Missing Jay Slater: police find 'human remains' in Tenerife

Police in Spain say that human remains found by mountain rescue workers close to Jay Slater's last known location were likely to be those of the missing Briton.

The body of a young man was discovered near the Masca Gorge in the Rural de Teno nature reserve, where Slater's phone signal last placed him.

The location was so inaccessible "that a helicopter from the regional government's emergency rescue service was used to help recover the remains", said The Guardian, citing Tenerife's El Día newspaper.

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Police said their initial investigations suggest the deceased could have suffered an "accidental fall on the cliff" but that an autopsy would be carried out to determine the circumstances surrounding the death. They added that evidence including clothes and possessions "strongly suggests" the body is that of Slater, who has been missing for 29 days.

The 19-year-old from Lancashire attended the NRG music festival at the Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas  on the evening of 16 June and left the club "between 3am and 6am in a car with two other British men he had met that night", travelling with them back to their Airbnb rental around 30 miles away, said The Telegraph. 

After apparently leaving the property around 8am, Slater later phoned a friend to tell her that he was attempting to walk back to his accommodation, a journey that would have taken 11 hours. He told her he was lost, thirsty, and that his phone was on 1% battery. Rescue teams had been "focusing on an area near a national park in northwestern Tenerife" close to where Slater's phone last recorded a signal, said the BBC.