Jay Slater's mother says retracing son's final steps brought 'more closure' as documentary examines Tenerife case

The mother of Jay Slater, the British teenager who died while missing in Tenerife, has spoken of how walking back through the places her son travelled before his death was an emotionally gruelling experience that nonetheless helped her family come to terms with the loss.

Debbie Duncan said revisiting the timeline of events leading up to the 19-year-old's disappearance had allowed her to understand the terrain and circumstances in far greater detail than was possible from a distance.

Jay, who lived in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished on 17 June 2024 after spending time at a music festival in Playa de las Americas, a resort on the south of the Spanish island. His body was discovered following a search that lasted 29 days, a period during which intense public and media attention focused on the case.

Speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, Ms Duncan explained that retracing her son's movements had been both "very tough and emotional" and, in her words, a source of "more closure" for the family. She described how the exercise gave her a clearer sense of the chronology, particularly the stretch of time between his last known location and the point at which he told someone he did not know where he was and that he was lost.

In her view, being able to time that sequence of events was important, because it helped assemble a more complete picture of what her son experienced in his final hours. She said the process allowed the family to examine the landscape more closely and to appreciate the physical challenges it presented.

The retracing was undertaken alongside forensic pathologist Richard Shepherd, who carried out Jay's postmortem examination after his body was repatriated to the United Kingdom. Ms Duncan said his presence had been valuable, because he was able to discuss her son's injuries in terms that were easier for a grieving family to absorb.

She emphasised that she had never doubted that the death was an accident, and that hearing the pathological evidence explained directly reinforced what the inquest had already established. An inquest into Jay's death concluded that he died as the result of a tragic accident, with no third party involvement of any kind.

According to the findings, he had fallen in an area described as particularly dangerous, sustaining skull fractures and brain trauma that would have killed him instantly. That conclusion closed off a range of alternative theories that had circulated widely while the search was under way and after his body was found.

The retracing forms part of a forthcoming documentary series made by Channel Five, titled Cause of Death, which examines both the manhunt itself and the enormous social media interest that surrounded the case. The first episode is scheduled to be broadcast at 21:00 BST on Wednesday.

Ms Duncan said she hoped that viewers who watched the programme might be more willing to accept the established facts of what happened to her son. Her comments reflect a continuing concern within the family that speculation has often drowned out the official account.

Since Jay's death, his mother has become a prominent campaigner on the treatment of bereaved families online. Last year she called for a proposed "Jay's Law" intended to prevent the online trolling of people mourning the loss of a relative.

She said the measure would be aimed at technology companies, obliging them to remove misinformation, and argued it was a necessary response to the scale of abuse directed at families in her position. The conspiracies that developed around the case, she said, were "wild."

Ms Duncan rejected the argument that such a law would restrict free expression, describing the behaviour instead as outright bullying. In her view, those spreading false claims are aware of the facts but choose not to accept them, preferring to follow their own narratives.

She indicated that the right people were listening to her campaign, suggesting the message had reached those in a position to act. At the same time, she acknowledged that life without Jay has not become any easier, saying it seems, if anything, to grow harder as time passes.

The family, she added, are coping in different ways. She keeps herself occupied where possible and remains in contact with other bereaved families, and while she does not claim that such conversations ease the pain, they offer the knowledge that others have endured the same loss and that no one is alone in it.

The documentary and her latest remarks together place renewed attention on a case that drew global interest, first through the search for a missing teenager and later through an inquest that sought to settle the essential question of how he died. For Ms Duncan, the value of the new programme lies less in revisiting the attention than in encouraging a public that followed every development to accept the conclusions reached by the authorities.