Jay Slater update on teen's tragic death in Tenerife could be shared 'soon'

Jay Slater, 19, died on holiday in Tenerife with his body finally found after a major search, and now former detective Mark Williams-Thomas said he will share an update "soon" on his death

An update into the death of Jay Slater could be shared "soon" claims a former detective who has been investigating the case.

Mark Williams-Thomas, who flew out to Tenerife to meet with Jay's family over his disappearance in June and vowed to get them answers, has now said on social media that he has been continuing his investigations.

Apprentice bricklayer Jay was on holiday when he went missing on June 17. The 19-year-old, from Oswaldtwistle, had been attending a three-day music festival with friends.

Tragically, the youngster's remains were finally discovered almost a month later on July 15 near the village of Masca, just metres from his last known location.

The preliminary autopsy pointed to his cause of death being on account of a "fall or plunge from height", with the Civil Guard confirming that Jay's catastrophic injuries included several broken bones. But despite the findings giving his loved ones some comfort, it still remains unknown why Jay ventured out alone.

However, in a new video posted to X on Monday (October 14), Mr Williams-Thomas said he had an update on his involvement with the case after taking a break from social media. He said that although he always maintained Jay's death was a "tragic accident", there were other updates on Jay's movements before he vanished that have not yet been revealed.

"I worked very closely with the family and as a result of that, got a lot of information, but also a lot of information from potential witnesses, people involved, people who knew Jay and also the authorities in a roundabout way," he said. "One of the things that's very clear is there is a huge amount of misinformation. I've been back and looked through some of the videos that I took when I went out there, in relation to my investigation and thought processes of whilst the investigation was going on.

"You find information out, you look at that, and then a couple of days later that information changes or is evidenced in some way. Some of the information that came to me in the early days wasn't accurate and wasn't correct and I needed to validate it."

Mark said he had "access to the family, mobile phone records and friends" of Jay as part of his enquiries. He said there "wasn't a single friend who stepped away and didn't engage" with him as he probed the teenager's disappearance back in June, including keeping in regular contact one of the men that Jay stayed with at the rural Masca Airbnb rental the night before he vanished.

He admitted that he has not yet revealed details of "considerable issues that existed" and why Jay "left in the manner he did" and didn't want to return but that they may be released "when the time is right", reported the Manchester Evening News.

He stated: "I've got to be very careful. What I don't want to do is upset the family with any more trauma than they have already had and so it would be something I would work very closely with Debbie and the family on to reveal that information. And maybe the time will be right soon to be able to do that, but not right now. I've spoken in the last few days to Debbie; we get on very well. There is no issue with that at all."

He added: "She's a mother who lost her child and not just that, but was in the eye of a media storm. This was an inquiry that hit headlines not just in the UK, but worldwide. People became fascinated and it took on a life of its own and, as a result of that, there were lots of conspiracy theories and people with their own views in terms of what happened.

"But I was literally at the heart of it, able to establish information from different parties, collect that information and look to see what evidential value it had. I was very clear from day one that this looked like a tragic accident."