Like thousands of British teenagers, 19-year-old Jay Slater chose the resort of Los Cristianos in the Canary Islands for his first holiday abroad without his mother Debbie or older brother Zac. There will be sunshine, cheap booze and lots of medicine on offer. I know the Resort only very well – it is where my father died suddenly a few years ago.
The trainee bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, flew to Tenerife with his best friend Brad. They plan to spend the weekend at the NRG music festival in Playa De Las Americas, enjoy the bars and clubs that line the beach in a horribly over-developed tourist trap. Not my idea of ​​fun, but who can resist the appeal to some young people (and Lucy’s friends) away from their wise parents and English weather?
Unfortunately, what should have been a pleasant experience ended in tragedy last Monday, with a helicopter recovering Jay’s lifeless body from an impassable ravine in a desert area on the other side of the island, a 45-minute drive from the infamous tower block Lost. Christians.
Jay has been missing for 29 days, despite extensive search operations and much publicity. Leaving the festival, he wanted to continue the party, and took an elevator in the morning to a remote Airbnb in the hamlet of Masca with the two of them. Inexplicably, he was walking down the street around 8 a.m., and when he missed the bus back to the hotel, he decided to walk.
It will take 11 hours – which seems like a crazy decision, but will a naive teenager who finds himself in a strange country after partying for hours will think logically? Of course not.
Jay Slater pictured with his mother Debbie Duncan. She is now being harassed online by people who accuse her of profiting from her son’s death.
Janet Street-Porter pictured with her father, who died of a heart attack while on Tenerife and is now buried on the island
Debbie and the family are ‘heartbroken’, and have visited the spot where Jay’s body was found to lay flowers and leave messages. One read ‘Love you little brother. Zac xxx’.
Decent people would allow Debbie to grieve, but she has been oppressed and horribly dumped, the victim of bullying and vicious smears, accused of profiting from her son’s death.
It’s all thanks to a GoFundMe site, set up by Jay’s friend Lucy, who is trying to raise funds to bring his family to the island to help with the search.
To date, the fund has raised more than £60,000, exceeding the original target of £30,000. The money was to be used to pay for Dutch’s search and rescue team who arrived just one day before Jay was found. Spanish police have called off their own search after 12 days, when they brought in sniffer dogs, drones and helicopters to search uncharted ravines and gullies in the area where Jay was last seen. The next few days were to torment the family, with wild theories and rumors of criminal activity spreading online. Jay is said to have left the country, but there is no evidence to support this theory.
Debbie said the money donated will be used for food, equipment and accommodation for the searchers. He was also assisted by the charity LBT Charity Global Ltd, which specializes in locating missing persons abroad and coordinating the return of deceased family members.
The charity makes it clear on their website that they expect their families or relatives to pay the actual cost of repatriation, they just provide all the information, research logistics and options.
Debbie has caused outrage in some quarters by asking for further donations so that Jay can ‘have the send off he deserves’ back in the UK.
And shouldn’t he? I know more about recovering bodies from Tenerife – my father died of a heart attack in Los Cristianos while playing cards with my mother and friends in a flat in a nondescript tower block by the beach.
Floral tributes have been left for Jay Slater’s brother Zak near the site of the teenager’s body.
Jay Slater’s body was found in a ravine a mile from where the last call was made, four weeks after he was last seen.
Janet Street-Porter, pictured here on Friday’s Loose Women, asked: ‘Why are people demonizing Debbie Slater for going to bring her child home and thanking those who helped find people when the Spanish police have “handed them over”?
I got a tearful call at 3am from my mum asking me to go out and ‘sort it all out’ – so off I went, paying a fortune for a flight via Madrid as it was the only direct package holiday operator operating.
Despite living there for several months each year, my mother never learned Spanish. Dad usually lives at home in Wales, playing golf with his friends in the gray drizzle, while he studies yoga and swims with his friends from January to April, changing the color of his old leather bag. This time, she joined him for a brief visit, when he suffered a heart attack and died on the way to the hospital. When I arrived the next day, my mother had taken too many sleeping pills and was not clear.
First, he wanted the body repatriated and buried in England. We had no help from the Embassy, ​​only a meeting with a travel representative from the tour operator who had arranged Dad’s flight. He explained how complicated and expensive it is to repatriate bodies.
Then mum changed her mind and wanted dad to be cremated – but that was too complicated to arrange. If you look at the current Foreign Office advice for dealing with death in Spain, you will see that it involves a lot of detective work. They only offer a list, so you have to do all your research in a foreign language. Most people seek help from charities like global LBT, as Debbie did.
Fortunately, the mother changed her mind for the third time, and sensibly decided to have a funeral in Tenerife and bury the father in a sweet cemetery on the side of the mountain behind Los Cristianos. Using my O-level Spanish, I obtained a death certificate, found an officer, selected a coffin and arranged a funeral. We found a local English vicar to officiate and I put together a short service.
Choosing a casket is the worst part, and it’s very expensive. Of course, Dad would have preferred to be buried in England, so that his golfing buddies and old office colleagues could attend and have a pint or three in their honour. But this method is cheaper, and the mother will be able to visit the resting place during her regular visits to the holiday flat.
Then mom wanted a party, so my sister and I spent hours at the supermarket buying booze and food so her friends could send dad to a great card game in the sky.
I have never visited Dad’s grave, or gone back to Los Cristianos. It is full of sad memories. I passed through the city a few years ago, heading straight to the port and the ferry to the island of La Gomera- rugged and relatively unspoilt- for a walking holiday.
Why are people destroying Debbie Slater for wanting to bring her son home and thanking those who helped find him when the Spanish police have ‘given up’?
Jay is guilty of no crime, he is just a naive teenager who made a dumb decision to walk home after a long night. Don’t hurt your dear mother.
