Teenager Jay Slater, who went missing in Tenerife last summer, died by accident after falling down a ravine, a coroner at his inquest has concluded.
The 19-year-old had told his friends he was “in the middle of the mountains” and in need of a drink, as he attempted a 14-hour walk home the morning after taking drugs and alcohol on a night out, Preston Coroner’s Court has heard.
Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was holidaying on the Spanish island and had been to the NRG music festival with friends at the Papagayo nightclub in the resort of Playa de las Americas on June 16 last year.
But he vanished the next morning after going with two men to an Airbnb in Masca, a village in the mountains miles from his holiday apartment in Los Cristianos.
A huge search was launched after he was reported missing on June 18, and his body was found by a mountain rescue team almost a month later in the steep and inaccessible Juan Lopez ravine, on July 15.
The inquest heard his phone battery had died and he needed a drink but had no water as he set off on the 14-hour walk home in the early morning.
As temperatures grew he left the road and ended up in the ravine, where his body was found having suffered severe head injuries from a fall.
Concluding a two-day inquest into his death, Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen, said: “Jay fell at a particularly dangerous area in difficult terrain.
“He fell approximately 20 to 25 metres, suffering skull fractures and brain trauma from which he would have died instantaneously. Jay Dean Slater died an accidental death.
“This is a tragic death of a young man.”
Dr Adeley said the evidence showed there was no one else involved in the death and no evidence to suggest Mr Slater had been threatened, assaulted, was under duress or in fear for his safety.
The coroner told Mr Slater’s family sat in court that he hoped the “examination of facts rather than conjecture” during the hearing had been some consolation to them.
Mr Slater’s tearful mother, Debbie Duncan, had earlier given a tribute to her son at the hearing on Friday, saying: “He was very loved and our hearts are broken,” Ms Duncan said.
“Our lives will never be the same without Jay in it.”
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