Corrie McKeague’s mum hits out at police probe into missing RAF gunner’s disappearance with scathing Facebook post
CORRIE McKeague's mum has hit out at the police probe into the RAF gunner's disappearance in a scathing Facebook post.
Within the post Nicola Urquhart alleges she was misled by police on at least five occasions - including a claim they had secured the landfill where his body is now expected to be found.
She criticised the force in a bid to clarify the status of the investigation to the 128,000 members of the Find Corrie Facebook page.
Corrie, 23, went missing almost six months ago after a night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
It now seems highly likely he was inside a bin lorry, which travelled to a landfill in Cambridgeshire.
Nicola, a serving police officer, said she is grateful the search is taking place but that it should have started much earlier.
She wrote: “Sadly there is quite a lot of confusion with what we were told and what we are being told now.
“There is...a huge issue with the police claiming on live TV that THEY secured the landfill from the start and ensured no more rubbish was put on top.
"This is not true. They handed back the landfill and were done."
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Nicola said this was done “regardless of my efforts in having the military talking to the assistant chief constable on my behalf begging them not to do this".
Shortly after the gunner was reported missing, officers seized a rubbish truck which collected waste from a wheelie bin in the area in which Corrie was last seen.
There were no traces of him an incorrect weight was given for the bin, putting it at 11kg rather than a much greater weight later confirmed by detectives.
Nicola wrote: “Basically we were initially told the police were given the wrong bin lorry to start with but then got the correct one. We have now been told that's not true.
“Then we were told it was recyclable rubbish. Cardboard and paper. Now we have been told it's household rubbish.
“We were told it went through a specific process that would simply never allow a body through. Now we are told because it's a Saturday there are no staff on and no process what so ever.
“We were told the bin weighed 11kg and now we're told it's 116kg.”
She concluded: “So yes it's fair to say that although my gratitude is immeasurable at the search now taking place, this could have and should have happened so so much earlier.”
Suffolk Police responded to the criticism saying there were a number of other leads in the case including that Corrie tried to walk back to his RAF base or that he was taken against his will.
Police said the waste lorry was seized at the start of the investigation but that information correcting its weight has only recently been received.
Police added: "When an initial decision not to search the landfill was made we remained in contact with the site who had identified where the waste had been deposited. They placed nothing further on top of this. Had anything further been deposited we would have encompassed this in the current search.";
They concluded: "We remain committed to finding out the truth about what happened to Corrie, and work to search the landfill site at Milton in Cambridgeshire continues."
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