Two years after Jay Slater’s death, his mother Debbie Duncan has finally received the answer to the question that has haunted her most: did her son suffer before he died?
The 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer disappeared in Tenerife in June 2024 after leaving an Airbnb in the village of Masca. His disappearance triggered a huge online search—and a wave of conspiracy theories that, according to his family, added another layer of anguish to an already devastating loss.
Jay’s body was eventually discovered in the remote Rural de Teno national park, where he had fallen into an 82ft-deep ravine.
Now, in a new Channel 5 documentary, Debbie returns to Tenerife with Jay’s uncle Glen Duncan to retrace his final journey and examine the medical evidence surrounding his death.
Most importantly, she finally hears from pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd about what happened to her son in his final moments.
“Did he feel anything?”
For Debbie, one question remained long after Jay’s death.
She had been haunted by the possibility that her son might have survived his fall for some time, injured and alone on the mountainside.
That fear was made even worse when she was accidentally shown photographs of Jay’s body by Spanish police while she returned to Tenerife to collect his phone and deal with court paperwork.
Debbie, 57, recalled the devastating moment in the documentary.
“I did think about it and thought, I don’t think I can,” she said of viewing his body.
“But then, when we had to go back to Tenerife to get paperwork from the courts and to collect his phone, to my horror there were images of Jay. I thought my heart was going to stop beating.”
She added: “Whenever people say, ‘How did you know it was Jay?’ Well, it was Jay. My beautiful boy.”
The medical answer that brought Debbie some peace
Dr Richard Shepherd, who carried out the Home Office post-mortem, examined the findings alongside Debbie.
He told her that Jay had suffered a catastrophic head injury in the fall and that it would probably have killed him immediately.
“He wasn’t injured on the hillside dying slowly,” Dr Shepherd explained.
For Debbie, that distinction was crucial.
She had spent two years wondering whether Jay had been conscious and in pain after the fall. According to Dr Shepherd, the severity of the head injury meant that Jay would probably not have experienced prolonged suffering.
The pathologist said it was particularly important to clarify this because of the volume of speculation surrounding Jay’s disappearance and death.
Debbie had been exposed to countless theories online, making it increasingly difficult for her to separate established facts from speculation.
Conspiracy theories added to the family’s pain
Jay’s disappearance became a major subject of discussion on TikTok and other social media platforms.
Online sleuths circulated theories suggesting that the teenager had been murdered, while doctored footage and claims about what might have happened to him spread widely.
The uncertainty surrounding the investigation created further distress for Debbie, who was already struggling to understand how her son had ended up alone in the mountains.
Dr Shepherd said the delays and gaps surrounding the investigation created an opportunity for people online to fill in the unanswered questions with their own theories.
But, he said, neither the Spanish nor Home Office post-mortems found evidence suggesting that Jay had been deliberately harmed.
The medical examinations instead indicated that he was a fit and healthy young man who became confused and disorientated before suffering a fatal fall.
What happened during Jay’s final hours?
Jay left the Casa Abuela Tina Airbnb in Masca at around 8am after spending the night partying with friends he had met at the NRG music festival.
At 8.13am, he shared his last known location with friends on WhatsApp.
Shortly afterward, his friend Lucy Law called him at 8.32am. Jay told her that he was thirsty and “frightened”.
His final communication came at 8.50am.
During the call with Lucy, Jay said he was in the “middle of nowhere” and that “all I can see are mountains”.
His phone battery eventually died at 8.52am.
Investigators were later able to use the location Jay had shared to establish where he had been before he attempted to make his way back towards Los Cristianos through the rugged Rural de Teno area.
His mother retraces the route
In the documentary, Debbie and Glen return to the area where Jay began his final journey.
Seeing the landscape for herself helped Debbie understand why her son may have struggled to find his way back after becoming lost.
She had previously struggled to comprehend how Jay could have reached a point where he felt there was no obvious route back to the road.
But after walking through the area and seeing the steep, rocky terrain, she said she could better understand how frightened and helpless he may have felt.
“We thought, how was it possible to get to a place where he said to Lucy, ‘I’m lost, all I can see is mountains’?” Debbie said.
“He must have been so scared, thinking, I can’t turn back.”
The journey also gave her a sense of closure.
She said being able to see where Jay had started, the ocean he had seen and the terrain he had attempted to cross helped her piece together the final stage of his life.
“Seeing all that now, I understand it better. That’s what closure has given me,” she said.
Debbie still struggles with guilt
Even after learning more about Jay’s final moments, Debbie continues to wrestle with painful questions about what might have happened differently.
She recalled seeing a Snapchat posted by Jay from the apartment less than two hours before his final calls.
Looking back, she finds herself wondering why he did not call her—and why she did not call him after seeing the post.
“I think, ‘Why did you not ring me?’” she said.
“But then I also think, ‘Why did I not ring him when I saw his Snapchat that morning?’”
She added: “Nobody knew what was going to happen. I need to stop feeling guilty about that. It’s really hard.”
“I know he’d be so sorry, Mum”
As Debbie laid flowers at the place where Jay left the road, the emotions became overwhelming.
She broke down while reflecting on the decisions that ultimately led her son into the remote landscape.
Debbie said she believed Jay himself would have regretted taking that final path.
“I know he’d be so sorry for the mistakes he made,” she said.
Then came the words she imagined he would have said to her:
“He’d be saying, ‘I’m so sorry, Mum.’”
For Debbie, the journey back to Tenerife has not erased the pain of losing her son. But after two years of unanswered questions, seeing the terrain and hearing the medical findings has given her a clearer understanding of what happened to Jay—and reassurance that he did not endure a prolonged period of suffering after the fatal fall.
Cause Of Death airs on Channel 5 on Wednesday at 9pm.