Jay Slater’s household make plans for teen’s physique to be flown again to UK
Jay Slater’s family are making heartbreaking plans to privately fly home from Tenerife with his body, it has been revealed.
But the teenager’s loved ones are having to wait for his body to be formally released by the Spanish authorities following a post mortem into his death.
Matt Searle, the boss of British overseas missing persons charity LBT Global, who is working closely with Jay’s parents Debbie Duncan and Warren Slater confirmed they were also making plans for his funeral.
A preliminary autopsy revealed the apprentice bricklayer had suffered broken bones after he fell from height near the village of Masca on the holiday island’s western coast.
Mr Searle, who has been helping the family since Jay’s disappearance on June 17, told the BBC: ‘Debbie has told me if she is not doing something she will just fall apart.’
Yesterday, tearful mourners gathered in the teenager’s hometown of Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, last night to honour the 19-year-old whose body was found in a ravine close to his last known location.
It comes as:
Jay Slater’s body was found on Monday after he disappeared almost a month ago on June 17
Jay pictured with his mother Debbie Duncan
Yesterday tearful mourners gathered in Jay’s hometown of Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, where they released blue balloons in his memory
As Jay’s heartbroken parents begin planning for his funeral, friends and family gathered outside the West End Methodist Church, near to his family home, to say their goodbyes.
Blue ribbons were seen throughout the streets, before mourners released balloons into the air with messages that read ‘fly high Jay’ and ‘you’ll be missed’ tied on.
Flowers and messages to loved ones were left outside the book, while inside those grieving lit candles and signed a book of condolences.
The service took place with the blessing from Jay’s mother who requested for two songs to played, including Birdy’s Wings and Forever Young – which was played at her father’s funeral.
Throughout the service, Minister Smith, said according to ITV: ‘We come together to support each other. Weeks ago I shared a passage with you, ‘a light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it’.
‘Today it might feel that the darkness has overcome us but today we also stand together and say that we will remember Jay. His light will never go out. We will remember him.’
‘Debbie and family are going up the mountain tonight and they are going to lay some flowers in memory of Jay’, the minister added.
Balloons released from West End Methodist Church yesterday as a vigil was held for Jay
Jay Slater pictured with his mother Debbie Duncan
Amongst those at the vigil was Jay’s old football coach Pam Kierons. She told Lancashire Live: ‘I’m devastated for the family, devastated for Debbie. The outcome is not what anyone wanted, but at least they can bring his body home.
‘It’s disgusting that people have dug into past issues and come up with crazy conspiracy theories. Sadly the most likely thing to have happened has happened.’
Family friend Brian Ozenbrook told Sky: ‘We’d always hoped he’d be found alive. There was always a chance he would be found alive and today we found out that isn’t. That really upsets me, it’s just sad.’
Following the coroner’s confirmation that the body found belonged to Jay, a spokesperson for his mother said: ‘Formal identification of Jay’s body will be done using a DNA sample provided by the family to the Spanish Guardia Civil during the early stages of the search.
‘Debbie has said she wants to see him one last time. Obviously that’s a personal choice but given he’s been there the best part of a month in those conditions, I’m not sure that’s a memory she will want.’
Mr Searle, who remains in Tenerife with Jay’s family, added in a statement: ‘There will of course be many more hurdles for the family to face in the coming days and we will work with them to make this horrific time as easy as possible.
Jay’s father Warren Slater and brother Zak pictured during a search and rescue last month
Volunteers searching for Jay Slater in the rural regions near Masca at the end of last month
Jay was found dead at around 10am on Monday July 15 after almost a month of searching by Spanish authorities
‘We are working with the family now to sort out the next steps of taking Jay home, recovery of his belongings and laying him to rest.
‘We will not be releasing details of travel timings or funeral arrangements at this time and ask again for privacy for the family.’ I ask now that this is the end of all the hurtful comments on social media and elsewhere.’
Mr Searle spoke out after the discovery of the apprentice bricklayer’s body at the bottom of the Baranco Juan Lopez ravine in the north of the Spanish holiday island on Monday morning following a four week search.
The ravine is less than two miles from the road where the teenager was last seen after he set off on foot on an 11 hour walk back to his hotel.
Spanish officials said the teenager’s death was a result of ‘trauma consistent with a fall in a rocky area’.
The High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands added that Jay’s possession were found alongside his body which was identified by fingerprints.
Jay vanished on June 17 following a night out when he attended the final day of the NRG music festival at Papagayo night club in the resort of Playa de las Americas.
Spanish police released footage showing officers searching the area in the hours before they found a body. They had continued a ‘discreet search’ away from ‘curious onlookers’
Mr Searle also slammed ‘armchair detectives’ and ‘so-called experts’ who had been ‘making a name for themselves’ with outlandish theories about what had happened to Jay since his disappearance.
He told the BBC that he would be raising the issue with the Home Secretary, as online sleuths had hampered the search for the missing teen.
Mr Searle said: ‘If someone is missing, what parents will do is sit there and try to find every bit of information online, and there’s been all this stuff that’s been so hurtful for them.
‘But as well as the parents, all this has a huge impact on the investigation.
‘It’s been unprecedented, and I think it has to stop. This behaviour is just not fair for the authorities or practitioners like ourselves, but most of all it’s not fair for the families who are going through the worst time ever.’
The CEO added: ‘I’ve been in this job for over 20 years and I have worked on thousands of cases and I have never seen anything like this level.
‘It seems like it’s ramped up recently and it’s something I feel passionately about, something I am going to be talking to the Home Secretary about in the coming weeks.’
A body found in the hunt for Jay Slater has now been confirmed as the missing teenager, a court spokesperson said
Part of the clip shows two members of the search team (pictured) being winched out of the area by helicopter after the body (not pictured) had been found and recovered
A 13-day search by police using drones, dogs and a helicopter failed to find any trace of Jay
Jay vanished after he left his friends and went off with two men who drove him back to their Airbnb accommodation on the outskirts of the village of Masca, around 20 miles away.
While in the car, he sent a Snapchat message to his friends boasting that he had just stolen a £12,000 Rolex watch from a reveller and was going to sell it for £10,000.
He later shared a photo on his Snapchat account, which showed him standing at the doorway of a house shortly after 7am.
Around an hour later he called his friend Lucy Law, telling her that he was ‘lost in the mountains with one per cent battery and no water’ and had missed a bus back south to his accommodation in Los Cristianos.
He claimed he had set off on foot to try and get back to his hotel, despite it being around 11 hours away.
Jay’s friend Brad Hargreaves, who went on holiday with him and flew back last week, paid a poignant tribute on Instagram on Monday
Jay Slater’s best friend Lucy Law (right) posted an emotional message to the ‘happiest and most smiley person’ after a body was found near where his phone last pinged
MailOnline later found a witness who revealed that he had walked north out of the village, instead of taking the winding road south towards Los Cristianos.
Local residents have speculated that he may have decided that it might have been quicker for him to find the coast and walk back along it, rather than trek along the winding road back through the mountains.
They have claimed that he may have left the road and headed down a track into the Juan Lopez valley after catching a glimpse of the sea in the distance.
But he would have found the path coming to an abrupt end after half a mile, leading to him scrambling down a slope before reaching rocky outcrops at the end of the valley nearest the coastline.
It is believed that Jay fell into a ravine with steep cliffs either side of him while trying to walk along a high ridge to reach the coast.
But even if he had made it the sea after climbing over the rocks, he would not have been able to easily walk along the coast from the spot because most of the coastline is cliffs.
