Video exhibits groups scouring rocky terrain in seek for Jay Slater

Human remains were discovered in the ravine where Jay Slater’s mobile phone lost reception 29 days ago by rescuers who had been carrying out a ‘secret’ search for the missing teen. 

The 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, vanished on the morning of June 17 on the Spanish holiday island of Tenerife, prompting a huge search to try and find him.

Spanish police called off the official search after 13 days, but today announced they had discovered a body. While a formal identification has not yet taken place, officers say that ‘everything is pointing to it being’ Slater. 

Video released by police today shows how mountain rescue experts scoured through ‘inaccessible’ and dense terrain, scaled rock faces and picked their way through scrub and thick undergrowth as they carried out the search.

Footage of the area shows a ravine surrounded by steep cliffs and jagged mountain slopes. Video also showed two members of the search team being winched out of the area by helicopter after the body had been found and recovered. 

Tenerife’s Guardia Civil said on Monday that the ‘discovery has been possible thanks to the tireless and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard over these 29 days’.

Police today released footage showing the final moments of the agonising 29-day search for Slater.

Rescuers were seen climbing rock faces and battling through scrub as they carried out the search.

Part of the clip shows two members of the search team being winched out of the area by helicopter after the body had been found and recovered.

One rescuer was making frantic hand signals and appeared to be attached to another search team member. 

The Spanish Civil Guard said the body was discovered in a very remote area near the village of Masca. 

The search for Slater had been carried out ‘under a secrecy order from the court in charge of the investigation’, LBC reported.

Officials had been ‘carrying on with the search, unbeknownst to anyone’ in a bid to stop internet sleuths from searching themselves.

The body was found in an ‘inaccessible’ part of the island, which the BBC says is part of the reason it ‘took so long to find any evidence’.

The terrain is described as ‘dense’ and is understood to be full of uneven ground and shrubland. There is also no sign of any emergency services in the nearby village. 

Formal identification has not yet taken place, but the remains were found with Slater’s clothes and possessions near his last known location, missing persons charity LBT Global has said. 

An autopsy will be performed later this week ‘to confirm that the death was accidental’.

The force said Slater could have fallen in the steep and inaccessible area where he was discovered. 

Police have been asked for more information following the release of the images.

A Civil Guard spokesman said of the footage: ‘These are images from this morning relating to the search and discovery near Masca, carried out from the ground by officers of the Civil Guard Mountain Rescue Intervention team.’

A helicopter – believed to belong to a regional government emergency and rescue group – was used to recover the body using a winch because the ground was so steep, with officials coordinating with Civil Guard mountain rescue experts.

It is thought specialists on the ground winched the body up to the waiting helicopter overhead after securing it. They also found possessions and clothes belonging to the teenager.

Spanish police called off the search for the apprentice bricklayer at the end of June after helicopters, drones and search dogs were deployed to find him.

But in its 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,’ its statement read.

‘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.’

In a fuller statement the force added: ‘Officers of the Civil Guard belonging to the Mountain Rescue and Intervention Group (GREIM) have located this morning the dead body of a young man in the area of Masca, belonging to the municipality of Buenavista del Norte.

‘All indications suggest that it could be the young British man who had been missing for 29 days, who may have died due to an accidental fall in the rough and inaccessible area where he was found.

‘Thanks to the unceasing and constant search carried out by the different units of the Civil Guard, in which it has not stopped to look for the young man every day in the area of Masca, where he allegedly had disappeared the GREIM officers have found the dead body of the young person in a very inaccessible area.

‘The results of the autopsy are awaiting confirmation that it is an accident.’

GREIM officers led the search after Jay disappeared on June 17 after he left an Airbnb in Masca.

Visible searches involving helicopter and sniffer dogs continued for nearly two weeks before police announced it was being halted.

Police said on June 30 after calling in volunteers for a ‘last push search’ a day earlier: ‘The search operation has now finished although the case remains open.’

A well-placed source added at the time: ‘The daily operation which has been going on in and around Masca close to where Jay was last seen has been brought to an end.

‘If any information comes in that merits a new search though it will be acted upon.

‘My understanding is Jay’s parents have been informed of what obviously is a major development.

‘Nothing of any relevance was found during yesterday’s large-scale search.’

LBT Global, which supports the families of British people missing overseas, said: ‘LBT Global is saddened to announce that a body found in Tenerife does look to be that of Jay Slater. It is understood the body was found close to the site of his mobile phone’s last location.

‘Although formal identification is yet to be carried out, the body was found with Mr Slater’s possessions and clothes.

‘A post-mortem examination and forensic enquiries will follow.

‘LBT Global are supporting the family at this distressing time and ask for everyone to afford them space and privacy to come to terms with the news.’

Slater 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, which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.

He was last seen by a local resident in Masca in north-west Tenerife just after 8am on June 17 walking northwards along the road out of the village after stopping to ask her for directions as he tried to get back to his accommodation in southern Tenerife.

His phone last pinged near to a look-out point where search teams gathered on June 29 to begin the last day of the operation.

Slater had travelled to an Airbnb in Masca after a night out, but the two men said to have rented the property were later ruled ‘not relevant’ to the case.

After leaving the Airbnb at around 8am, Slater started trying to walk back to his accommodation in the southern part of the island.

The teenager then called a friend to say he was lost, severely dehydrated and only had one per cent battery on his phone.

His family endured conspiracy theories, wild speculation and ‘awful comments’ being posted online – through platforms such as TikTok – during the search, but supporters had raised £50,000 to help fund the hunt for the teenager. 

Slater’s mother Debbie Duncan had yesterday criticised the ‘awful comments and conspiracy theories’ posted on social media, which she branded ‘vile’ and said were ‘hindering’ the investigation.

Duncan yesterday posted an update on the GoFundMe page set up for her son’s search, which has raised more than £53,000. 

She revealed how the family had called in rescue experts from the Netherlands to help find the teenager after Spanish police ceased their land search.

In a statement posted on the GoFundMe page, Duncan thanked the 4,300 people who had donated for their ‘kindness’ and said the family were ‘only able to fund this with the generosity of all those who donated’.

She said: ‘As you all know the Guardia Civil gave up the land search after 12 days. We have been actively working with search and rescue teams and we can now confirm that we have a team of experts flying in over the weekend from the Netherlands, who will carry on the search with their specialist dogs.

‘We are only able to fund this with the generosity of all those who donated. The team are the Signi Zoekhondon and this has taken lots of planning to get them over so thank you so much for your kindness.’

Turning to comments from trolls, Duncan said: ‘He is a loving son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend to so many.

‘We have been inundated with requests for interviews, documentaries and even as far as a movie. In reality, we are just a normal family from Lancashire desperate to find our beautiful boy.’

Lancashire Police said in a statement: ‘We have today (Monday 15 July) been notified by the Guardia Civil [Civil Guard] that they have found the body of a man and that the indications are that this is Jay Slater,’ the statement says.

‘While at this stage no formal identification has been carried out our thoughts are very much with Jay’s family at this time, and we continue to offer them our support.’