Jay Slater's best friend has paid tribute to the “happiest and most smiley person” after a body was found near to his last known location.
While formal identification has not yet taken place, the remains were found by the Spanish Civil Guard with the 19-year-old's clothes and possessions in the Tenerife village of Masca on Monday.
In a post on social media, Lucy Law, one of two close friends Jay had gone on holiday with in Tenerife, said in a moving tribute: “'Honestly lost for words.
“Always the happiest and most smiley person in the room, you was one of a kind Jay and you'll be missed more than you know.
“I'm sure you'll 'have your dancing shoes polished and ready' waiting for us all. We all love you buddy. Fly high.”
An account which appeared to below to fellow friend Brad Hargreaves wrote: “No words. Nothing will be the same without you. Rest easy brother. Love you always.”
His mother, Debbie Duncan, is also said to be “completely devastated” alongside other family members who had personally searched for the missing teen.
A family source told The Sun: “It’s the news they’ve all been dreading. She has a lot of questions which she hopes will be answered in the coming days.
“It hasn’t completely sunk in yet. The hardest thing for her is to hear he was found so close to the original search site. It’s hard to take.
“It means it’s entirely possible they have walked past his body whilst searching for him.
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“It seems incredible so many people walked that area and yet he was so close. As we have seen with mountainous terrain and ravines, it does happen — no matter how hard that is to believe.”
Spanish police said Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, could have fallen in the steep and inaccessible area where he was discovered.
Mr Slater had attended the NRG music festival with Ms Law and Brad Hargreaves before his disappearance, and his last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island on June 17, which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation.
He had travelled to an Airbnb in Masca after a night out, but the two men said to have rented the property were later ruled "not relevant" to the case.
The results of a post-mortem are being awaited to confirm whether Mr Slater died as a result of an accident.
Spanish police called off the search for the apprentice bricklayer at the end of June after helicopters, drones and search dogs were deployed to find him.
But on Monday, the force said teams had not stopped searching every day.
"The discovery was possible thanks to the incessant and discreet search carried out by the Civil Guard during these 29 days, in which the natural space was preserved so that it would not be filled with onlookers," its statement read.
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