Missing Jay Slater witness found ‘holidaying’ in Tenerife

One of the last people to see Jay Slater alive but failed to attend his inquest has been found on holiday on the island where he died.

Lucy Law was meant to be at Preston Coroner’s Court yesterday to answer questions over the 19-year-old’s death in Tenerife last June.

She gave interviews along with another friend, Brad Hargreaves, in the early days of the month-long search for his body, but now appears to have grown shy.

But opening the hearing at Preston Coroners’ Court yesterday, senior coroner Dr James Adeley said the pair ‘cannot be found’.

He said: ‘We can’t find them. They have denied who they are, and we have had police looking for them but we can’t find them.’

Yet Ms Law’s family insisted she was on holiday, back on the island where Jay died.

She also appears to have kept her family in the dark about the legal hearing.

Her step-father Andy Davis said last night: ‘We had no idea Jay’s inquest was even being held today.

‘The police have only just been round today to say that she was due to give evidence. But it’s the first time we knew of it.

‘They asked if Lucy was home and I said she was abroad and they asked me if I was aware that she should have been in court, and I said I wasn’t.

‘The police said they had sent Lucy paperwork with the dates on it, but the first I knew about it was when the police turned up earlier today.’

They told him that she had been sent paperwork with the dates on it, but Mr Davis told them she was in Tenerife.

Other witnesses who have gone to ground include:

• Ayub Qassim who was renting an AirBnB where Jay was filmed before he died.
• Steven ‘Rocky’ Roccas, who was also renting the AirBnB
• Brad Hargreaves, who had travelled with Jay to the island
• Brandon Hodgson, a friend of Jay who was part of the trip

Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan, who attended the inquest with other relatives, sobbed as she asked the coroner: ‘How can we ever get any understanding?

‘There’s things we want to question. We want these people to be sat in front of us, because our son went on holiday and didn’t come back, so there’s questions we need to ask.’

Dr Adeley agreed to adjourn the hearing at her request for the witnesses to be brought to court to give evidence before the inquest concludes.

Lucy claimed he called saying he was lost, had only 1% of battery left and needed water.

Brad told reporters Jay had video called him saying he had missed a bus and was embarking on an 11-hour trek home over rough ground.

The inquest heard Jay’s body was identified by his palm print.

Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd said: ‘There were extensive changes due to decomposition.

‘There were changes due to the period of time he was lying in a hot environment – changes I would expect to see in that period of 28 days or thereabouts.’

The pathologist said Jay suffered several injuries but one ‘to the head is by far the most important one in understanding why Jay died’.

Toxicology expert Dr Stephanie Martin told the hearing there were difficulties checking for the presence of drugs or alcohol in a body so severely decomposed.

But she said analysis of Jay’s body showed traces of the presence of MDMA and MDA, commonly known as ecstasy along with cocaine and alcohol.

Dr Martin said because of the limitations of the analysis, she could not say exactly how much or how soon before death the drugs had been taken.

Analysis of samples by the Spanish authorities also showed the presence of ketamine which was not found in the UK samples.

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