The coroner overseeing the tragic case of Jay Slater’s death has now made public images and screenshots used as evidence during the inquest into the teenager’s demise.
Snapchat messages from the 19-year-old to his mates, including Josh Forshaw, Lucy Law, Bradley Geoghegan and Brandon Hodgson, were key pieces of evidence in the investigation into his untimely death in Tenerife last June.
Coroner Dr James Adeley agreed to release these images, which were presented in open court, to accredited press members. The released material also includes photos of the location where Jay was discovered and the mobile phone masts his device connected to during his walk from the Airbnb in Masca – along with the final known image of him with his mate Steven Roccas, according to MEN.
Yesterday (Friday), Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen, concluded that Jay, an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, met his end by accident after falling down a ravine.
The court heard that the teenager had informed his friends he was ‘in the middle of the mountains’ and needed a drink while attempting a 14-hour walk home the morning after consuming drugs and alcohol on a night out, reports Yorkshire Live.
Jay was on holiday on the Spanish island and had attended the NRG music festival with friends at the Papagayo nightclub in the resort of Playa de las Americas on June 16 last year.
However, he disappeared the following morning after accompanying two men to an Airbnb in Masca, a remote mountain village far from his holiday flat in Los Cristianos.
A massive search operation was initiated when he was reported missing on 18 June, and nearly a month later, his body was discovered by a mountain rescue team in the steep and inaccessible Juan Lopez ravine, on 15 July.
The inquest revealed that his mobile phone battery had run out and he was in need of a drink but had no water as he embarked on the 14-hour trek home in the early hours.
As the temperature rose, he left the road and ended up in the ravine, where his body was found with severe head injuries resulting from a fall.
At the end of a two-day inquest into his death, Dr Adeley stated: “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.”
