Cops hunting missing RAF gunner Corrie McKeague failed to search rubbish dump despite his last mobile phone signal matching bin lorry route
DETECTIVES hunting for missing RAF man Corrie McKeague have defended their decision not to search a landfill site near where his mobile signal was traced hours after he was last seen.
Corrie, 23, vanished after a drunken night out clubbing with pals in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk on September 24.
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, because they claim it 'cannot be confirmed' that he wasn't in another vehicle.
A spokesman for the force said: "We needed to focus on investigating and searching the areas where we were most likely to find Corrie, with searches and CCTV prioritised as lines of enquiry.
"Analysis of Corrie's phone showed it had moved between Bury St Edmunds and Barton Mills around an hour after the last confirmed sighting of Corrie.
"There was then no further signal from the phone.
"Police used the CCTV available outside of the Bury St Edmunds area to see if the movement matched with any vehicle movement and found that the bin lorry had travelled between the two locations at the time, however it cannot be ruled out that another vehicle also made the journey.
"Officers have looked at the possibility that the phone may have been inside or on the bin lorry in some detail but this cannot be confirmed - and there is nothing to indicate whether the phone fell off the vehicle at Barton Mills, was crushed within the vehicle or stopped giving out a signal for another reason.
"Extensive work is still underway in connection with this, including enquiries to gather the information that the phone may have been able to provide."
The police added that they have established most of the information which they would have found out if they had Corrie's mobile.
However, the spokesman added: "There is a possibility there is information on the phone that is not available to the investigation, however the value of this cannot be ascertained."
The force have insisted finding Corrie is a 'priority' - despite being no closer to solving the case four months after he disappeared.
Suffolk Constabulary say the search remains 'a priority' after Corrie's mum, Nicola Urquhart, 48, publicly criticised the force as they investigate the mysterious disappearance of her son.
A spokesman said: "As long as we still have lines of enquiry to follow, as we do now, this will remain an active and continuing investigation.
"Police still have work to carry out around a number of aspects of the investigation and we continue to treat finding Corrie as a priority for the Constabulary."
Nicola added: "Anything I would want to say just now would be really positive to the police.
"I was perhaps disappointed I had to go to the lengths I did to get some of the actions carried out, but I'm absolutely delighted that they have."
Mum Nicola publicly blasted the force last year, launching an appeal fund in Corrie's name which raised more than £50,000.
The family have hired a team of hired private investigators who are using military software to help with the search.
Earlier this week it emerged that gunner Corrie may have been killed by a driver who panicked and disposed of his body.
Head of Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue Andy King said that an area near where he vanished was being combed for a body as a hundred volunteers searched for clues earlier this week.
He told the Mirror: "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.
"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 she believed the search was the "best chance of finding Corrie".
Corrie's friends and family were joined by 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.
Speaking during the search, Nicola said: "In my head, I believe Corrie is still alive, that he could still come home, but as soon as I go out looking, I know that's not what I'm looking for.
"It's really confusing in my head and it has been very emotional.
"It was difficult to deal with but I've got to look for him. I've got to try and find him."
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.”
The 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."
Last 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.
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.
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.
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