Jay Slater’s family were hopeful when police called – before hearing ‘parents’ worst nightmare’, ex-Maddie cop claims

JAY Slater’s family were hopeful when police called on Monday morning only to be met with a parents worst “nightmare”, ex-Madeleine McCann cop claims.

Mark Williams-Thomas, who has been working closely with the family out in Tenerife, says Jay’s devastated family will still be left with questions after police found a body near to the search area.

@mwilliamsthomas) on X

Mark Williams-Thomas claims Jay Slater’s family were hopeful when police called on Monday morning only to be met with ‘every parents nightmare’[/caption]

Tim Stewart

Jay Slater’s family were said to have been left devastated by the news of a body being found[/caption]

Ian Whittaker

Jay’s family, including brother Zak and dad Warren, and rescuers spent 29 days searching for the teen in Tenerife[/caption]

The family had vowed to stay in Tenerife until they found answers over Jay’s disappearance – with dad Warren, 58, remaining hopeful the teen would still be alive.

But Spanish cops announced Monday morning they had recovered a body using a helicopter in the area Jay was last known to be in Masca.

The Civil Guard have said “everything is pointing” towards the body being Jay as they fear he may have accidentally fallen to his death.

Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan and the rest of the Slater family were reportedly told the tragic news just after 10am.

Former investigator Mark has now revealed how he thinks the family may have reacted to the shocking discovery.

He wrote in the Mirror: “It was late morning on Monday and Jay’s parents were asked to attend the police station for an update, they attended hoping for a positive update.

“What they learnt was every parent’s nightmare, human remains had been found and they fitted the description of Jay, his clothing and personal belongings being found with him.

“To compound the devastating news even further, he was found at a pretty inaccessible place not far from the spot where Jay had sent his location to two friends shorty before 9am.”

The family are now said to be facing an agonising wait to find out how exactly the teen may have died.

An autopsy is set to take place to formally identify the body but the results aren’t expected for several days, say cops.

A family source has also told The Sun: “Debbie is completely devastated.

“It’s the news they’ve all been dreading. She has a lot of questions which she hopes will be answered in the coming days.

“It hasn’t completely sunk in yet. The hardest thing for her is to hear he was found so close to the original search site. It’s hard to take.”

Jay’s dad Warren, older brother Zak and uncle Glen had all been scouring the mountains for any trace of the teen.

Along with volunteers and specialist mountain recuse teams they spent four weeks looking for Jay.

Cops have decided to not say where they found the body yet but Mark claims it was around 20 minutes from where the Brit’s phone last pinged.

This has led to questions over how the days of searching all failed to look at the rough terrain the body was found, the family source told the Sun.

The body was recovered in a “dangerous” spot where any wrong step would be fatal, Mark added.

Dramatic footage released from the Tenerife Guardia Civil shows rescue workers using a helicopter to reach an “inaccessible” ravine.

Officials coordinated with Civil Guard rescue experts who can be seen in the video scouring the mountainous region in Masca.

Rescue workers can be seen hacking at bushes and climbing up the sides of the huge mountains as part of their hunt.

Reuters

The body was found in a ‘very inaccessible area’ after rescue workers were forced to battle against the rough terrain[/caption]

The moment rescue workers perform a helicopter airlift in the area where a body was found in the hunt for JaySolarpix

PA

Official rescue teams spent almost two weeks searching for Jay but called off the search at the end of June[/caption]

A spokesperson for Lancashire Police said they had been notified by the Civil Guard that a body was found – and that “the indications are that this is Jay Slater“.

They added: “While at this stage no formal identification has been carried out our thoughts are very much with Jay’s family at this time, and we continue to offer them our support.”

Jay was first reported missing the morning after he travelled to the unforgiving mountainous area of Tenerife in the early hours of June 17.

He went to stay at an Airbnb with two men after a night of partying.

He then left in the morning where he tried to do an 11-hour trek back to his own accommodation after missing the bus.

One of the men – convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim – says Jay left the house alive.

Jay made a final frantic call to friend Lucy Law to say he was lost, had one per cent phone battery, and needed water.

In an earlier call to friend Brad, his feet could be heard slipping on the rocks.

Mark also claims to have spoke to Qassim and was told the teen woke up asking to leave the home as he was hungry.

Qassim, who rented out the holiday let, says Jay wanted to go home so he could “get a scran”, and was planning on catching a bus.

Mark says that Qassim told him “no bus is coming”, and offered to drive him after taking a nap, but the teen left anyway.

It has since been claimed by Mark that Jay left in a panic and was “scared” to return to the Airbnb.

Tenerife is known as a dangerous place after dark with the holiday hotspot being stuck in a bitter turf war between British drug gangs and the feared Italian mafia.

Despite this, there is no suggestion that Jay was linked to drugs with cops finding no link to criminality in the case.

Rescuers were seen scouring rock faces as they faced the ‘dangerous’ terrainSolarpix

Ian Whittaker

Jay was partying the days before he vanished at the NRG music festival[/caption]

The final Snapchat post from Jay just hours before he vanished