Mother seeks answers after son’s tragic fall in Tenerife

Debbie Duncan, the grieving mother of Lancashire teenager Jay Slater, is finding it difficult to accept his tragic death in Tenerife last month. She struggles to understand his final actions before his passing.

Jay, a 19-year-old bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, went missing on 17 June 2024. He left a party on the island and attempted to walk ten hours back to his accommodation with two newly acquainted individuals.

It is believed Jay underestimated the distance and fell to his death. A post-mortem examination revealed he died from traumatic head injuries, consistent with a fall from height.

Despite these findings, Debbie questions several aspects of Jay’s actions leading up to his death in Tenerife, making it hard for her to comprehend his decisions.

Debbie expressed confusion over Jay’s choice to get into a car with two older men after attending a music festival and travel to their remote Airbnb. She also questioned why he left the apartment the next morning without charging his phone, suggesting he may have felt unsafe.

In an emotional interview, Debbie said, “I don’t know what he thought he was doing by going with these two guys. I really don’t know. I can’t get my head around why he just didn’t go back to his own friends and went with them. In our minds, we think he’s not realised where he was going. And it was dark. I just think he’s not even thought about or knew which direction he was going.”

Reflecting on Jay’s possible fear when he left the apartment, Debbie added, “That thought crossed my mind. Jay would not let his phone run down. If he had access to a phone charger, that would be the first thing that he would do. So why did he not want to be there? Why did he not want to hang about to charge his phone? One of these guys had said that he’d given him a charger, but why did he not charge his phone?”

Ayub Quassim, one of the men Jay accompanied, had booked the Airbnb under a false name but stated, “Jay came to the house alive and he left the house alive.” Spanish detectives interviewed both men and concluded neither were relevant to the investigation.

Debbie remains eager to speak to them to understand her son’s final movements in Tenerife and seek some clarity. Although she knows it won’t change the outcome, she hopes to find answers to the lingering questions about her son’s tragic death.

“I can’t change anything and there are so many ifs and buts and I can just drive myself insane thinking about everything,” she lamented.