A post-mortem examination has confirmed that a body found by Spanish rescuers on the island of Tenerife on Monday is that of missing British teenager Jay Slater.
A court spokesman reportedly confirmed that fingerprints taken from the body matched those of a missing 19-year-old man from Lancashire.
He went missing four weeks ago after attending a music festival on the island and was last seen walking alone in a remote area in the north of the island, near the village of Masca.
The court said that from the injuries on his body it was inferred that the cause of his death was an accidental fall.
“We now have a positive identification and further data. Fingerprint testing has revealed that the body [that] “Mr Jay Slater’s death was due to traumatic injuries sustained as a result of a fall from rocky terrain,” the Canary Islands’ High Court said in a statement.
Mr Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, said in a statement that confirmation of his death was “the worst news”.
“I can’t believe this has happened to my beautiful son,” she added. “Our hearts are broken.”
Slater had been staying with a group of friends on the coast and had been attending the NRG music festival in the nearby resort town of Playa de las Americas.
He left the festival with two men and headed to an Airbnb in the remote Rural de Teno National Park, about an 11-hour walk from where he was staying.
At about 8:30 a.m. on June 17, Slater called his friend Lucy Law, who had attended the festival but had left before him, to tell her he was lost, thirsty and his phone had only 1% battery.
Responding to the news that the body found was Slater’s, Law posted on Instagram: “Honestly, I’m at a loss for words. Always the happiest and most smiling person in the room, Jay, you were one of a kind and I will truly miss you.”
The Guardia Civil said a mountain rescue team had found Mr Slater’s body during a ground search, exactly four weeks after he went missing.
Tenerife El Dia Newspaper The area where the body was found was reportedly difficult to access and had to be retrieved by helicopter, and rescuers continued to search the bush on Tuesday to ensure they had not missed anything.
