Grieving Mother Seeks Answers After Son’s Mysterious Death in Tenerife

Debbie Duncan, the devastated mother of 19-year-old Jay Slater, has expressed her deep desire to question the two men who accompanied her son to an Airbnb before his tragic death. Jay, an apprentice bricklayer, was found dead after attending the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas, Tenerife, on June 16.

Debbie, 56, is struggling to understand why her son chose to get into a car with two older men and travel to their remote Airbnb apartment after the festival. Jay left the apartment around 8 a.m. the following morning and called his friend Lucy Mae Law at approximately 8:50 a.m., saying he was lost, dehydrated, and had only one percent battery left on his phone. His phone last pinged in the Rural de Teno Park, a perilous 11-hour walk from his own accommodation in Los Cristianos, 25 miles away, told The Sun.

Debbie, who lives in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, believes that Jay might have left the apartment fearing for his safety, as he was known for never letting his phone run out of charge. “Why did he leave there without charging his phone? He would always charge his phone. There are so many questions,” she said.

One of the men who accompanied Jay has been identified as Ayub Qassim, a convicted drug dealer from East London who goes by the name “Johnny Vegas.” The other man was an associate known as “Rocky.” Debbie tearfully questioned, “I don’t know what he thought he was doing by going with these two guys. I really don’t know. I can’t get my head around why he didn’t just go back to his own friends.”

Jay had posted a Snapchat picture of himself smoking on the doorstep of the apartment at 7:30 a.m. He then walked in the wrong direction after apparently being told there was no bus to his hotel until 10 a.m. Jay was reported missing to the police that morning. Spanish authorities allowed the two men to leave Tenerife, stating they were “not relevant” to the investigation, according to The Sun.

Qassim, 31, who allegedly booked the Airbnb under a false name, later claimed, “Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.” However, Debbie still wants answers. “I would like to speak to them, probably in time. I would ask what was happening in Jay’s mind and why did he leave?”

Qassim and “Rocky” addressed social media speculation in a livestream after Jay’s body was found, insisting that Jay’s death was a “tragic accident.” Qassim, who was imprisoned for nine years in 2015 as the leader of a London-based gang dealing heroin and crack cocaine in Cardiff, denied any wrongdoing, saying, “If I’m guilty, then arrest me… It’s mental, mate, it’s actually mad.”

As Debbie continues to seek closure, the circumstances surrounding Jay’s death remain unclear, leaving his family in deep grief and with unanswered questions.