Corrie McKeague witness found by cops who hope cyclist might hold vital clues to where missing RAF man is
THE hunt for missing RAF man Corrie McKeague has received a boost after police revealed they had traced a potential witness who may hold vital clues into the young man's disappearance.
Police searching for the 23-year-old airman, who has been missing for five months, revealed they have traced a cyclist seen in CCTV images recently released by investigators.
Corrie, 23, went missing after a night out in Bury St Edmunds last year and hasn't been seen since
Despite the breakthrough, cops are still appealing for two other potential witnesses to come forward – an older man and a person seen walking through the Brentgovel Street/ ‘horseshoe’ area of Bury St Edmunds around 5.15am – 5.20am on Saturday 24 September.
News of the new witness comes as cops announced they are facing a long delay to search a 900-square metre area of the site in Milton, near Cambridge, for clues.
Detective Superintendent Kate Elliott said police had hoped to begin searching the site next week but have to wait for the rubbish to be moved first.
She said: "The site has to be made safe and accessible before the search work can get underway and this preparatory work has already started.
"But this is going to take slightly longer as 8,000 tonnes of bulk material will have to be removed first to allow safe access to the area where the search needs to take place.
"The work to trace Corrie remains a priority and we are continuing to progress our investigation as the work around the site search is being planned.
"It was initially hoped that the search could start next week, but the logistics of building access routes and ensuring the area is safely accessible for those who will be carrying out the work mean further preparatory activity will need to be done first.
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"This is a considerable task and we need to ensure everything is in place before officers begin the process of going through the waste in the landfill."
Last week police said the search is expected to take six to ten weeks to complete.
Corrie was last seen on CCTV going into an area of the Suffolk town called the horseshoe.
Police know a waste collection was made from the area hours after he was last seen but the landfill - 27 miles away - has not yet been searched.
A forensic search of the rubbish truck did not reveal any trace of the airman, originally from Dunfermline, Fife.
Detective Superintendent Elliott added: "We have been liaising with Corrie's family around the timescales involved and, while we can't confirm a start date, this preliminary work will be completed as quickly as possible, so the full scale search can take place.
"Our aim from the start was to find Corrie and we have been carefully going through all lines of enquiry in detail, checking and re-checking information that has been passed to us to discover what happened."
Police have also been reviewing data provided by a private company employed by Corrie's mum Nicola Urquhart.
Corrie, a gunner stationed at RAF Honington Suffolk, was last seen in the early hours of September 24 after a night out drinking with pals in Bury St Edmunds.
CCTV shows him in the town centre at 3.25am, but in spite of a massive police inquiry in which hundreds of people have been interviewed, his disappearance remains a complete mystery.
Police say they traced his mobile phone to a spot between Bury and Cambridge before the signal vanished and the route was on a journey made by a bin lorry on the day Corrie disappeared.
Yesterday Corrie's dad says he is "waking up to the reality" that police are searching for his son's body.
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