The mother of Jay Slater has thanked supporters after she closed a controversial GoFundMe account used to fund the search for her son. Slater, 19, went missing on June 17 in Tenerife. The apprentice bricklayer was attempting to walk around ten hours back to his Airbnb accommodation after missing his bus.
After a heavily publicised search, Slater’s body was found nearly a month later — with a GoFundMe, which was set up by his friend to help his family fly over to the Canary Islands and raised £72,821 (€87,571) being closed by his mum Debbie Duncan last week. The disappearance of Jay and his death drew worldwide interest. A number of conspiracy theories were posted on social media as speculation was rife regarding his disappearance.
Ms Duncan thanked ‘all you beautiful people who supported us throughout this heartbreaking time’ as she closed the fundraiser, adding ‘Jay really did touch the hearts of the nation and it truly showed us how much love you all shared with us.’ She also disclosed how the funds were used, saying ‘With your support we were able to stay in Tenerife until we got our beautiful boy back to the UK. We were able to fund the the Signi search team from the Netherlands who supported us throughout the days when Jay was found.
‘Jay truly deserved the send off we were able to give him and we thank you all for that.’ Ms Duncan added that she was ‘overwhelmed’ by the support following her son’s death, adding ‘Our journey of trauma and gri.
