Jay Slater's 'likely cause of death' in Tenerife confirmed after autopsy

The family of Jay Slater, who disappeared while on holiday in Tenerife, have been told the likely cause of his death.

The 19-year-old vanished while on his first holiday abroad with friends in June. He was missing for weeks as his frantic family searched for him before his body was found in a ravine.

Prior to going missing, Jay went to a music festival with friends before heading to a remote Airbnb with two older men. After leaving the property the following morning, he set off back to his own accommodation but never made it.

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After worried pals sounded the alarm, the hunt for Jay's whereabouts began, with mountain rescue teams scouring the rocky Rural de Teno park where his phone last pinged. The treacherous task of searching the dense vegetation and deep ravines was made even more perilous in changeable weather conditions that lurched from baking 30C heat to thick mists, the Mirror reports.

Eventually, on July 15, Spanish police shared that a young man's body had been discovered in a ravine near a phone mast, along with Jay's clothes and possessions. Fingerprints confirmed it was indeed Jay, crushing any hopes loved ones had of finding the apprentice bricklayer alive.

Efforts then turned to determining how exactly Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, died, a task that proved difficult given that the body was 'very deteriorated', according to reports.

Now a preliminary autopsy has found that Jay likely died following 'a fall or plunge from height', with the pathologist finding that he'd suffered several broken bones.

The Mail Online reports that those close to Jay's have found some 'very small comfort' from the likelihood that his death had been