Jay Slater’s mum told how her family was targeted by online trolls in the wake of her son’s disappearance in an emotional interview on BBC Breakfast.

Lancashire teenager Jay disappeared in Tenerife in June 2024, leading to a month-long search until the 19-year-old’s body was found in a national park on the island. It was later determined that he had died after a fall.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast on Thursday (September 25), his mum Debbie Duncan told how the family had been inundated with online abuse and misinformation after he went missing. With all the misinformation circulating, she “didn’t know what to believe” about his whereabouts.

“It was just unbelievable,” she told hosts Ben Thompson and Sarah Campbell, sharing: “I think I just had a breakdown.”

She and her family are now calling for Jay’s Law, which would see tighter regulations online to stop misinformation about missing people.

Debbie Duncan on BBC Breakfast (Image: BBC screengrab)

“It was just insane,” said Debbie. “It was just, you know, it’s this, it’s that, every day. And we’d get back and get together after they’d all been out searching. And it’s like, yeah, it could be this, it could be that.”

“It was just unbelievable,” she said. “It was just, we were out there, we were desperate. And then all this misinformation… you didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t real.

“And then obviously when we found Jay, it just blew up even more.”

Debbie said when Jay’s body was found, she and her family “didn’t feel like there was any sympathy there from these people, but they just kind of sensationalised it all online”.

Jay’s body was discovered after weeks of searching (Image: BBC screengrab)

“I just don’t want another family to have to go through what we’ve been through,” Debbie explained.

Over a year after Jay’s death, Debbie said that she “still can’t bring myself to unpack his case.”

However, she has unpacked a bag her son had with him when he died.

Visibly emotional as she went through it, she shared, “So this is the bag Jay had with him when he was found. And we got handed this from the Guardia Civil. And it’s got these things in it. His driving licence, and then there’s this bottle of aftershave. And then his lighters.”