An inquest into the death of 19-year old Jay Slater has revealed an ominous message the apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, sent before going missing in Tenerife

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Hours before going missing Slater send a friend an ominous text(Image: Instagram)

Jay Slater sent a message to pals saying “they’ve got a marker on me” after appearing to confess to stealing a £12k Rolex watch.

It was sent hours before the 19-year old went missing in Tenerife, on July 15 last year. After the ominous message sent at 2.39am one of Slater’s friends responded to him and said: “You need to get home lad, you’re off your barnet,” an inquest into his death heard.

The teen disappeared after attending the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas, telling friends he was lost, thirsty and only had 1% battery left on his phone.

His body was found four weeks later in an inaccessible ravine close to where his mobile last pinged.

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The search for Jay Slater lasted 29 days (Image: Facebook)

Alongside this “They’ve got a marker on me” message, Slater sent a message later as he wrote “Just took a £12k Rolly off some **** off to get 10 quid for it now.” between 5.03am and 5.52am on the day of his disappearance.

Josh Forshaw, who met Jay and his friends as they queued to board the plane from Manchester to Tenerife gave evidence at the hearing.

Forshaw revealed he shared contact details with Jay and met the group at the music festival and claimed Jay Slater’s reference to “10 quid” actually meant £10,000.

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Jay Slater had drugs in his system at the time of his death, an inquest has heard (Image: Family Handout/LBT Global/PA)

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He concluded his evidence by saying: “I hope that everybody is all right.”

During the inquest the coroner has asked Josh to provide some evidence on social media to show that ’10 quid’ is slang for £10,000.

To this request Forshaw replied: “Are you serious?”

The coroner replied the question and said: “I am absolutely serious. I want proof from somewhere that it is a common usage that is £10,000.”

Police
Rescuers searched for Jay over several weeks(Image: PA)

Forshaw also told the inquest that Jay “seemed dead happy” and that he was “off his head on drugs” when they met.

On the night of his disappearance, Forshaw said Jay asked him to break an MDMA pill in half for him and friend Brad Hargreaves.

MDMA is also known as ecstasy.

The inquiry also found that drugs were found in Slater’s system at his time of death.

Toxicologist Dr Stephanie Martin told the inquest that, although tests when someone who has been dead for some time are “extremely challenging”, she determined that Jay had ecstasy in his system at the time of his death when the toxicology report was carried out.