The mother of Jay Slater, who was found dead in Tenerife after a 29 day search, has revealed she was sent fake pictures of her son in chains, with online trolls claiming to have kidnapped the British teenager.
Debbie Duncan was sent edited images showing the 19-year-old with a collar around his neck and a large cut under his eye.
The grieving mother told the Sun she was sent thousands of messages, pictures and videos shortly after her son first went missing on June 17, sparking a massive search effort.
She told the newspaper: “I wanted to believe that he'd been chained up - because at least that way I knew that he would still be breathing somewhere.
“I wanted to believe he'd been kidnapped and he was being held, because I thought, well, that would mean he's alive somewhere.”
The teenager was found almost a month later, with his family flying out to the Spanish island to help desperately search for him.
Ms Duncan revealed her family were sucked into some conspiracy theories, hoping that Mr Slater “might be breathing somewhere”.
She also told the Sun she was “terrorised by trolls,” adding that she did not “even have the words to describe how sick these individuals are”.
A post-mortem examination found the Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, who died on June 17, found he died of traumatic head injuries, consistent with a fall from height.
His death would have been instantaneous.
Heartless scammers also targeted Mr Slater’s funeral by claiming to offer a livestream in return for money.
The teenager had attended the NRG music festival with two friends before his disappearance, and his last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island, 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 Spanish Civil Guard said Mr Slater could have fallen in the steep and inaccessible area where he was discovered.
