A body believed to be that of British teenager Jay Slater has been found a month after his disappearance in Tenerife.
The local civil guard said on Monday they had found a “lifeless body of a young man after 29 days of constant search”.
“All indications are that it could be the young British man who has been missing since 17 June, in the absence of full identification,” their statement said.
The 19-year-old’s disappearance sparked a huge search effort – with the emergency services, local volunteers, and Mr Slater’s family combing a large mountainous area of the island in search of clues.
Here is a timeline of his disappearance.
Sunday, 16 June
Jay Slater attends the NRG music festival in south Tenerife while on holiday with a group of friends.
After the festival, he travels to the northwestern mountain village of Masca with two people he had met earlier in his holiday.
Pic: Reuters
Monday, 17 June
8am: Local Ofelia Medina Hernandez is the last person to speak to Mr Slater, telling him the bus back to his holiday accommodation is due at around 10am when he asks her.
He tells her he will walk instead. She later drives past him “walking fast”.
8.15am: His friend, Lucy Law, receives a phone call from him saying he has got lost and only has 1% phone battery.
She says he tells her he will attempt to walk the 11-hour journey back from the village of Masca to his accommodation in Los Cristianos.
8.50am: Phone data reveals his last known location – the Rural de Teno park – a mountainous area popular with hikers.
9.04am: He is reported missing to police.
The property where Mr Slater is believed to have been last seen
Tuesday, 18 June
Jay Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, and his brother, Zak Slater, arrive in Tenerife. Ms Duncan makes a Facebook appeal to find him.
The civil guard confirms a search party has been deployed.
Pic:Europa Press/AP
Thursday, 20 June
A GoFundMe page entitled ‘Get Jay Slater Home’ is launched to help raise money for Mr Slater’s family while in Tenerife looking for him.
An appeal poster for Jay Slater. Pic: PA
Monday 24 June
The family share a blurry image they say is him on CCTV around 10 hours after he was reported missing.
The construction firm PH Build, where Mr Slater was an apprentice bricklayer, says it was forced to delete a post appealing for information about him due to “negative comments and conspiracy theories”.
The post read: “Jay is a valued member of our team. We stand by him. He is a 19-year-old lad missing in a foreign country he needs to be back home where he belongs.”
Tuesday, 25 June
Specialist search dogs are drafted in by the civil guard from Madrid to help with the search.
A sniffer dog assists the civil guard search. Pic: Reuters
Thursday, 27 June
Mr Slater’s mother says the family has asked GoFundMe if they can withdraw some of the some £36,000 raised through the online fundraiser.
Jay Slater and his mother Debbie Duncan. Pic: Lucy Law
Friday 28, June
Jay Slater’s friend Brad appears on ITV’s This Morning and claims he video-called him after he went missing and saw him fall down a hill slightly. He describes seeing him “gone over a little bit – not a big drop – but a tiny little drop”.
He says he didn’t think anything of it, adding: “We were both laughing and he said, ‘Look where I am’ and I was like, ‘I’ve just come out of a festival’ and he didn’t seem concerned on the phone until we knew how far away he was.”
Saturday, 29 June
After a public appeal for help, between 30 and 40 volunteers and rescue workers go on a fresh search, scouring a huge area of rugged and hilly terrain.
Local police say the two men Mr Slater left the festival with are “not relevant” to their investigation.
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Helicopter searches for Jay Slater
Sunday, 30 June
Local police say they are calling off the search, but will follow up any new leads that emerge.
Saturday, 6 July
The civil guard says the Slater family is welcome to employ their own search teams after a row over Britons turning up in Tenerife to help.
Monday, 15 July
The civil guard issues a statement saying they have found human remains.
It reads: “The mountain rescue and intervention group of the Civil Guard has located the lifeless body of a young man in the Masca area after 29 days of constant search.
“Given the complexity of the case, the discovery has been 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 curious onlookers.
“All evidence indicates that it could be the young British man who has been missing since June 17 in the absence of full identification.
“The first investigations reveal that he could have suffered an accident fall in the inaccessible area where he was found. We are awaiting the results of the autopsy.”
A further statement from missing person’s foundation the Lucie Blackman Trust reads: “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.”
