Jay Slater’s mother made heartfelt requests for missing witnesses to come to court, which resulted in the adjournment of the inquest into the death of the 19-year-old British teenager who went missing in Tenerife in June 2024 after attending a music festival.
Jay died from a severe head injury after falling into a scheduled ravine, according to the coroner. He was discovered on July 15 following a 29-day search.
Following a terrible fall in Tenerife, the coroner certifies Jay Slater’s cause of death. On Monday, June 17, 2024, Lancashire resident Jay Slater vanished from sight after attending the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas.
Jay had “fractures to the pelvis and hip joints” and “extensive fractures of the left side of his head … extending into the bottom of his skull,” according to Home Office pathologist Dr. Richard Shepherd, who testified at the inquest in Preston on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
He attested: “The injuries were so severe I have no doubt he would have been instantly unconscious from the moment of that blow to the head.”
According to toxicology tests, Jay’s system included MDMA, ketamine, and cocaine.
Debbie Duncan, Jay’s mother, went to the inquest with her husband and other relatives. She started crying as she testified in court: “Our son went on holiday and I didn’t come back…There are things we want to question. We want these people to be sitting in front of us.”
Despite several attempts to reach them, a number of important witnesses had not shown up, according to the inquest.
Aqub Qassim and Steven Roccas, who were lodging at the Airbnb, as well as Lucky Law and Bradley Geoghegan (also known as Bradley Hargreaves), who accompanied Jay to the festival, were summoned as witnesses.
It’s thought that Jay went to see Brandon Hodgson, a friend of Jay’s. The Metropolitan Police made an effort to find Qassim and Roccas, but both individuals are still unaccounted for, the court was informed.
In order to give himself more time to track down the witnesses, coroner Dr. James Adeley postponed the hearing.
To give more time to find Qassim and Roccas, the coroner has indicated that the inquest into Jay’s death will probably resume “in a month or two.”
Forshaw told the court that although Jau appeared “off his head” when under the influence of narcotics, he had been in a “happy mood” at the nightclub.
Widespread media attention and social media conjecture around Jay Slater’s disappearance occasionally descended into conspiracy theories and online harassment of his friends and family.