Jay Slater’s friends ‘cannot be located’, inquest hears

Friends and witnesses who were in Tenerife with Jay Slater when he disappeared “could not be located” to take part in his inquest despite months-long police efforts to find them.

Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, went missing in the early hours of 17 June 2024 after attending a music festival in Playa de las Americas on the Spanish island.

The apprentice bricklayer’s body was found by Spanish police at the bottom of a ravine in a remote national park on 15 July, an inquest at Preston Coroner’s Court heard.

Senior coroner Dr James Adeley said a number of witnesses, including friends who travelled with him, were still being searched for by police.

Mr Slater had got into a car with two men and was driven to an AirBnB in the remote village of Masca, around 22 miles (36km) away from where he was staying.

He was last heard from around 8:30 BST that morning, when he called his friend Lucy Law and told her he was lost and had 1% battery on his phone before the call cut out, she previously told the BBC.

At the opening of the inquest Dr Adeley said efforts had been made to find Miss Law and also another friend, Brad Hargreaves. Lucy Law is understood to currently be on holiday in Tenerife.

The Metropolitan Police had also tried to serve a witness summons on Ayub Qassim, understood to be the man who had rented the AirBnB, but he was not living at the address the force had on record for him.

One witness who did give evidence via video-link, Joshua Forshaw, said he had got chatting to Mr Slater and his friends at the airport.

He told the court the last time he saw Mr Slater was at the Papayago nightclub, which was hosting the NRG music festival, on the night of 16 June 2024.

“It wasn’t long after the event had started,” Mr Forshaw said.

“He seemed to be in a happy mood, joyful to be there.”

“He was shaking our hands and said hello to us, he seemed dead happy.”

The coroner pointed out that in his original statement Mr Forshaw had described Mr Slater as appearing to be “off his head” on drugs.

In court Mr Forshaw said he believed Mr Slater had drunk a lot of alcohol, but was unsure about what drugs he had taken

He said the last time he saw him Mr Slater told him “some kids had just took an AP off somebody” and that he was “on his way to sell it for 10 quid”.

He clarified that AP referred to a luxury watch brand and quid was a “code for a grand [£1,000]”.

Hours later, when he was in bed, Mr Forshaw received a video from Mr Slater showing him in an area of mountains, which he said was between 05:50 and 07:20 on 17 June.

Giving evidence earlier, Dr Richard Shepherd, a consultant forensic pathologist, told the court Mr Slater’s cause of death was likely severe head injury.

He said: “The patterns of the injuries are consistent with a heavy fall from a height, landing particularly onto his head and other contacts causing the fracture to the pelvis.”

“It would be entirely consistent with the possibility of a fall down a steep slope or off a height. I think it is more likely it all occurred at or about the same time.”

Dr Adeley asked if there were any signs of restraint or assault on the body, which the court heard showed signs of decomposition consistent with lying in a hot conditions for several weeks.

Dr Shepherd responded: “This is something I considered very carefully.

“The patterns of injuries when someone is assaulted or restrained or held or pushed are very different from the types of injuries or patterns I saw with Jay, so I saw nothing to suggest that was the case. “

He said it was not possible to completely rule out a push, as that would not leave a mark, but added there was “nothing to suggest there was an assault, gripping, holding or anything of that sort”.

The court also heard toxicology reports found Mr Slater had traces of the recreational drugs MDMA and cocaine in his body when he died.

Other tests conducted by the Spanish authorities also found traces of ketamine.

The month long search generated intense public interest, reflected in Facebook groups about the case with hundreds of thousands of members.