Jay Slater body found: Agonising riddle of teen's fatal walk as tragic new details emerge

Jay Slater was found "lying lifeless" at the bottom of a rocky ravine of northern Tenerife following a catastrophic fall, officials have confirmed.

But many questions remain surrounding the teen's puzzling disappearance and the treacherous route he took. After a month-long manhunt to find the missing teen, Spanish police confirmed on Monday that a body had been found in the depths of the vast and unforgiving terrain of Parque Rural de Teno nature reserve.

Following an autopsy on Tuesday, police confirmed the remains to be his. Before confirming the formal identification, in their first comments since the grim police discovery yesterday, officials representing the investigating judge said: "In reference to the British citizen Jay Slater, the autopsy with the full identification of the body and the causes of death will take time, because the body was very deteriorated.

"But there is very little doubt about both the identity and the aetiology. The documentation he was carrying corresponds to that of Jay Slater and everything is pointing to an accidental fall, although that is unofficial pending the final reports." In another update on Tuesday afternoon, a court spokesperson confirmed that fingerprints confirmed the body was missing Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire. The injuries suggested he had fallen from a cliff, they added.

READ MORE: Jay Slater's tragic last words to friend who tirelessly tried to find him

READ MORE: Jay Slater 'left Airbnb where he stayed night he went missing because he was hungry'

The 19-year-old went missing in Tenerife on the morning of June 17 after attending the NRG festival. The apprentice bricklayer, who was on his first holiday abroad with mates, had been partying on the southern club strip before heading off with two other British men to an Airbnb north of the island.

Shortly before 9am on that fateful Monday, he left the property and began to make his way back to his accommodation, which was estimated to be an 11-hour trek. He had been on the phone with his friends to warn them that he had no idea of his whereabouts and that his phone battery was about to die. When they lost contact, pal Lucy Law notified the authorities and a major search operation was underway.

However after weeks of search and rescue teams, along with expert volunteers and family members, combing remote mountains in treacherous conditions, there was no sign of him until now. Throughout the hunt, experts and loved ones were left puzzled as to why the young lad embarked on such a dangerous journey.

Body found in dangerous terrain

Jay's body appears to have been found close to where his phone last pinged in the village of Masca and investigations suggest the teen could have "suffered an accident or fall in the inaccessible area where he was found". "The Mountain Rescue and Intervention Group of the Civil Guard has located the lifeless body of a young man in the Masca area after 29 days of constant search," the statement said on Monday.

"All indications indicate that it could be the young British man who has been missing since last June 17 in the absence of full identification. The first investigations reveal that he could have suffered an accident/fall in the inaccessible area where he was found."

It added that the "discovery has been possible thanks to the incessant and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard". Asked whether the force was in a position to say exactly where the human remains had been found, a spokesperson told the Mirror: "In the area near Masca is all I can say at the moment." He added: "We've always said the terrain is a very difficult terrain and the search was complicated."

Meanwhile charity LBT Global also confirmed that the body found in the search for the missing teen was discovered close to the site of his mobile's last location. Issuing an update on behalf of Jay's family, they shared additional details surrounding the human remains.

The statement said: "LBT Global is saddened to announce that a body found in Tenerife does look to be that of Jay Slater. It is understood the body was found close to the site of his mobile phone's last location.

"Although formal identification is yet to be carried out, the body was found with Mr Slater's possessions and clothes. A post mortem and forensic inquiries will follow. LBT Global are supporting the family at this distressing time and ask for everyone to afford them space and privacy to come to terms with the news."

A former police Sergeant said the area where the 19-year-old went missing was 'exceptionally difficult' to navigate. Police commentator Graham Wettone told Sky News: "The terrain and the grounds they had to cover and had to search are not easy to search. They're not easy to find somebody, in these sorts of circumstances."

He continued: "Clearly the terrain is exceptionally difficult to navigate, but especially to search thoroughly and properly with the resources, the equipment, and tactics they were using." Jay Slater's family were joined in Tenerife by former police detective Mark Williams-Thomas, as attempts by local authorities to find him appeared fruitless.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Williams-Thomas said : "He was found at a pretty inaccessible place not far from the spot where Jay had sent his location to two friends shorty before 9am, four weeks earlier to the day. ‌The area where the body was found was highlighted yesterday afternoon with the search and rescue helicopter in the area, it is around a 20-minute walk from the pin drop location.

"The terrain is rough and hazardous and having now seen the video of the search team on Monday morning and that the helicopter was in the same area on Sunday afternoon where the body was recovered, it is clear to see just how treacherous and dangerous it is - a slip or loss of footing would prove fatal."

He added: "Three weeks ago, I met with the family and said I and my team would do all we could to get them answers. The initial review of the evidence strongly indicated Jay would be found in the mountains, having taken a path from where his last location drop was sent, however like any investigation it is always important to remain open minded and thoroughly investigate no information that comes in."

Burning question

While Spanish police, who had implemented specialist sniffer dogs from Madrid, announced they were calling off their on-foot search, Jay's desperate family vowed to continue their efforts scouring the northern mountains. Dad Warren Slater, 58, was joined by Jay's older brother Zak, 21, as they spent days hiking through the neighboring valleys where the apprentice bricklayer was last seen, just outside the remote village of Masca.

The small search party moved on from the Valley of Barranco de Juan Lopez, close to the village of Masca, where Jay's phone last pinged. Mirror journalist Patrick Hill, who followed Jay's last steps out on the island, said cactus, trees, shrubs and a myriad of other undergrowth all make the area extremely difficult to move through, even for experts wearing walking boots and armed with trekking poles. He also described hairpin turns, narrow paths and perilously dangerous sheer drops waiting to fall even the most experienced of hikers.

Photos from the scene where the body was found showed the area to be desolate, with the only signs of life a signpost telling people how close the next town away is. Other images showed a barren path with a small area of grass hiding the dramatic fall just inches from the road.

In the week before the news broke of human remains, frustrated Warren even said it would take an army 10 years to search all of the rugged mountainous terrain. The dad-of-two said: "I've been through 80 percent of that valley, so we went further along. We've drove and we've walked down the path at the next village, up the mountain there's a viewpoint that looks down, you can either follow the road, but we didn't, we parked up and walked down."

He said when they reached the end of the path there was a sheer drop down a cliff edge. Like the expert volunteers who were helping the family in the search, Warren could not understand why Jay would leave the road to enter the dense shrubbery. He probed: "It doesn't make sense, he's either hid himself, but why would he hide himself? Or he's just ….?"

Warren added: "We've done the valley where his ping was, we've gone up the road to a vantage point, there's cliffs there and there's a valley and a village there." He said he didn't understand why anyone would attempt to hike through the brambles and cacti when there was a rough path there. "All I'm thinking is common sense, would you try and walk through there? Where we’ve been today you can see there’s a hikers path with proper stones.

"We've gone straight down and you end up in the village." In the valley where they first searched was a small cave just off the path and also a dilapidated stone building halfway down the track with women's clothes in it - and also a bottle of water which he could have picked up.

"I'd go into the first building you see," Warren commented. "An ideal spot for shelter is that little cave isn't it, get a bit of shade, you're hungover, get your head down in there. The police are convinced that's where his last ping were". He also questioned why no-one had seen his son walking along the twisting mountain road in a popular tourist spot.

"From the B&B, he's a fit lad, 25 minutes you can get to the top, to where the cafe is. If he's followed the road and been where we've been today, it's took him an hour and a half. Dozens of cars would have gone past him. We got here at 9am and the 10am bus passed us. And it would have passed him. I've been up here three weeks and I've never seen as many cars."

One of the local experts who took part in the search was Christopher Pennington, a former British military serviceman who moved out to Tenerife in 2006 after 'falling in love' with the Canary Island. Speaking to Mail+, Chris said he believed that after Jay hurriedly left the holiday rental, he may have veered off down the ravine, thinking the coast was closer than it actually was.

Entering the bushes, Chris explained how difficult it is to walk through the sharp shrubbery. With his hands cut and scraped, he admitted that he could barely see two meters ahead of him. Dripping with sweat in the sweltering heat, he said: "You can only imagine that he's looked down at the coastline in the distance and thinks it's a lot closer than it really is. And that heading straight through the bush is the quickest route to safety."

However after coming off-road into the surrounding underbrush, Chris also questioned why the teen wouldn't change course and return to the path with safer walking conditions. "If Jay came off the path and went through there, like I've just done, he wouldn't leave the path again. You'd have to be mad."

Locals in the village of Masca noted similar disappearances in the area, usually involving hikers who get lost. Speaking to The Independent, one woman, identified only by her first name, Anita, said: "We often have hikers go missing, every summer it is the same. Police come for a week and search and then they go – sometimes it can take months for a body to be found as the mountains are too difficult to search.

"People have said there was a sighting of him here, but no one knows anything – his family came here but there's nothing to show he is here, as far as I know, no shop or cafe has seen him."

'Worried about his safety'

TV detective Mark Williams-Thomas suggested a theory as to why Jay chose not to wait for a lift back from the Airbnb to where he was staying. He was driven to the rental property in Masca by Ayub Qassim, 31, also known as 'Johnny Vegas', and another man.

Qassim said Jay was alive when he left the Airbnb to return to his accommodation in Los Cristianos but it's believed that he missed his bus, which would have taken almost two hours, and chose to walk. Mr Williams-Thomas, who was conducting his own investigation, talked to Mr Qassim and said that the Brit told him that he offered to drive Jay back the morning after the rave in Playa de las Americas.

Speaking to MailOnline , Mr Williams-Thomas said Jay declined a lift and added: "Qassim said to him 'Chill, mate, I'll drop you off later when I wake up,' but he said Jay said, 'Nah, I need some scran, I'm hungry'." Jay reportedly told Qassim that a woman informed him that buses to his accommodation ran every 10 minutes.

Qassim allegedly responded that there weren't any buses and added: "Do what you like," before falling asleep again. In a further update, the detective then raised concerns that Jay was 'clearly worried about his own safety' when he exited the rental property.

The TV sleuth, 54, said: "We know now that Jay took certain actions while at the rental because he was clearly worried about his own safety. This was shortly before he decided to leave." He continued: "In the last few days I received a significant new piece of information which I shared with both the British and Spanish police.

"This provides some clarity as to why he may have left in a hurry and did not want to return to the rental even though his phone was about to go flat." He went on to claim that Jay had 'posted a Snapchat saying that he'd taken a £12,000 Rolex from a person'. Williams-Thomas continued: "We've been unable to validate this in terms of a reported theft. However, friends of Jay said he would not make this up and the watch was subject of later conversation between the friends."

In his final phone call to friend Lucy Law, who had travelled out to Tenerife with Jay, she revealed that he had "cut his leg on a cactus" in an interview with Sky News. And in a call with best mate Bradley Hargreaves, moments before his phone battery died, the teen revealed that he could hear Jay's feet slide on the rocks, signaling to him his friend had gone "off the road.. That's how I knew he went off the road because, you know when you walk on gravel, or whatever it is, you can... you know what I mean, stones."

Brad explained: "He was on the phone walking down a road and he'd gone over a little bit - not a big drop - but a tiny little drop and he was going down, and he said 'I'll ring ya back, I'll ring ya back' because I think someone else was ringing him. If he was thinking like me, he would have gone back up and started walking on the path again… He wouldn't have gone all that way down there."