Human remains found in search for missing Jay Slater
Jay Slater, 19, went missing after travelling to Tenerife to attend a festival with friends
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Topics: UK News, News, World News, Jay Slater
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: UK News, News, World News, Jay Slater
Human remains have been found in the search for the missing teen Jay Slater, police have announced.
The British teen, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, had gone to Tenerife with two friends for the NRG music festival.
One of the friends Jay travelled with, Lucy, said he went back to stay with people he had met on a night out on 16 June.
According to his friend, Jay had ended up in an apartment in the 'middle of nowhere'.
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Lucy told the Manchester Evening News: "He's gone on a night out, he's gone to a friend's house, someone that he has met on holiday.
"One of the people he has met has hired a car out of here, so he's driven them back to his apartment and Jay has gone there not realising how far away it is.
"He's ended up out in the middle of nowhere. Jay was obviously thinking he would be able to get home from there.
"But then in the morning he's set off walking, using his Maps on his phone and ended up in the middle of mountains with nothing around.
"He rang me at about 8 o'clock [in the] morning saying his phone was on one percent, he said "I don't know where I am, I need a drink and my phone is about to die"."
His last known location on 17 June displayed as the Rural de Teno National Park, north west of the island - a popular hiking spot.
Lucy added that police had sent mountain rescue teams to the area that day, and had spoken to the people Jay was staying with, who informed them that he had left their apartment at around 8am to ‘catch a bus’.
In a new update, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard said today (15 July): “After 29 constant days of searching the lifeless body of a young man has been found in the Masca area.
"The discovery has been possible thanks to the tireless and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard over these 29 days.
“Everything is pointing to the body being that of the young British man who disappeared on June 17, pending full identification. Initial inquiries are pointing to him having suffered an accident/fall in the area where he was found.”
Earlier this month, Spanish police confirmed that the official search for the Lancashire-born teenager had come to an end.
The case remained open, with a Civil Guard spokesperson informing Reuters of ‘several lines of investigation’.
Jay's mother, Debbie Duncan, previously said the family were left ‘absolutely devastated’ by his disappearance, saying he is just a ‘normal guy’ who is in his third year of an apprenticeship.
She followed up earlier this month and addressed conspiracy theories.
Debbie said: "Words cannot describe the pain and agony we are experiencing.
"He is our beautiful boy with his whole life ahead of him and we just want to find him. We do not have any information on his whereabouts."
She continued: "Although the land search ended, the Spanish police still continue with their investigations into why Jay had travelled to the location so far away from his accommodation.
"We offer our sincere thanks to the Spanish authorities who continue to follow lines of inquiries.
"We would like to say to the press/news/reporters, that although we do not want to lose the momentum of Jay’s disappearance, we really would like to maintain our privacy and crucially let the Spanish police get on with their investigations without hindrance from press."
Following his disappearance, a spokesperson for the Foreign Office told Tyla in a statement: "We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities."
Tyla has contacted the Foreign Office for further comment.