A man who has undergone his own investigation of the disappearance and death of Jay Slater claims he has a key piece of evidence which has been being ignored by Spanish police.
Mark Williams-Thomas, known for his work on the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, has taken a look into Slater's case after the 19-year-old's body was found in Tenerife last year.
Slater was reported missing on 17 June, 2024 after the Lancashire teenager visited the Spanish island with friends to attend the New Rave Generation festival.
His remains were discovered in a ravine on the island 29 days later on 15 July.
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An inquest into the teenager's death took place earlier this week (21 May) after court documents suggested that Slater had fallen into a ravine, with his remains showing signs of an accidental fall.
It comes after proceedings at Preston Coroner’s Court were adjourned during the first hearing following a request from Slater's tearful mum, Debbie Duncan.
Witnesses such as friends he was with on the night before he went missing, and two men whose Airbnb holiday let he stayed at before vanishing, were not present at the inquest and were unable to be located.
Duncan said: “How can we ever get any understanding? There’s things we want to question. We want these people to be sat in front of us, because our son went on holiday and didn’t come back, so there’s questions we need to ask.”
In another complication, detective Williams-Thomas has accused Spanish police of failing to use a key piece of audio evidence he had obtained.
As reported by The Sun, the investigator said that he 'sent the information I had in an email to Spanish authorities'.
"I told them I wasn't able to share the audio recording at this point because I needed to explain to them how I had obtained it," he said.
"And also I was very conscious that it was highly sensitive and I didn't want it just being shared all around.
"They've never come back to me. [Some countries] really don't like working with the public to get information, they think they always know the answers."
Slater, who worked as an apprentice bricklayer, had decided to stay out with a group of people he had just met until the early hours of 16 June 2024.
He stayed in an Airbnb called Casa Abuela Tina with the two men, including Ayub Qassim, who said Slater left the property on foot in the morning after 'refusing a lift'.
On Monday (17 June) morning, Slater called his friend Lucy and told her that he was in the middle of a mountainous area having missed a bus back to the resort. At 9.04am, he was reported as missing.
On 15 July, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard said: "After 29 constant days of searching the lifeless body of a young man has been found in the Masca area."
Topics: Jay Slater, UK News, Crime
Anish Vij