Jay Slater’s family are arranging to travel back to the UK from Tenerife with his body.
The body was discovered on Monday, close to the last known location of the missing teenager, and a preliminary post-mortem exam revealed it to be that of Mr Slater.
The Spanish Civil Guard said it was likely that the 19-year-old, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, fell into a rocky area.
Matthew Searle, from LBT Global, a charity that provides crisis support for British families overseas, said it was working with the family to organise the return of Mr Slater’s remains to the UK.
Mr Searle told the BBC Mr Slater’s parents were making plans for his repatriation and funeral. He said: “[Mr Slater’s mother] has told me if she is not doing something she will just fall apart.”
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Canary Islands High Court of Justice said: “We have positively identified him. We can confirm from fingerprints that the body is that of Jay Slater, and the death was due to polytrauma compatible with a fall in a rocky zone.”
Polytrauma is a medical term that describes multiple fractures and injuries to body organs. It is consistent with injuries sustained by falling onto rocks and hard terrain.
Following the discovery, Debbie Duncan, Mr Slater’s 55-year-old mother, said in a statement: “I just can’t believe it. We’re here with the embassy staff waiting for an update, and now it’s come – the worst news. I just can’t believe this could happen to my beautiful boy. Our hearts are broken.”
A family source told The Sun that Ms Duncan was “completely devastated” upon hearing that her son’s body had been recovered.
Mr Slater, a 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer disappeared on June 17 on the island of Tenerife, which he had been visiting with friends to attend the NRG music festival.
He left the festival between 3am and 6am on Sunday, June 16, in the car of two other British men he had met that night, spending it at an Airbnb property they had rented near Masca, on the island’s west side.
The cottage’s owner, Ofelia Medina Hernández, saw Mr Slater outside at around 8am the following morning. After she told him that the next bus to Los Cristianos, the resort in the south of the island where he was staying, was two hours away, Mr Slater decided to start walking.
He later phoned Lucy Mae Law, a friend who had been with him at the music festival, and said he was lost, thirsty, had one per cent charge left on his phone’s battery and had cut his leg on a cactus.
She called police, and his phone was last recorded at a point north of the cottage he had stayed at. His body was found close to the location of the last “ping” of the phone.
Mr Slater’s family, who flew out to Tenerife, continued their search after police said official efforts were ceasing on June 29.
More than half a million people joined a Facebook group on which bizarre theories about Mr Slater’s disappearance were posted.
Some commentators suggested that police had pretended to shut down the initial search in the hope that amateur detectives would pack up and go home. Spanish police previously declined to comment on media reports.
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
