a bus stop, Mr Slater decided against waiting another two hours for a bus to take him into town.
Speaking to MailOnline, Ofelia Medina Hernandez said she had seen the teenager standing by the bus stop and had asked about buses back to Los Cristianos.
She said: “I held up my fingers on my hands to say ‘10am’ as he didn’t understand me, then I went home briefly before driving up the mountain to Buenavista del Norte, but this time I saw him walking on the road out of the village.
“It was no more than 10 or 15 minutes after I had spoken to him and he was about a kilometre from the house. I drove past him and that’s the last I saw him.”
Given that there is a main road nearby, questions have been raised as to why Mr Slater appears to have wandered into the wilderness. His friend Ms Law said: “What I don’t understand is if he did walk down then why wasn’t he seen by anyone?
“It’s a busy time of day. The place is full of hikers and holidaymakers. He could have asked them for help or stopped somewhere but no one has seen him at all.”
Who were the men Mr Slater was with?
After meeting two men, who have been described as British, during the festival, Mr Slater decided to return to their Airbnb while his friends went home.
One of the men has been identified as Ayub Qassim, who told the MailOnline that he let Mr Slater stay at his accommodation because he “had nowhere else to go” and insisted he was safe when he left the property at 7.30am.
He said: “If I’d fallen out with him would he even come to mine? There were no problems. You’ve seen the last images of him with his red blanket around him. I don’t know if he had beef elsewhere because I don’t know him that well, I only know him through friends. I’m doing the geezer a favour and now my face is all over the news. It’s a bit mental. I haven’t even done anything.”
Qassim remained tight-lipped over his thoughts on exactly what has happened to Jay, and simply said: “Everyone knows each other. I’m not going to slander anyone. He’s a cool guy, Jay. He ain’t got a problem with me, I haven’t got a problem with him or his mates. We just all talk to each other and everything was sweet.”
In the immediate aftermath of his disappearance, his friend Ms Law tracked them down at their Airbnb after spending time matching images from Mr Slater’s Snapchat to the location.
She told MailOnline: “They seemed startled and surprised that I had found them, and I asked them where Jay was.
“They said he had gone out to try and look for cigarettes and then come back and said he was leaving to try and get a bus back into town.
“They just seemed shocked that I had managed to find them and I know the police have spoken to them but I’ve since found out they have left the country. They need to be spoken to properly.”
In a statement issued through charity LBT Global, Mr Slater’s mother Debbie Duncan 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.”
