Jay Slater’s mum still ‘keeps his phone charged’ two years on from tragedy
Debbie Duncan says she won’t know how to feel as England’s opening World Cup match will mark two years to the day Jay Slater died in Tenerife.
Slater died an accidental death after falling from a great height in the Rural de Teno national park in Tenerife, Spain on 17 June, 2024.
The 19-year-old was holidaying on the island for a music festival and early the next morning, he left a club and travelled to an Airbnb in Masca with two men he had met.
On the morning of 17 June, after realising his accommodation was roughly a 14-hour walk away, he told his friend he was walking back on foot because no transport was available.
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Following a 29-day search involving helicopters, rescue dogs, drones, and mountain specialists, his body was found by mountain rescue teams on 15 July, 2024, roughly 20-25 metres down a ravine.
An inquest determined that his death was caused by catastrophic skull fractures and traumatic brain trauma.
The second anniversary of his death will be on the same day England take on Croatia in the World Cup next Wednesday.
"I don’t know how I’m going to feel really. It will be strange. He told me, 'I'm not going mad today, Mum’. England were playing. He said, ‘I am going to go and watch football, we are going for food.’ Obviously, things just got carried away in the moment he had a drink,” the mum from Lancashire told The Mirror.
"I sit and question 'what were you thinking?’ But you can't change anything. Jay is not coming back.”
As well as redecorating her son’s room, Duncan says she has kept all of his things.
"I've got Jay's phone too. I try to make sure it's always charged. I sit with it and his memories will come up on his social media. I laugh at his daft little videos, then cry at what a good looking boy he was. I think, ‘What a waste’,” she added.
"Jay would have turned 21 a few weeks back and that was really hard.”
Duncan said she still sits in his room, sprays his aftershave and lies on his bed.
"I slept in here with Buster at the weekend. You want his smell to last forever, but it's not going to, is it?” she added.
Addressing trolls online who have continued to mock and question the family, Duncan said: "Whatever I did or said was ripped to pieces. Trolls said Jay must have had a really bad upbringing.
"We’ve met with the Government, we’ve met with Ofcom. They’re making the right noises. But things need to change - and fast.”
She adds: “It’s incredibly hurtful to be on the receiving end of that.”
Topics: Jay Slater, UK News
Anish Vij