Corrie's Case Was 'Handed To Cold-Case Team Too Soon'

The mother of missing airman Corrie McKeague says police have handed the investigation to a cold case squad before looking at all the information.

No trace of the 23-year-old has been found since he was last seen in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on September 24, 2016, and the current theory is that he climbed into a waste bin and was taken away by a refuse lorry.

Suffolk Police said in a statement that investigators had been through all realistic possibilities in detail, that there was no evidence of foul play and that the inquiry would move to the cold case team.

Mr McKeague's mother, Nicola Urquhart told Forces News: 

"They should be arresting people and speaking to the people that can give them the answers - and do it under caution if necessary."

"They should be getting the truth and they should have done all of that before they even started searching the landfill. 

"If they had kept the landfill site secure right at the beginning like I begged them to... they would have had everything that needed to be searched and they would have been able to prove that either Corrie was in that cell, and their theory is correct, or he was never in that bin. 

"The media spin that they're putting on it upsets me, because they're not being honest. "

Police carried out two searches of a landfill site at Milton, near Cambridge, last year, with the first lasting 20 weeks and the second, lasting seven weeks, concluding in December.

Nicola said of the case being handed to the cold-case team: 

"Suffolk's cold case team is headed by three civilians. They are not police officers.

"I'm now going to be handed over to three civilians who... have not been part of this investigation, so I'm now going to have to go through everything all over again". 

"I don't think it should be going to a cold case."

"I think they should be waiting, and at least having the moral decency to wait until they have updated me.

"To me, it's all just a media spin, as opposed to genuinely doing a good job". 

"I will say, since I've had the new SIO, she has been trying to give me answers, which has made a huge difference emotionally.

"I am able to say that for now, all reasonable lines have been carried out."

"I want to be able to trust them, but when they do something which stops me from being able to trust them, I have to question what they're saying more and more." 

Mr McKeague's girlfriend, April Oliver, announced last June that the missing serviceman had become a father with the birth of their daughter.

His father, Martin, told the Daily Mirror he thought his son knew he was going to become a father, which may have affected his mental state, and he feared the airman may have killed himself.

Responding to this, Ms Urquhart told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme: "Corrie did not know, it had not been confirmed and he was not depressed.

"There was nothing in his medical records to suggest it."

She added:

"What's important - and the only thing that we should ever have to be talking about - is what can be done to try and find Corrie because we will not give up until we've got reasonable answers to reasonable inquiries."