Videos and images from the hours leading up to Jay Slater’s disappearance have been made public for the first time – with one capturing the moment he bragged about taking a £12,000 watch
New unseen footage captures the moment Jay Slater bragged about snatching a £12,000 AP watch while “off his undies” in a car – just hours before his disappearance in Tenerife.
The 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished after attending the NRG music festival with friends on the Spanish island in June last year. His remains were discovered nearly a month later in steep, rocky terrain near the remote village of Masca following a major search. Now, footage and images from the hours leading up to his disappearance have been made public as part of the inquest into his death – including the last videos Jay ever sent.
One short clip, sent from his phone shortly before 6am, shows Jay in the back of a car headed for Masca, MailOnline reports. In the caption, he boasts: “Just took a 12k rolly off some c*** wi this Mali kid off to get 10quid for it now haha off my undies.” Another Snapchat, sent at a similar time, reads: “Yes cuz ended up getting thrown out of there me with 2 maili kids just took an AP off some c*** on way to sell it for 10 quid.”
At 7am, Jay sent a 13-second video of himself smoking a cigarette outside an Airbnb, taking in the mountain view. Minutes later, he filmed a final, seven-second clip showing the rugged landscape. Police later geolocated the footage to Masca – the same area where his body was eventually found. Jay had been driven to the Airbnb by Britons Ayub Qassim and Steven Roccas.
The clips come after Jay’s cause of death was revealed during an inquest, finally debunking a long-standing rumour that the teenager was murdered after stealing the £12,000 watch. At Preston Crown Court on Wednesday, Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd said Jay’s body was already decomposing when he examined it. However, he said the teenager’s cause of death was a head injury. A CT scan showed there was “a severe fracture of the head […] entirely consistent with a heavy fall from height.”
Dr Shepherd told the inquest that even if Jay had been admitted to a specialist neurosurgical unit, the head injury was so serious it is highly unlikely he could have survived. “The injury is so severe that death was either instantaneous or extremely quick,” he said. The Spanish authorities also concluded that the cause of Jay’s death was a severe traumatic brain injury.
Toxicologist Dr Stephanie Martin told the inquest there was more than one drug present in Jay’s body at the time of his death. Although tests when someone who has been dead for some time are “extremely challenging”, she determined that Jay had ecstasy in his system, as well as a cocaine metabolite, which is present when cocaine is taken at the same time as the consumption of alcohol.
The inquest was dramatically halted on Wednesday when Jay’s mum, Debbie, pleaded for the two British men who rented the Masca Airbnb with Jay to attend the hearing. Convicted drug dealer Mr Qassim, as well as Mr Roccas – previously known as ‘Rocky’, did not attend and could not be located, despite coroners making every effort to find them.