We reveal seven clues and questions which could help solve the mystery of missing RAF airman Corrie McKeague – from his last known meal to new CCTV footage
AS a police family liaison officer, Nicola Urquhart is used to dealing with the human effects of crime.
But trying to solve her own son’s disappearance has been her hardest job yet.
Airman Corrie McKeague, 23, went missing after going clubbing with RAF pals in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, more than three months ago.
He was last seen on CCTV in the early hours of September 24, walking into a small, horseshoe-shaped area housing bins.
Even without a camera trained on the entrance, there is no way he could have walked within 18 yards of it without being picked up by another.
Mum Nicola said: “Not even Jason Bourne could get out on foot without being seen on CCTV, let alone a drunk Corrie.”
However, Suffolk Police admitted: “It is a complete mystery. There is no apparent way for him to have left without being seen but we cannot be certain he did not.”
The gunner’s phone signal was detected later that morning 13 miles away in Barton Mills, matching the route taken by a dustcart which had collected a bin from the horseshoe area 35 minutes after he disappeared.
Waste operators say it would have been impossible for his body to have gone unnoticed.
Nicola, 47, from Fife, conceded “the chances of Corrie being alive are slim” but added: “I am not giving up”.
She has launched her own investigation with brother Tony Wring, a former military intelligence officer, and has carried out a reconstruction of her son’s last movements, hired private detectives and studied aerial drone footage of the vicinity where he was last seen.
The private detectives are exploring potential links with the attempted abduction of an airman 35 miles away in July.
Nicola’s Find Corrie Facebook page has more than 110,000 members, and Hollywood star Tom Hardy has even recorded a video appealing for witnesses.
She thinks Corrie came to harm while in the bin area, was hidden and later moved before the search began.
Police released new CCTV images of six people who were close to the spot where Corrie was last seen.
But The Sun has discovered new information, yet to be made public, which raises further questions over Corrie’s fate — and whether a crime could have been involved.
1: The Last Meal
CORRIE headed for the Mama Mia takeaway after leaving the nightclub alone.
Owner Abdulkadir Tekabac and his brother recognised him as a regular when he walked in just before 1am.
He played Rock-paper-scissors with another customer while he waited for his order – two burgers, a chicken kebab and chips.
As a fit, young man of 5ft 10in and 13st, the food could have been for himself – or was it enough to feed himself and someone he may have been meeting later?
Corrie was picked up on camera at 1.15am walking towards The Grapes pub, where he dropped something then made his way to the doorway of a shop where witnesses say he fell asleep for at least an hour.
The council’s CCTV monitoring unit, manned on Friday and Saturday nights, should have sent wardens to check on Corrie at this point. However no checks were made.
2: The CCTV Blindspot
JUST before he disappeared, Corrie used his phone for the last known time at 3.08am to send a photo to a friend of a night out together.
A swivelling council camera above Greenwoods Menswear then showed Corrie at 3.24am walking down the slope of Brentgovel Street and turning right – out of view – towards the horseshoe-shaped bin area behind a row of shops.
It is thought he went here to relieve himself, looking furtively right and left before walking in, likely feeling uneasy about urinating in a public place. It is an offence strictly enforced in the town and punishable by the RAF.
But could there have been another reason he did not want to be seen?
The CCTV camera remains fixed on that position for a minute before turning to five other view settings.
It then returns three-and-a-half minutes later to the initial angle looking down Brentgovel Street.
With the camera trained elsewhere, it leaves an area roughly the size of a football penalty box uncovered by CCTV.
However, Corrie could not have left that 18-yard blindspot on foot in any direction without being spotted by another camera.
Graffiti seemingly from free-running enthusiasts on a building wall suggests there is a way of climbing on to the roof out of sight of any CCTV – but Corrie was tired and drunk.
None of the buildings were occupied, although an empty drug rehab centre accessed from a staircase close to the bin area is sometimes used by rough sleepers.
Police say they have thoroughly searched the area but Corrie’s family have demanded further checks are made of another rubbish area within the “penalty box” on Short Brackland, close to Brentgovel Street.
3: The Nightclub
AMONG the theories considered by police is whether Corrie was targeted after upsetting someone at the nightclub he had earlier been asked to leave.
The party-loving Scot, described by mum Nicola as “not so much a social butterfly but a social hand grenade”, spent the early part of the evening of Friday, September 23 at his RAF Honington base drinking in a colleague’s room with seven others.
At 9pm the group decided to head into Bury St Edmunds, nine miles away, but accidentally left Corrie behind when he went to feed his seven-month-old French bulldog puppy, Louelle, in his room.
Corrie drove his prized BMW Z4 sports car into town, arriving at 10pm and parking in a disabled bay opposite a Waitrose store.
He spent 45 minutes in the car drinking cans of beer and talking to his brother Darroch, 21, on the phone. They were making plans to meet in London the following weekend.
Dressed in a pink shirt, white jeans with ripped knees and brown suede Timberland boots, Corrie caught up with his friends at 11.05pm in the So Bar in Langton Place, before heading to a Wetherspoon’s in Abbey Gate Street 15 minutes later.
Afterwards the group went to Flex nightclub in St Andrew’s Street South, arriving at 12.25pm where the doorman asked regular clubber Corrie if he was drunk. After answering “a bit”, he was allowed in.
Extrovert Corrie left his pals to chat with male and female strangers in the club but 15 minutes later was asked to leave by staff who were concerned he had drunk too much.
Nicola said: “I’ve been categorically told by police that there is no footage of him upsetting anyone or causing a problem.”
4: Private Life
EXTENSIVE checks have been made into “ladies’ man” Corrie’s background to find a motive for his disappearance.
He had been seeing April Oliver, who he met on a dating site, for five months before he went missing but acted as if he was still single.
The search was given added poignancy earlier this week when April, 21, revealed she is pregnant.
She found out she was expecting Corrie’s child two weeks after he vanished.
The RAF gunner used dating sites including Tinder and Plenty of Fish to meet women.
Nicola has said previously that the sites could provide a lead as to what happened to her son, saying: “Corrie could have been on a site and met someone or agreed to meet someone who was not genuine.
“That is something important that needs to be looked at.”
She dismissed suggestions that because of his extrovert manner and clothing that Corrie could be gay or bisexual.
Nicola said: “He is extremely confident in his own sexuality.
“He has no issues with it. He’s not gay and he classes himself as not gay.
“If Corrie was gay, he would not care who knew – he would be telling everyone and anyone.
“Is he attractive to other men? Yes. Does he like that attention? Yes. But he is not gay.”
Addressing the theory on ITV’s Good Morning Britain in November, she said: “A lot of people have asked if he was but he was very much a ladies’ man.
“But perhaps others thought he was and this is why he was targeted. Has someone even got him locked in their bedroom?”
5: Burning Car
AROUND 36 hours after Corrie vanished, a female former Metropolitan Police officer out walking her dog says she saw three men standing outside a 4x4 car with foreign number plates.
She described seeing a white male among them holding a rag and became suspicious they were trying to set fire to it.
The woman reported the incident, three miles from Barton Mills, along the B1112 at Icklingham, to police.
They are said to have traced the car and its occupants but Corrie’s mum Nicola remains disturbed and says: “I believe this to be very suspicious.”
Although he had never attempted the cross-country route before, Corrie told one witness he was planning to walk back from the club.
His route could have taken him past waterways and the privately-owned lake at Great Livermere.
6: Phone Signal
CORRIE’S phone was receiving social media data almost 90 minutes after he was last seen – first in Bury St Edmunds and then again in the Barton Mills area, 13 miles away.
The times and locations are consistent with the route taken by a private, single-manned Biffa dustcart which collected cardboard waste from the bin area Corrie was seen entering.
It arrived at 4am and left 20 minutes later after the driver filled out paperwork.
One explanation could be that, while relieving himself, Corrie left his phone on top of the bin which was emptied.
Nothing was spotted at the waste sorting site, where its incinerators burn at 1,100C – too low to destroy bones which break down at 1,600C.
Forensic checks showed Corrie was not in the dustcart cab and had not been run over.
But police did not search the waste site for his phone, which could have held vital clues.
7: Six People of interest
POLICE released new pictures of six people seen on CCTV on the night Corrie went missing.
They are believed to be the same people shown in previously released footage but have still not been identified.
The pictures, four of which can be seen below, were captured in the Suffolk market town between 3.15am and 5.20am.
Most of the people seen in the area have already been traced and spoken to by investigating officers following previous appeals. However, there remains a small number who are still unknown to detectives.
Det Supt Katie Elliott said: “Our extensive inquiries are ongoing, with continuing CCTV analysis, searches and background work looking into all aspects of Corrie’s life.
“As part of our ongoing work to find him, the police team have trawled through more than 1,000 hours of CCTV footage.”