MADRID (Reuters) -A rescue team on the Spanish island of Tenerife on Monday found human remains in the area where British teenager Jay Slater went missing nearly a month ago and evidence strongly suggests they are his, police said.
The Guardia Civil police force said in a statement that he may have died due to a fall in the difficult-to-access mountainous area, but that an autopsy would confirm whether it was an accident.
A police spokesperson said the body was found on Monday morning by a Civil Guard mountain rescue group. The family has been notified and an autopsy will take place shortly, with the case then being transferred to a Tenerife court to determine the cause of death, the spokesperson said.
Slater, 19, went missing on June 17 and his phone was last traced to the Masca ravine in a remote national park on the Canary Islands archipelago.
On June 30, Spanish police said they had ended a search for Slater that had involved dozens of officers, rescue workers and volunteers using dogs, drones and a helicopter.
However, on Monday they said Guardia Civil officers had maintained a “continuous and discrete search” in the area for the whole 29 days.
The family could not be reached immediately for comment.
British overseas missing persons charity LBT Global, which has carried several statements on behalf of the family, said in an email that the body found “looks to be that of Jay Slater”.
The remains were found with Slater’s possessions and clothes and it is understood it was discovered close to the site of his mobile phone’s last location, LBT Global said.
Slater’s mother, Debbie, said on July 13 the family had arranged for a team of experts with specialist dogs to fly in over the weekend from the Netherlands.
“Jay is just a normal hardworking young lad from Lancashire who is very loved by all who know him,” she wrote in a statement, asking people to pray for him and his family.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Emma Pinedo, writing by Charlie Devereux, editing by Andrei Khalip, Aislinn Laing and Angus MacSwan)
