Body found on Tenerife is identified as British teen missing for nearly a month
LONDON (AP) — A British teen who was missing for nearly a month on the island of Tenerife likely died from injuries suffered in a fall in rocky terrain, a Spanish court said Tuesday, the day after his body was found.
Jay Slater, 19, was identified through fingerprints after his remains were discovered in a rugged area near his last known location, the Canary Islands, the High Court of Justice said.
Spanish authorities, family members, friends and volunteers spent weeks searching for Slater after he apparently got lost trying to walk from one corner of the island to another.
“I just can’t believe this could happen to my beautiful boy,” his mother, Debbie Duncan, said. “Our hearts are broken.”
The journey from Masca, a village in the northwest, to where he had been staying in Los Cristianos in the south, would have taken about 11 hours on foot.
Slater frantically called a friend, Lucy Law, that morning and said he was “lost in the mountains, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, he desperately needed a drink and his phone was on 1%,” she said.
His body was found Monday by the Spanish Civil Guard in a steep and inaccessible area. It was near the last known location of his mobile phone, said LBT Global, a charity that supported Slater’s family.
Slater, an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle in northwest England, had attended a music festival the day before his disappearance.
Law said on Instagram that Slater was “always the happiest and most smiley person in the room” and would be missed “more than you know.”
“I’m sure you’ll ‘have your dancing shoes polished and ready’ waiting for us all,” Law wrote. “We all love you buddy. Fly high.”
