The spokesman said: “They are devastated. It’s not the outcome they were hoping for. It looks as if he fell from a height so he would most likely have been killed instantly and he wasn’t there for a long time.”
He said the family appreciated that the area where he was finally found was remote and that “there is no criticism of the search”.
Though the body has not yet been formally identified, Jay’s family expect the remains to be repatriated within a “week or so”, with post-mortems being conducted in both Tenerife and the UK.
Jay had disappeared after being driven to a remote Airbnb near Masca by two men after a party at a nightclub on the island on June 17.
Spanish police said they spoke to the two men and determined that they were “not relevant” to the case.
The 19-year-old had called friends on the morning of his disappearance, telling them he was “lost in the mountains, thirsty and with one per cent battery”.
He said he was planning to walk to his holiday accommodation in the south of an island – a journey which would have taken him about 11 hours on foot.
Jay was reported missing shortly after when his phone died, prompting a major search by local law enforcement.
Spanish police launched a major search of the rural area near Masca where his phone was last pinged. But authorities called off the operation at the end of June, though they insisted the investigation into his disappearance would continue.
After authorities halted the search operation, various volunteers stepped in to assist Slater’s heartbroken family as they continued their own efforts.
The teenager had flown out to the Spanish island with friends on June 13, attending a music festival at Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas, on the south of the island, three days later.
