Body present in Jay Slater search ‘very deteriorated’ and will not be ID’d this week
Officials in Tenerife say the body recovered near the spot where Jay Slater went missing was “very deteriorated” and it is unlikely full identification will happen until “next week”.
The 19-year-old went missing on June 17 after attending the three-day NRG Festival in Tenerife. Yesterday (July 15), human remains were discovered in an “inaccessible area” of Masca, close to where the teenager’s phone last pinged. While formal identification is yet to place, officers say the body was found with Jay’s possessions and clothes.
It comes after the Civil Guard say they carried out an “incessant and discreet search” away from “curious onlookers” – despite announcing they’d called their search off after 12 days. And now a court in the town of Icod de los Vinos, which covers the area of Masca where the body was found, is in charge of the ongoing investigation.
READ MORE: Grim discovery of ‘lifeless body of a young man’ found in inaccessible area of Tenerife
Click here for the latest news from the Daily Star
![The body won't be identified for at least a week](https://i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk/incoming/article33254964.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/1_INSTAGRAM.jpg)
(Image: Instagram)
But they say documentation the dead man was carrying was the teenager’s and everything is pointing to an accidental fall. In their first comments so far since the grim police discovery yesterday officials representing the female 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 etiology. 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.”
![The body was found during a search yesterday](https://i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk/incoming/article33254965.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_Screenshot-2024-07-15-at-173310.jpg)
(Image: Guardia Civil)
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity as is normal in Spain, said: “The court is saying the official identification will not be known until next week.”
The 29-day search for apprentice bricklayer Jay, 19, came to an end yesterday around 10am. A helicopter was called in to recover his body.
The large-scale police search in the mountains near Masca had been suspended around two weeks after he disappeared on June 17, but mountain rescue police specialists had continued with a smaller search on a daily basis.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.