Spanish police are refusing to say whether they have recovered a £12,000 Rolex watch Jay Slater allegedly stole before his death.
The Civil Guard in Tenerife confirmed today the body found in a ravine near the village of Masca was his, and said all indications pointed to him dying in an accidental fall.
However, authorities have refused to say whether he was found with a luxury timepiece he had allegedly bragged about stealing from a fellow reveller.
Jay’s injuries included broken bones, according to a statement released shortly after court officials also revealed his identity had been confirmed with fingerprinting.
They had initially claimed full identification wouldn’t happen till ‘next week’ because the body was ‘very deteriorated.’
Questions remain as to whether police have a watch the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer reportedly confessed to stealing from a reveller during an altercation outside Papagayo Beach Club near his holiday accommodation.
The precise location where police mountain rescue experts found Jay at around 10am on Monday also remains a mystery.
It comes as:
Asked about the watch and the precise location of where Jay’s body was found, the Civil Guard in Tenerife said this afternoon: ‘All the information we’re prepared to release at this stage has been put in the public domain.
‘Any updates should we decide to publish any more information will be made available through the normal channels.’
TV detective Mark Williams-Thomas has claimed Jay posted a video on Snapchat boasting about the theft of the Rolex shortly before he vanished on June 17.
He travelled back to a rented Airbnb in Masca with two men including a convicted drug dealer he had met while out partying shortly before he went missing.
Spanish police have never confirmed whether they are investigating the theft of a watch.
A preliminary autopsy has suggested Jay, from Oswaldtwistle near Blackburn, died after falling from a large height.
His mother Debbie Duncan said: ‘The worst news. I just can’t believe this could happen to my beautiful boy. Our hearts are broken.’
A Civil Guard spokeswoman said earlier: ‘The body of the man located yesterday has been identified as that of Jay Slater’s through fingerprint comparison and identification.
‘The result of the preliminary autopsy points to the cause of death being a fall or plunge from height due to the broken bones he suffered.’
Earlier in the day court officials in Tenerife had released the first confirmation the body discovered was Jay’s despite claiming initially they thought it would take up to a week to get a positive ID.
The Canary Islands’ High Court of Justice said in an official statement just before 2pm today local time: ‘Court of Instruction Number One in Icod de los Vinos can confirm that through fingerprints the body has been identified as that of Jay Slater.
‘The autopsy has determined that his death was the result of multiple injuries compatible with a fall in a rocky area.’
The 29-day search for apprentice bricklayer Jay came to an end yesterday around 10am. A helicopter was called in to recover his body.
The large-scale police search in the mountains near Masca had been suspended around two weeks after he disappeared on June 17, but mountain rescue police specialists had continued with a smaller search on a daily basis.
Civil Guard sources have indicated there are no current plans to facilitate a new press conference with Cipriano Martin, the head of the Civil Guard’s Greim mountain rescue unit.
Mr Martin had addressed the media shortly before the large-scale mountain search for Jay was officially suspended on June 30.
Matthew Searle, from LBT Global, a charity supporting Jay’s family, said the organisation was working with the family to sort out the next steps of taking his body home and the recovery of his belongings.
He said: ‘The announcement does seem to confirm that Jay died of injuries consistent with an accidental fall from a considerable height.
‘There will of course be many more hurdles for the family to face in the coming days and we will work with them to make this horrific time as easy as possible.’
Mr Searle also hit out at the amateur detectives who had shared cruel and unproven conspiracy theories about Jay’s fate online.
He added: ‘We are working with the family now to sort out the next steps of taking Jay home, recovery of his belongings and laying him to rest.
‘We will not be releasing details of travel timings or funeral arrangements at this time and ask again for privacy for the family.
‘I ask now that this is the end of all the hurtful comments on social media and elsewhere’.
Jay’s friend Lucy Law, who was the last known person to speak to him during a phone call on June 17, issued a tribute on her Instagram page.
She said: ‘Honestly lost for words. Always the happiest and most smiley person in the room, you was (sic) one of a kind Jay and you’ll be missed more than you know.
‘I’m sure you’ll “have your dancing shoes polished and ready” waiting for us all. We all love you buddy. Fly high.’
The apprentice bricklayer was attending the three-day NRG music festival with friends before his disappearance.
Video from the early hours of June 17 shows Jay partying the night away at Papagayo nightclub in the tourist resort of Playa de las Americas in the south of the island.
At around 5am, Jay left the Veronicas strip and got into a Seat Leon hire car with convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, 31, and Qassim’s unnamed friend, who he had met earlier on the holiday.
They travelled to Qassim’s £40-a-night Airbnb, Casa Abuela Tina, in the remote village of Masca – around an hour’s drive away from Playa de las Americas.
While in the car Jay allegedly sent a Snapchat message to his friends boasting that he had just stolen a £12,000 Rolex watch from a reveller and was going to sell it for £10,000.
At Casa Abuela Tina, Jay posted a picture on Snapchat at 7.30am of him standing in the doorway of the property having a cigarette – with the location tagged as being in Rural de Teno park, near Masca. The men he went back with were deemed ‘not relevant’ to the investigation by Spanish police.
Half an hour later, the teenager decided to try and make his way back to his accommodation and was spotted at a bus stop outside the Airbnb.
After missing a bus, he called his friend Lucy Law between 8.15am and 8.30am, telling her he was attempting to walk back to his accommodation – a journey that would take around 11 hours.
In the frantic last phone call, Jay said he had ‘cut his leg’ on a cactus and had ‘no idea where he was’.
Lucy said her friend told her he was ‘lost in the mountains, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, he desperately needed a drink and his phone was on 1 per cent’.
Jay’s phone ran out of battery shortly after with his phone last pinging in the Rural de Teno park at 8.50am.
His disappearance prompting a huge search effort which involved police, volunteers, family members and even TikTok sleuths.
Supporters raised more than £54,000 to help fund the hunt for the teenager.
Questions have been raised about what will happen to the money given by generous strangers after a body was found following a month of searching.
A GoFundMe spokesperson told The Sun it is in ‘regular contact’ with Jay’s family to work out the next steps for dealing with the money over the next few weeks.
The Telegraph reported that the money will be used towards the funeral and repatriation costs.