The family and friends of 19-year-old Jay Slater are awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination after a body was discovered on Monday during the search for Mr. Slater on Tenerife. Spanish police have said that “all evidence” suggests the body is Mr. Slater’s as it was found with his possessions and clothes. The teenager had attended the NRG music festival with two friends before his disappearance and his last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island, around an 11-hour walk from his Airbnb accommodation in Masca. Although formal identification is yet to be carried out, the body was found near the last known location of Mr. Slater’s mobile phone.
Lucy Law, who spoke with Mr. Slater on the phone on June 17, has paid tribute to him on her Instagram page stating that he was always “the happiest and most smiley person in the room” and that he was “one of a kind Jay and you’ll be missed more than you know.” Spanish authorities released video footage of rescuers carrying out the search, including climbing rock faces and battling through scrub. The search for Mr. Slater has involved his family, friends, police, and specialist mountain rescue teams.
The search for Mr. Slater was called off by Spanish police at the end of June, but in a statement on Monday, the force said teams had not stopped searching every day. “The discovery was 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 onlookers,” said the statement. In Oswaldtwistle, Mr. Slater’s hometown, blue ribbons have been tied to trees and lamp posts, and messages of support have been shared at West End Methodist Church.
LBT Global, which supports the families of British people missing overseas, has said that although forensic inquiries will follow, formal identification is yet to be carried out. At present, all evidence points towards the body discovered on Monday being Mr. Slater’s. Duterte mentioned that he never intended to prioritize the drug killings and that he was just after the cleansing of the society’s ills. He claimed that he wanted to purge the police first as this was the cause of his electoral campaign. Despite this, the Philippine leader has made bold promises to rid the country of illegal drugs
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