HUNT FOR CORRIE
Search teams looking for missing RAF airman Corrie McKeague working on theory ‘panicked driver hit and killed him then disposed of his body’
MISSING RAF airman Corrie McKeague may have been killed by a driver who panicked and disposed of his body.
Corrie, 23, vanished after a drunken night out clubbing with pals in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk on September 24.
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He has not been seen since and mum Nicola Urquhart, 48, launched a huge search operation this morning, with specialist teams and volunteers rooting through five-square miles of woodland and fields.
Head of Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue Andy King said that the area was being combed for a body.
He told the : "We’re now looking at areas that if something had happened to Corrie and there was foul play and you had to get rid of him, put him in the back of a car, these are areas where you could go discreetly park up and dispose of a body reasonably easily.
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"We want to find Corrie because we want to give the family closure.”
It is believed that Corrie, who is based at RAF Honington in Suffolk, may have attempted to walk back to his barracks 10 miles away - but extensive searches along the route have proved fruitless.
The last sighting shows the airman walking from a shop doorway and into a horseshoe-shaped area, before vanishing without a trace.
Mr King said: "We’re working on the theory that he’s been hit by a vehicle and somebody has panicked and rather than taking him to hospital somebody has disposed of the body.
“Were searching places that somebody could drive to in the early hours of the morning.”
Corrie's mum Nicola. who works as a Family Liason for Police Scotland, revealed today she believes the search is the "best chance of finding Corrie" after admitting the hope of finding her son alive is diminishing.
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Corrie's friends and family are joined volunteers and sixty searchers from the Suffolk Lowland Rescue Service, as well as five Cadaver search dogs - which are specially trained to seek out corpses- a drone team and 14 specialist 4x4s.
A man accompanying the search team said: "People are getting split up into groups of around 10 and taken off in 4x4s to search different areas in small teams.
"In total they're going to search between four and five square miles for Corrie.
"They said they're going to be meticulous and they're going to leave no stone unturned."
Andy King, Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue chairman, said: “She has a determination to find her son, and we want to do everything that we can to help her.
“It can’t be ruled out that he is deceased, so the search will include areas such as byways and country lanes where someone could have taken his body by car.”
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Yesterday's search focused on an area close to the Fiveways junction of the A11 near Mildenhall, Suffolk.
Areas searched include those close to where Corrie’s mobile phone was last picked up – the handset has never been found.
Corrie’s family have repeatedly said they will not give up on the search or their hope he will be found alive.
His dad Martin McKeague, who split from Nicola when Corrie was nine, did not take part in the search - instead praising the police force on Facebook.
Yesterday he wrote: "The McKeague family has seen first hand the extraordinary effort the trained professionals in the Suffolk police, SULSAR and the RAF have, and continue to demonstrate in the search for my son, and we hope you feel the same way.
"Our hope is that you continue to raise questions, offer up your ideas and recommend that anyone who thinks they might have some clue to Corrie's whereabouts contact the Suffolk police incident room on 01473 782019.
"That's how we'll bring Corrie home together."
This week it was revealed that Corrie was a member of a swinging website and that cops questioned a 28-year-old woman who claimed she met him through it five months before he vanished.
In recent weeks it emerged that Corrie’s girlfriend April Oliver, 21, is pregnant with his child.
Miss Oliver said Corrie did not know about the baby, which is due in late spring or early summer.
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Corrie is originally from Fife in Scotland and moved down to Suffolk to live at RAF Honington where he worked as a gunner and team medic in the air force.
Police have found no trace of the 23-year-old serviceman since he was last spotted on CCTV in the early hours of September 24.
Corrie was last seen on CCTV at 3.25am in Bury St Edmunds town centre.
He was wearing a light pink Ralph Lauren shirt, white jeans and brown suede Timberland boots with light soles and was spotted walking alone, eating takeaway.
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He was reported missing after he failed to turn up at his base in RAF Honington, and since his disappearance Suffolk Police has carried out "extensive" investigative work to find him, searching woodland, scouring hundreds of hours of CCTV and tracing dozens of people who may held clues.
But, in November they admitted they have "no leads" despite trawling through 1,100 hours of CCTV footage.
There are still efforts to trace two people spotted on CCTV the morning he vanished.
A Find Corrie Facebook page has more than 110,000 members and Hollywood star Tom Hardy has even recorded a video appealing for witnesses.
Last week Corrie’s uncle, Tony Wringe revealed the family had hired private investigators who were using military software to help with the search.
The new move comes after thousands of kind supporters donated money totalling over £50,000 to help towards search costs.
A Suffolk Police spokeswoman said: “We are aware of the new search being carried out on Sunday.
“Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue have helped us from the start of the investigation.
“We are continuing our efforts to find Corrie."
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