'I reported on the Jay Slater case from start to finish'

Yahoo

02-08-2025

On the afternoon of Thursday June 20 in 2024 I knocked on the door of a semi-detached house in Oswaldtwistle. This was the home of Jay Slater who had disappeared while on holiday in Tenerife.
Jay's friends had reported him missing three days earlier. As I waited for someone to answer the door of his home 19-year-old Jay should have been flying back to the UK.
I was the first reporter to visit Jay's house; a well-kept semi-detached modern property on the outskirts of town. His mum, Debbie Duncan, had flown out to Tenerife on the Tuesday after she was contacted by officers from Lancashire Constabulary about his disappearance.
Jay's stepdad Andy Watson came to the door. The 63-year-old told me that Jay had been reluctant to go abroad for the first time without his family. "[His friends] had to talk him into going, he wasn't really that keen," Andy told me.
The following day I spoke to Debbie's mum June; Jay's grandma, at her home near Clitheroe. June told me that her son Glen - Debbie's brother - had flown out to Tenerife to support his sister.
June held a framed photo of Jay as she told me that although her family had been trying to shield her from the media coverage of her grandson's disappearance "it's been on the news on telly so much I can't escape it".
"I wouldn't be able to go out there, and I'm not sure what help I'd be, I just keep hoping for good news," the then 77-year-old added.
"I can't even begin to imagine how Debbie is. She rang me and said he'd gone missing. She didn't tell me at first, I think she was trying not to worry me, but then as time went on... "
Over the following three weeks media interest in the case grew as volunteers and search teams scoured the mountainous region around Masca where Jay had last been seen. Missing posters were plastered throughout the island as locals watched the world's media descend on their quiet village.
Then came the news that everyone had been dreading. On July 15 Jay's body had been found at the bottom of a ravine.
The next day, I sat inside a packed West End Methodist Church in Oswaldtwistle as friends paid tribute to the apprentice bricklayer, and his family began the process of bringing Jay home.
During the service Minister Matt Smith described how the news of Jay's death was "not the answer we hoped for". Dozens of teenagers, friends of Jay's, sat on the pews with their arms around each other as a photo of the 19-year-old looked down from screens inside the church.
The minister said: "Today it might feel that the darkness has overcome us but today we also stand together and say that we will remember Jay. His light will never go out. We will remember him."
Blue ribbons had been tied to every lamppost and railing along the main road in Oswaldtwistle while a flurry of balloons, including one spelling out the number 19 for Jay's tragically young age, were released into the sky above Blackburn Road.
The colour became synonymous with Jay and, when his body was finally repatriated, mourners watched as his blue coffin was carried into the chapel at Accrington Cemetery.
As Jay had died abroad it was only when his body was brought back to Lancashire that a coroner's investigation was launched. But the language barrier, and issues with locating several witnesses, meant months passed before Jay's family could begin to have some of the answers to their many questions surrounding his disappearance and death.
In the meantime, conspiracy theories were widely shared in podcasts and YouTube videos, Jay's family was subjected to cruel accusations and criticism, and his memory was sullied by suggestions he had been involved in criminal activity.
As we had seen in the case of Nicola Bulley, while the world waited to find out exactly what had happened, social media sleuths 'investigated' and came to their own conclusions, sometimes based on little more than speculation and suspicion.
Jay's family sought to defend his memory and grieve in peace. And so, when an inquest into his death started in May, they hoped it would put an end to the hurtful speculation.
But the evidence of five key witnesses was missing. The coroner had already been informed that two of Jay's friends; Lucy Law and Bradley Geoghegan, were on holiday at the time. Two others; Ayub Qassim and Steven 'Rocky' Roccas who had rented the Airbnb where Jay was last seen, couldn't be found. That was also the case with Jay's friend Brandon Hodgson.
The coroner agreed with Jay's mum Debbie, when she asked for further attempts to be made to locate the missing witnesses, and the inquest was adjourned.
Last week three of the outstanding five witnesses gave evidence. Lucy and Brad spoke about the days leading up to Jay's disappearance while Ayub Qassim, who gave evidence "of his own volition" from a foreign country, was key in explaining why Jay ended up in Masca.
Extensive efforts had gone into tracing the remaining two; Brandon Hodgson and Steven 'Rocky' Roccas, but they didn't respond to the coroner's repeated requests to make contact.
When the inquest was resumed last week, Lancashire's most senior and highly-experienced coroner Dr James Adeley concluded that Jay's death was an accident, and he also sought to debunk many of the myths which had surrounded the teenager's tragic demise.
READ MORE: Jay Slater inquest coroner's final report and findings in full
Jay hadn't stolen a watch and he hadn't been the victim of a crime. He had simply made the decision to try to walk home - something many have done similarly in a semi-drunken state. But the scorching heat and remote, mountainous terrain meant that decision led to him losing his footing and falling to his death.
It is clear, from the conclusive evidence present during the inquest, that Jay's death was accidental. Yet while many answers were provided, nobody can ever explain how Jay managed to fall into the Juan Lopez ravine.
At least now, Jay's family finally have some of the answers they have waited so long for, and they will no doubt be hoping that they can finally allow Jay to rest in peace and rebuild their lives after 12 months of unimaginable pain.
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