Search teams in Spain have found human remains in the area Jay Slater went missing, Sky News has been told - with early investigations pointing to an accident or fall in an "inaccessible area" in the village of Masca.
Monday 15 July 2024 20:57, UK
We'll bring you any further developments on the Sky News website and app.
Scroll down to recap on what's happened - or continue your reading here...
More than 80 donations have been made to Jay Slater's family since Spanish authorities announced a body has been found in the search for the missing teenager.
The has so far raised more than 拢54,000, with a flurry of individual donations coming in the past few hours - roughly triple yesterday's total.
Reports elsewhere cite a spokesperson for the website, stating they are in "regular contact" with Jay's family and will work together on the next steps.
The Daily Telegraph reports the money will be put towards repatriation and funeral costs.
As we reported earlier, Jay Slater's mum felt compelled to speak of "awful comments and theories filling social media" yesterday.
Speaking before a body was found, Debbie Duncan said: "These theories are hindering the people trying to help us in their investigations here in Tenerife and are vile to see as a family."
Whether the discovery of a body curtails the stream of online speculation that has made the suffering of the Slater family all the more unbearable remains to be seen.
It's therefore worth pointing out Spanish police have already sought to dispel any mystery around two people who went with Jay to the mountainous village of Masca, in the northwest of Tenerife, on the night before the teenager went missing.
Police said on 29 June they are "not relevant" to the case.
A video has emerged of the area where a body was found in the search for Jay Slater.
The clip of the rugged terrain in the village of Masca in Tenerife were released by the Tenerife Guardia Civil.
Several teams had been involved in the search for the 19-year-old, with authorities saying the body was found by Mountain Rescue and the Intervention Group of the Civil Guard.
Earlier this afternoon, Spanish authorities confirmed a body had been found in the search for missing British teenager Jay Slater.
The 19-year-old was reported missing after attending a music festival at Papagayo nightclub in the southern resort of Playa de las Americas.
He was last heard from on 17 June after setting off to walk from a northern area of the island back to his holiday accommodation in the south - a journey of about 11 hours.
He called his friend Lucy Law, telling her he had missed a bus, his phone battery was on 1%, and he had cut his leg on a cactus.
Here's what has happened so far today:
The disappearance of Jay Slater sparked a huge search effort - with the emergency services, local volunteers and family members combing a large mountainous area of Tenerife in search of clues.
The 19-year-old was last heard from on 17 June, calling a friend after embarking on an 11-hour walk back to his accommodation.
He told her he was lost and only had 1% battery on his phone.
Phone data reveals his last known location - the Rural de Teno park - a mountainous area popular with hikers.
Within 10 minutes of the call, he was reported missing to police.
You can read an in depth timeline of his disappearance here...
A church in Jay Slater's hometown will open tomorrow to remember the teenager.
West End Methodist Church in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, will be offering support to the local community.
Reverend Matt Smith said: "With this news breaking, we hold Jay's family and friends in our thoughts and prayers at this horrible time."
Our chief North of England correspondent Greg Milam has travelled to Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire - Jay Slater's hometown - this afternoon.
"It's been nearly a month for the family, who have been hoping for a different outcome," he says.
"There are blue ribbons on the railings of the church here because the community had also shown its support for the family and for those carrying out searches."
He explains that while the official search had been called off, Spanish authorities have made it clear that an "incessant and discreet search had continued".
Milam says this was done to preserve part of the remote area so authorities could continue searching without "curious onlookers".
"They were very concerned about the risks that some amateur detectives were compromising the search," he adds.
"For the family and the community here, this is definitely not the end they were hoping for."
As we touched on a little earlier, the disappearance of Jay Slater has been the subject of huge interest in the UK.
Within days of the teenager going missing, a number of Facebook groups dedicated to the case had been set up - with some going on to attract hundreds of thousands of members.
Many users in those groups used them to engage in serious discussion about what may have happened to the teenager, or simply to express sympathy for him, his family and his friends.
However, the story also prompted a seemingly endless stream of wild and outlandish theories, often based on entirely unsubstantiated rumour, fabricated screenshots of online messages from people connected to the case and, in some cases, faked videos purporting to show Mr Slater or what happened to him.
In some posts, users made abusive and untrue statements about members of his family.
And for others, the plight of Jay Slater simply became the source of memes and joke suggestions as to how rescuers could find him.
His mother went on to speak of the anguish comments and conspiracy theories caused the 19-year-old's loved ones.
And within minutes of today's announcement that a body believed to be that of Jay Slater had been found, those social media groups were awash with anger and recriminations.
In one Facebook group with more than 282,000 members, one woman said: "This group needs to be deleted and let the family have some peace.
"All you armchair detectives should be ashamed of yourselves."
While another added: "All nasty people here, are you happy now because you've all gone quiet."
A third commenter said: "I hope when the family have processed everything they go after all these big accounts that went live, wrote all the rubbish they did, making their pain 100 times worse."
