A British coroner has concluded that the teenager Jay Slater, whose disappearance in Tenerife prompted a month-long search last summer, died after accidentally falling down a remote ravine in a dangerous area.
The coroner, James Adeley, said the death of the 19-year-old was accidental, with no one else involved.
Earlier at the inquest, in Preston, Slater’s tearful mother, Debbie Duncan, paid tribute to her son, saying he was a “joy to be around”.
The four-week search for Slater made headlines across Europe and filled social media channels daily after he disappeared on his first holiday abroad without his parents.
Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, had been to the NRG music festival with friends at the Papagayo nightclub in the resort district of Playa de las Américas on 16 June.
The inquest heard he had taken ecstasy pills, cocaine and possibly ketamine, along with alcohol on the night out.
He vanished the next morning after going with two men to an Airbnb in Masca, a village in the mountains many miles from his holiday apartment in Los Cristianos.
The inquest heard that Slater told his friends he was “in the middle of the mountains” and in need of a drink, as he attempted the 14-hour walk home.
He was reported missing on 18 June and a search was launched. His body was found by a mountain rescue team in the steep and inaccessible ravine on 15 July.
The inquest heard his phone battery had died and he needed a drink but had no water as he set off to walk home. As temperatures rose he left the road and ended up in the ravine, where his body was found. He had suffered severe head injuries from a fall.
Concluding a two-day inquest into Slater’s death, Adeley said: “Jay fell at a particularly dangerous area in difficult terrain. He fell approximately 20 to 25 metres, suffering skull fractures and brain trauma from which he would have died instantaneously. Jay Dean Slater died an accidental death. This is a tragic death of a young man.”
Adeley said the evidence showed no one else was involved in Slater’s death and no suggestion he had been threatened, assaulted, was under duress, or in fear for his safety.
Addressing Slater’s family, the coroner said he hoped the “examination of facts rather than conjecture” during the hearing had been some consolation.
Slater’s mother had earlier paid tribute to her son saying: “He was very loved and our hearts are broken. Our lives will never be the same without Jay in it.”
The inquest also heard from his friends, the last people to speak to him on the morning he disappeared.
One friend, Lucy Law, called Slater at about 8.30am and had sent him a message saying: “Go back to wherever the fuck you just came from before it gets boiling.” She said on the call she asked him: “‘What on earth are you doing? Where are you?’
“He was just, ‘I’m in the middle of the mountains.’”
She asked Slater what he could see, and he replied: “Nothing. Literally nothing. There’s literally just mountains.”
Slater said he needed a drink and asked if cactus was poisonous. Law added: “By this stage, I’m panicking.”
Excerpts of information from authorities in Spain were read out. They including information from the local mountain rescue services to say the search continued for 29 days.
