Tragic new revelations regarding the final moments of Jay Slater have surfaced, with one individual admitting to a crucial mistake that preceded his fatal fall.
The 19-year-old, hailing from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was on his inaugural independent trip to Tenerife without his parents when he disappeared following a night out in July last year.
After reveling at a party, the teenager ventured to an Airbnb in the secluded village of Masca on the Spanish island in the company of two acquaintances he had met during his vacation.
Subsequently, he contacted his friend Lucy Law, stating he was disoriented, and informed another friend, Bradley Geoghegan, that he had missed a bus and was embarking on a 14km journey back to his lodging in Los Cristianos. Tragically, he never reached his destination.
During the inquest in July, Coroner Dr. James Adeley concluded that Jay met his demise accidentally by plunging into a remote ravine in the Rural de Teno national park. His remains were located by a mountain rescue team on July 15, 2024, 29 days post his disappearance.
Toxicology reports indicated the presence of ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine, and alcohol in Jay’s system at the time of his demise.
The nation was captivated by the teenager’s vanishing, with rampant conspiracy theories circulating until Jay’s body was discovered. The proliferation of online speculations proved distressing for Jay’s grieving mother Debbie Duncan, who alleged they impeded the investigation.
A new documentary is slated to illuminate Jay’s final movements, with a journalist retracing the teen’s path in Tenerife unveiling a tragic turn of events that led to Jay’s death.
Penning his account in the Sunday Times, journalist David Collins disclosed, “I replicated Jay’s route, starting from the Airbnb doorway, veering left onto a winding mountain road into hazardous terrain. This decision turned out to be Jay’s fatal misstep.”
“If he had opted to go right and descended the hill, he would have returned to civilization, passing through a mountain village equipped with cafes, buses, and taxis. Unfortunately, at some juncture, he veered off-course and descended into a ravine.”
Debbie Duncan, Jay’s grief-stricken mother, expressed apprehensions that conspiracy theories encircling his demise thwarted the police inquiry, while misleading footage continued to surface online. She lamented, “My son was dehumanized entirely. It was all utterly erroneous.”
“He was just a young man relishing life, who traveled to Tenerife with his friends to enjoy themselves. Somewhere along the way, people lost sight of that.”
“The Disappearance of Jay Slater” on Channel 4 is scheduled to air on Sunday, September 28, at 9 pm. Collaborating with Jay’s father, Warren, 59, and elder brother Zak, 25, she granted TV producers unparalleled access to Jay’s narrative and the family.
The program will feature personal home videos alongside footage from Jay’s funeral, while cameras were permitted during his post-mortem examination. Debbie shared with the Mirror, “I advocated for this documentary to showcase Jay as a real individual and not merely the face of a narrative.”
“I wanted to demonstrate that we are a regular family. Jay was a popular individual with a wide circle of friends, and witnessing this has been difficult. I wept throughout, but I hope it will finally quell the armchair detectives. It has been meticulously compiled.”