19-Year-Old English Teen Jay Slater Went Missing After a Rave — What Happened Next?

After finishing up a stressful work week, 19-year-old Jay Slater decided to travel to Tenerife with friends for the New Generation Rave Festival. Sounds ideal, right? Unfortunately, Jay went missing, and his story ended in tragedy.

It’s easy for anyone to get caught up in a fun night, especially when they’re blowing off steam. Drugs are in abundance, everyone is drinking, and if they’re on vacation, they’re also in an entirely new place they may be unfamiliar with. That seems to be the condition Slater was in when he went missing on June 17, 2024. But what happened to him afterward?

A party or a rave is always an excuse for a good time, but sometimes, that excuse trumps all other rationality. Slater, who was an apprentice bricklayer in Lancashire, England, was partying with his friends on June 16, 2024. Each of his friends left at a different time to go home, but Slater wanted to continue the party, so he decided to follow two men in their 30s back to their Airbnb near Masca.

Their Airbnb was further than Slater realized from his own accommodation in Los Cristianos. While no one has publicly discussed what transpired between Slater and the British men, the internet started circulating theories that ranged from threatening to absurd, placing blame on Slater’s family and friends. When Slater left around 7 a.m., he posted a Snapchat in which he was seen wearing a watch.

Then, he was seen by island local Ofelia Medina Hernandez, at the bus stop. Slater asked about the bus back to Los Cristianos, and she held up her hands to say 10 a.m., but he may have misunderstood. She later saw him walking up the road out of the village, which is when Slater may have called his friend, Lucy Law.

Slater called Law around 8:15 a.m. to tell her what was going on. She shared that he said he was dehydrated, lost, cut his leg on a cactus, and had 1 percent battery left on his phone, so he wouldn’t be able to use the Maps app to get home. After missing the bus, he told her he was just going to walk back, which would have been an 11-hour walk through tricky terrain.

Law almost immediately reported him missing after not hearing from him again. But on July 16, 2024, the missing persons case broke wide open when a body was found near Masca in a deep ravine. The Spanish authorities said it could take a while to ID the body, but later in the day, they confirmed through fingerprint identification, as well as his belongings, that it was, sadly, Slater.

While many are suspicious of authorities and the family, the terrain is so tricky that experienced hikers have also lost their lives there. Slater may not have been in the best state to navigate that terrain. The authorities also released footage of the search to show their efforts iand how difficult it was to navigate.

Based on the autopsy, officials have stated they believe that Slater simply fell down the ravine. His family has already stated that they’ll do an official autopsy and identification in the United Kingdom.

Our condolences go out to Slater’s friends and family during this difficult time.