Police found body in Jay Slater search '20-minute walk away from last place missing Brit's phone pinged'
The body found in the search for missing Brit Jay Slater was found a short walk away from the location his phone last pinged.
Slater went missing almost a month ago (17 June) in Tenerife after attending a festival and staying at a property on the island far away from his resort and friends.
He had called his friend to say he was in a mountainous area and didn't know where exactly he was, and that his phone was running out of battery.
He was declared missing shortly afterwards.
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Extensive search efforts were launched to find Slater, and the official search came to an end, but Spanish authorities continued a 'discrete' effort to find him.
Now a body has been found in the search, and authorities indicated that they thought the body was likely to be Slater.
In a statement, the Guardia Civil said: "After 29 constant days of searching the lifeless body of a young man has been found in the Masca area.
"The discovery has been possible thanks to the tireless and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard over these 29 days.
"Everything is pointing to the body being that of the young British man who disappeared on June 17, pending full identification. Initial inquiries are pointing to him having suffered an accident/fall in the area where he was found."
Lancashire Police also released a statement saying that they had been 'notified by the Guardia Civil that they have found the body of a man and that the indications are that this is Jay Slater'.
According to the Daily Mirror, the body found in the search for Slater was about a 20 minute walk from where his phone last pinged.
They spoke to Mark Williams-Thomas, a former police officer and investigative journalist who had recently said that he had 'significant new information' which he had provided to the authorities.
The Mirror also reports that Williams-Thomas told them: "The area where Jay’s body was found was highlighted yesterday afternoon with the search and rescue helicopter in the area, it is around a 20 minutes walk from the pin drop location."
He explained that the terrain in the area was 'rough and hazardous', and that 'a slip or loss of footing would prove fatal'.
One of the key details in finding Slater may end up being that the Oswaldtwistle teen had told a friend over the phone that he'd cut his leg on a cactus.
This may have helped authorities narrow down his location, as it may have helped indicate that Slater had left the main road in the area.
Topics: Jay Slater, UK News
Joe Harker