Jay Slater’s best friend Lucy Law posts emotional message to ‘the happiest and most smiley person’ after body found near where teenager’s last phone pinged

The 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire went missing on June 17, and yesterday Spanish police announced the discovery of a body with Jay’s ‘possessions and clothes’ nearby.

The teenager had jetted off to Tenerife for an eight-day holiday with his best mates Lucy Law and Brad Hargreaves before he vanished.

In a heart-wrenching Instagram post published last night Lucy wrote: ‘Honestly lost for words. Always the happiest and most smiley person in the room, you was one of a kind Jay and you’ll be missed more than you know.

‘I’m sure you’ll ‘have your dancing shoes polished and ready’ waiting for us all. We all love you buddy. Fly high.’

It comes as:

Alongside the message she published a collection of pictures and videos of the pair hanging out over the years.

Formal identification has not yet taken place, but officers say that ‘everything is pointing to it being’ the missing teen.

Brad, who had been helping with the search before flying back to Britain last week, also paid tribute to Jay yesterday.

He posted two snaps of him and his friend alongside a heartfelt message: ‘Nothing be the same without you. Rest easy brother. Love you always.’

The body was found in an ‘inaccessible’ and very remote part of the island, close to the village of Masca in north-west Tenerife.

The terrain is described as ‘dense’ and is understood to be full of uneven ground and shrubland. There is also no sign of any emergency services in the nearby village.

The force released video footage of rescuers climbing rock faces and battling through scrub as they carried out the search.

Part of the clip shows two members of the search team being winched out of the area by helicopter after the body had been found and recovered.

His grief-stricken mother Debbie Duncan, 55, has ‘lots of questions which she hopes will be answered in the coming days,’ a source close to the family said.

‘Debbie is completely devastated,’ the insider told The Sun, adding that the ‘hardest’ part for Duncan is that the remains were ‘found so close to the original search site’.

While the Civil Guard said it had called off the official search after just 13 days, yesterday it was revealed that officials had been carrying on with the search, unbeknownst to anyone in a bid to stop internet sleuths from searching themselves.

‘The discovery was possible thanks to the incessant and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard during these 29 days, in which the natural space was preserved so that it would not be filled with onlookers,’ a statement read.

Tenerife’s Guardia Civil said on Monday that officers are waiting for the results of a post-mortem examination to confirm the cause of death.

Jessica Rogers, the girlfriend of Jay Slater’s brother, took to social media yesterday to pay tribute to the teenager.

She posted a photograph of Jay with a blue love heart, accompanied by the words: ‘Will love you forever’.

Members of the local community in Lancashire have been tying blue ribbons to posts to symbolise their support during the search.

A local man told the BBC that ‘everybody knows everybody around here’. ‘It’s a shame, everybody wants him home – everybody wants an answer.’

Another local said it has ‘hit the community hard’. He said: ‘He’s a local lad and he’s well known. I feel sorry for the family going through this. It’s hit hard.’

Members of a mountain rescue team found a body on Monday in their search for Jay.

Authorities have not yet released the exact location in which they found the body, but it is understood that the remains were discovered in a remote area near the village of Masca.

The Mirror reported that police found Jay’s body a ’20-minute walk’ from where the teenager’s phone last pinged.

While formal identification has not yet taken place, the remains were found with the 19-year-old’s clothes and possessions near his last known location, missing persons charity LBT Global said.

The body was found in an ‘inaccessible’ and very remote part of the island, which the BBC reported is part of the reason it ‘took so long to find any evidence’.

The terrain is described as ‘dense’ and is understood to be full of uneven ground and shrubland. There is also no sign of any emergency services in the nearby village.

The force released video footage of rescuers climbing rock faces and battling through scrub as they carried out the search.

Part of the clip shows two members of the search team being winched out of the area by helicopter after the body had been found and recovered.

Spanish police called off the search for the missing apprentice bricklayer at the end of June after helicopters, drones and search dogs were deployed to find him.

But in its statement on Monday, the force said teams had not stopped searching for Jay every day.

The search for Jay had been carried out ‘under a secrecy order from the court in charge of the investigation’, LBC reported.

Officials had been ‘carrying on with the search, unbeknownst to anyone’ in a bid to stop internet sleuths from searching themselves.

‘The discovery was possible thanks to the incessant and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard during these 29 days, in which the natural space was preserved so that it would not be filled with onlookers,’ its statement read.

Tenerife’s Guardia Civil said on Monday that officers are waiting for the results of a post-mortem examination to confirm the cause of death.

Jay could have fallen in the steep and inaccessible area where he was discovered, the force said.

The teenager had attended the NRG music festival with two friends before his disappearance, and his last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island, which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.

He had travelled to an Airbnb in Masca after a night out, but the two men said to have rented the property were later ruled ‘not relevant’ to the case.

LBT Global, which supports the families of British people missing overseas, said: ‘LBT Global is saddened to announce that a body found in Tenerife does look to be that of Jay Slater.

‘It is understood the body was found close to the site of his mobile phone’s last location.

‘Although formal identification is yet to be carried out, the body was found with Mr Slater’s possessions and clothes.

‘A post-mortem examination and forensic enquiries will follow.

‘LBT Global are supporting the family at this distressing time and ask for everyone to afford them space and privacy to come to terms with the news.’

Supporters raised more than £54,000 to help fund the hunt for the teenager.

Questions have been raised about what will happen to the money given by generous strangers after a body was found following a month of searching.

There has been a flurry of new donations today, with over £1,000 raised in the seven hours since the tragic news was announced.

This brings the total to over £54,500 of the £30,000 target – which was reached within three weeks of the teenager disappearing.

A GoFundMe spokesperson told The Sun it is in ‘regular contact’ with Jay’s family to work out the next steps for dealing with the money over the next few weeks.

The Telegraph reported that the money will be used towards the funeral and repatriation costs.

The family began to withdraw money two weeks ago to help with the search.

Jay’s mother Debbie previously said the money was also being used to support mountain rescue teams, her own accommodation and food costs.

The cash was used to fly in a team of specialist rescue volunteers yesterday as five people and four dogs were deployed, with a sixth person joining today.

The group were sent by the non-profit organisation Signi Zoekhonden, based in the Netherlands, who have about 20 years experience in searching for missing people.

Signi Zoekhonden contacted Mr Slater’s family after reading about the case and told the BBC would use drones as part of their search, subject to flight permission being granted by local authorities.

It came after Tenerife’s Guardia Civil called off the search for the apprentice bricklayer at the end of June after helicopters, drones and search dogs were deployed to find him.

Yesterday, Ms Duncan said she was aware of the ‘vile’ conspiracy theories about her son and claimed they were ‘hindering’ rescue efforts to find him.

In a statement released through British overseas missing persons charity LBT Global, Ms Duncan said the family was ‘desperate to find our beautiful boy’.

She said: ‘As we approach four weeks of our beautiful Jay’s disappearance, we cannot put into words the heartache we are suffering as a family.

‘Jay is a typical young man who loves life, with a bright future ahead of him. This month will mark the end of his three-year apprenticeship with the world at his feet.

‘He is loved by everyone and has a close bond with his family and many, many friends.’

Ms Duncan criticised the ‘awful comments and conspiracy theories’ posted on social media, which she branded ‘vile’ and said were ‘hindering’ people trying to help locate the teenager.

LBT Global chief executive Matt Searle said ‘horrific things are being posted online, and even sent directly to family and friends’ as he called for an end to ‘the constant barrage of conspiracy theories and wild speculation’.

The search in the village of Masca, near Mr Slater’s last-known location, took place in a steep rocky area, including ravines, trails and paths.

Mr Slater had attended the NRG music festival with two friends before his disappearance, and his last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island – which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.

He had travelled to an Airbnb in Masca and the two men said to have rented the property were later ruled ‘not relevant’ to the case, according to reports.

Masca is an hour from the Papagayo nightclub in the heady resort of Playa de las Americas where Jay was last seen with the two British men following the end of the New Rave Generation three-day festival.