Jay Slater disappeared in Tenerife on 17 June 2024 during a trip to attend the NRG music festival, according to reports. An extensive 29-day search took place after he went missing, and his body was discovered on 15 July 2024. He suffered a catastrophic fall on the way back to his accommodation after a night out, sources indicate.
In response, his mother, Debbie Duncan, has launched a petition calling for Jay's Law to stamp out malicious online content, and she is backing the Mirror's Missed campaign and Missing People's call to end tragedy trolling. Debbie Duncan says the police have not been able to do much about the online abuse, and she and her family have been through hell and back at the hands of online sleuths, with the abuse dehumanizing her son and leaving her feeling slagged off and treated like she is subhuman. The abuse included prank calls and social media posts claiming to know where Jay is and dragging his friends and brother into it, Debbie Duncan says, and it became stratospheric after trolls discovered one of Jay's friends had a conviction for drug dealing.
I'm surprised I'm not in a padded cell.
After Jay's body was discovered, trolls claimed it wasn't him in the coffin and suggested digging him up to be sure, while others accused Debbie Duncan of using a GoFundMe to pay drug debts and claimed her whole family were drug dealers, she reports. Debbie Duncan says trolls make up their own narrative and people comment on the content to slag her off.
We've been through hell and back at the hands of so-called online sleuths.
It dehumanised our son.
It's been like living in a movie - but with no pause button.
I'm a mother who has lost her son, but have been slagged off and treated like I'm subhuman.
You name it, we've had it, on platforms from Facebook to Tiktok to YouTube.
Prank calls and social media posts saying, 'we know where Jay is' and dragging his friends, and even his brother, into it - 'Zak is too quiet, he knows more than he's letting on'.
People began to make videos with voiceovers about Jay being in a drug-fuelled underworld.
It was mad, a snowball, out of control.
They were sending photographs of photoshopped images of Jay, making out he'd been tortured.
Trolls said it wasn't him in the coffin and the only way to be sure was to dig him up.
People said I was using it to pay drug debts. They said our whole family were drug dealers.
It was just soul destroying, because nobody knows us, but yet we were judged in such a bad way.
We live in a nice house, we've all worked, we all have jobs, there's no criminals in our family.
Trolls make up their own narrative. And then people comment on the content, slagging me off.
I've visited the police station so many times, but there's not much they can do.