'Corrie Was Never In Bin Or Landfill', Says Missing Airman's Mother

The mother of missing RAF serviceman Corrie McKeague has said despite initial allegations, her son was "never in a bin or landfill" and could have left the pub he was spotted in after he disappeared during a night out.

Writing on Facebook, Nicola Urquhart, proposed a number of reasons why her son did not fall asleep in a bin in Bury St Edmunds before going missing.

She said:

"The facts, as we understand them are: an eyewitness stating Corrie was standing in the horseshoe at the time of the Biffa lorry picked up the Greggs waste.

"No forensics, in the Biffa Bin. No forensics in the Biffa lorry. No trace of Corrie at Redlodge. No sightings of Corrie at Redlodge during the dropping off process or when the rubbish was then moved within the bay or moved back into the lorry that took it to Milton.

"The entire area that had rubbish dumped on it from the 19th September when Cell 22 was opened to 30th September when it was closed was searched and rubbish from Bury on the dates that Corrie went missing was found but not one single trace of Corrie or his clothes were found.

"Rubbish was found in cell 22 from the exact date Corrie went missing and could be confirmed it was from Bury.

"I believe this all shows without reasonable doubt that Corrie was never in this bin or landfill."

The RAF serviceman's family had campaigned for the landfill to be examined after signals from his phone appeared to coincide with a route taken by a bin lorry in the early hours of September 24, 2016. 

It was only after revelations that the refuse vehicle was carrying a heavier load than first thought that searches started in the landfill site in Cambridgeshire.

But Ms Urquhart has now said the weight of the lorry was incorrect, further added criticism towards Suffolk Police, who had been leading the investigation:

"We believe that this new information changes everything.

"Suffolk MIT had finished, they had closed this case and had no intention of doing anything else. The review that had been carried out I believe is very questionable, as they did not highlight these weights either.

"They also mistakenly believed that Suffolk police based the search of the landfill on the extraordinary weight of 116kg when this was not correct."

In response, a Suffolk Constabulary spokesman has told Forces News that police believe Corrie McKeague was in the bin taken to Mildenhall:

"The most likely scenario is that Corrie McKeague unfortunately went into the bin which was emptied into the Biffa lorry and consequently ended up in the waste process.

"We have come to this conclusion based on all of the evidence we have available to us, and not just the weight of the bin.

"There is nothing to suggest the 116 kilos the bin weighed on the night Corrie was last seen is inaccurate.

The spokesman also said that the investigation is complete unless new information becomes available.