Disappearance of Jay Slater

Submission 1,694

About

The Disappearance of Jay Slater refers to the ongoing disappearance of Jay Slater, a 19-year-old Englishman who was on holiday in Tenerife, Spain, in June 2024. A Facebook group was launched to help raise awareness of his disappearance and was mocked by users on social media, prominently on Twitter / X due to the absurd suggestions by members of the group on finding a solution to find Slater and spreading conspiracy theories that made little sense. A parody song inspired by Slater's "last night out" also became the subject of memes and debate on TikTok. As of July 2024, the Spanish police have stopped searching for Slater.

Background

On June 18th, 2024, news outlets^[1] reported a rescue team to search for Jay Slater, a 19-year-old from Lancashire in England, who went on holiday to Tenerife, Spain to attend a music festival on the island. After the festival, Slater decided to explore the mountain village of Masca with two new friends he met at the event.

Sky News^[2] posted a video on June 19th explaining that Slater had "cut his leg on a cactus" and did not know where he was (seen below), which amassed more than 400,000 views and 2,500 likes in two weeks.

According to The Independent^[3] news website, Ofelia Medina Hernandez was the last known person to see Slater, informing him that his bus back was scheduled for 10 a.m. Hernandez remembers seeing Slater "walking fast" as she drove past him. Shortly after, Slater called his friend Lucy Law, saying he was lost while walking from Masca to his accommodation in Los Cristianos, located on the south coast of Tenerife. He mentioned his phone was at 1 percent battery and that he needed water. The last confirmed sighting of Slater was in the Rural de Teno National Park. Later that morning on June 17th, 2024, Slater was officially reported missing.

Developments

Jay Slater GoFundMe

On June 20th, 2024, a GoFundMe^[4] campaign titled "Get JAY SLATER home ❤️" was launched by Slater's friend to raise money to help give his family members money in the search to find him. In the two weeks that followed the creation of the campaign page, £47,000 was raised with more than 4,000 people donating.

Online Reactions

Facebook Group

On June 18th, 2024, a Facebook^[5] group titled "JAY SLATER MISSING – OFFICIAL GROUP" was created on the social media platform by Rach Louise Harg on the day following his disappearance. In the span of five days, the group had gained over 500,000 members (seen below).

Following the creation of the group, members posted suggestions of what they could do to help with the search and gave suggestions on what they could do to find him. For instance, on June 19th, Facebook[^[6] user Samantha Hornsby suggested leaving water bottles over the region Slater was missing (seen below, top), which garnered roughly 1,100 reactions and 180 comments in two weeks (seen below).

Some trolls joined Slater's Facebook group and started to post ironic suggestions to find him, which was later shared on X. For instance, on June 21st, 2024, X^[7] user @BuenoHames tweeted a "Top 4 best comments on the Jay Slater Facebook group chat," which amassed more than 18,000 likes and 1,100 reposts in two weeks.

A second Facebook^[8] group was created on June 20th, 2024, by Darren Watts which was titled "Jay Slater Discussions and Theories" and included suggestions and theories on what happened to Jay.

Jay Slater TikTok Song

On June 27th, 2024, TikToker^[9] @alexiversonmusic posted a video captioned "Jay Slater Song," whose lyrics were inspired by Slater's "last night out." The post (seen below, left) received more than 409,000 plays and 14,000 likes in a week.

The music sparked a debate on TikTok about the unhinged lyrics, like TiKToker^[10] @qu33fm0nster video, which features the caption "If I ever go missing please don't tell the British public, just let me be missing." The video (seen below, right) garnered over 439,000 likes since posted on June 29th.