Jay Slater’s family face brutal wait for exact ‘cause of death’ after suspected fall in ‘inaccessible area’ in Tenerife
JAY SLATER’S family are facing an agonising wait to find out how exactly the British teen died after his body was reportedly found in Tenerife.
A body believed to be his was found this morning in Masca after a gruelling month-long search.
The apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire was on holiday with two friends when he vanished on the holiday island on June 17.
Although formal identification has yet to take place – the body was discovered alongside Jay’s belongings and clothes.
Now cops have said an autopsy will take place to confirm a cause of death – but not for several days.
Meaning the family, who have been out in the mountains searching for him themselves, face days ahead before they will know what exactly happened to Jay.
It comes after police said initial evidence suggests the teenager “suffered an accident/fall in the area where he was found”.
In Spain the results of post-mortems are not normally made public and are instead sent to an investigating magistrate.
Court officials said at the start of the month there was “no current evidence of criminality” in the Jay Slater case.
They said today: “After 29 constant days of searching the lifeless body of the young man has been found in the Masca area.
“The discovery has been possible thanks to the tireless and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard over these 29 days.
“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.”
Jay, 19, travelled to an unforgiving mountainous area in the early hours of June 17 with two men after a night of raving.
He then left in the morning, but after learning he’d missed the bus attempted an 11-hour trek back to his own accommodation.
One of the men – convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim – says Jay left the house alive.
After two weeks of a mammoth search in the Tenerife mountains, cops called off the main hunt.
Jay’s devastated family, including his dad Warren and brother Zak, continued to look for him.
The Civil Guard confirmed specialist mountain search officers had continued to search for Jay even though the “large-scale” operation was axed.
A force spokesman said: “The human remains were found some two hours before we went public with the information they had been found, so around 10am local time.
“The large-scale operation involving multiple units had been suspended but as we always said, we never stopped looking for Jay.
“The mountain rescue group continued looking for the missing man when they were on duty and have now found the remains of a person they believe is him.”