Jay Slater’s mother denies her son was involved with a drug cartel in Tenerife
Jay Slater’s mother has insisted her son was not involved with a drug cartel in Tenerife and didn’t steal a £12,000 Rolex watch.
Debbie Duncan has criticised internet trolls for sharing what she says are false stories about Jay.
The 19-year-old, who was visiting the island with friends for a music festival, went missing on June 17.
After an extensive search, his body was found four weeks later down a rocky ravine in the Rural de Teno park with traumatic head injuries consistent with a fall from height.
Now people posting online say Jay stole a Rolex watch from a gangster on Tenerife, was embroiled with the local drug cartel and even hopped onboard a yacht bound for Morrocco.
But Debbie, 56, told The Sun: ‘He would never have been involved in anything like that.
‘He had only been in Tenerife three days – and was at a festival with friends which had wristbands, security and an itinerary.
‘I’ve no idea where these drug stories have come from and the stuff about him stealing a watch is nonsense.’
Jays’s funeral was held in Acrrington, Lancashire on August 10 and attended by around 200 friends, family and well-wishers.
Most wore blue, Jay’s favourite colour, while fliers with a photo of Jay were handed out.
On the front it read: ‘Remembering with love Jay Dean Slater. Always in our hearts. #forever19′, while on the back it said: ‘If there was anyone dancing on the way to the other side it was him.’
During the service, videos were shown of Jay when he was younger playing football, which he started at the age of six, and dancing at festivals.
Jay’s loved-ones asked that instead of flowers people donate to LBT Global, the overseas crisis support charity that helped his family through their heartache.
Sadly the funeral was targeted by online scammers who wrongly claimed people could pay to watch it streaming live, the MailOnline reports.
Jay, an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, vanished, left the NRG music festival he had flown to the island to attend the night before he went missing.
The next morning, friend Lucy Law picked up the phone and heard Jay’s voice for the last time.
He told Lucy he was lost and thirsty while walking home through the mountains. His phone was moments from running out of battery.
Jay’s last known location was the Rural de Teno Park about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.
But after 28 days of searching Masca, a village in the island’s mountains, Spanish police found Jay’s body in a difficult-to-reach area.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.