Jay Slater's sad final moments uncovered by harrowing autopsy detail

The search for missing teen Jay Slater came to a devastating end for his family when police discovered his 'lifeless body'.

For four weeks, Spanish police searched within the depths of the unforgiving terrain of Parque Rural de Teno nature reserve in Tenerife, close to where the 19-year-old's phone last pinged. His mom Debbie Duncan , dad Warren Slater, and older brother Zak all helped in the desperate bid to find their 'beautiful son' but it was tragically too late.

The apprentice bricklayer , from Lancashire, had vanished on his first holiday abroad with pals. He had partied at the three-day NRG musical festival before extending his night out with two British men. In the early hours of June 17, he headed to their Airbnb in the remote village of Masca.

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Shortly before 9am on that fateful Monday, he had left the holiday rental and set out to walk back to his accommodation in the south of the island, believed to be an 11-hour trek after missing the local bus. He warned his friends, who he had been staying with, that he was thirsty and had no clue where he was, shortly before his phone died.

Mountain rescue teams combed through the dense vegetation and steep ravines in scorching temperatures and eventually, on Monday, July 15, Spanish police confirmed that a young man's body had been discovered in a ravine near a phone mast, along with Jay's clothes and possessions. Fingerprints later confirmed it was Jay however as the body was 'very deteriorated', efforts have now turned to determining exactly how he died.

A preliminary autopsy found that Jay likely died following a catastrophic fall, with the pathologist finding that he'd suffered several broken bones. A Civil Guard spokesman stated: "The body of the man located yesterday has bee n identified of that as Jay Slater through fingerprint comparison and identification. The result of the preliminary autopsy points to the cause of death being a fall or plunge from height due to the broken bones he suffered."

In a statement issued through charity LBT Global, Mr Slater's mother Debbie Duncan said: "I just can't believe this could happen to my beautiful boy. Our hearts are broken." The mom-of-two, 55, described it as "the worst news" as she was with British Embassy staff waiting for the latest update. She added: "I just can't believe it".

The Mail Online reports that those close to Jay's have found some 'very small comfort' from the likelihood that his death had been instantaneous. Meanwhile, former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who assisted with the search, shed some light on how easy it would have been to fall in such 'dangerous terrain'.

The sleuth, who previously worked on the case of Nicola Bulley, previously told the Mirror: "The area where the body was found 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 how treacherous and dangerous it is - a slip or loss of footing would prove fatal."

The insight came after Jay's best friend Brad Hargreaves previously revealed details of their final phone call during Jay's fatal walk. The teen, also from Lancashire, said he believed Jay would have avoided going down the road he had mentioned during their phone call as he speculated the teen would have taken a safer path.

Brad revealed that he could hear Jay's feet slide on the rocks, signalling to him his friend had "went 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."

When probed into whether he was concerned at this point, Brad replied: "Not at the time because we were both laughing and he said, 'Look where I am' and I was like, 'I've just come out of a festival' and he didn't seem concerned on the phone until we knew how far away he was. I said, 'Put your location on and he said 'a 15 minute drive or a 14 hour walk, I don't know if it's accurate or not' and I said, 'If it's only a 15 minute drive, get a taxi'."