UK UK - Corrie McKeague, 23, Bury St Edmunds, 24 September 2016 Media *NO DISCUSSION*

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Search for Corrie McKeague grinds to sudden halt

17 March 2017

[...]

Nicola Urquhart, 48, said: "The search team were stood down first thing this morning as the excavator has broken down.

"Work will hopefully resume on Monday."



Corrie McKeague’s dad praises police search team ‘on hands and knees’ at Milton landfill site

17 March 2017

[...]

Making a second visit to the site in Milton with his wife, 48-year-old Martin issued a statement on Thursday to express his gratitude.

“We had the honour of meeting and shaking the hands of another five members of the police search team, who will be rotating into the existing team of eight men and women who are raking through the rubbish there and looking for my son,” he wrote.

[...]

Martin added: “These police officers are managing to sift through 80 tonnes of rubbish per day, sometimes on their hands and knees, to ensure no detail is missed.

"Make no mistake; this is a high-risk crime scene with 24-hour security around the site, which means you need a small specially-trained team to ensure no evidence is contaminated.

“For this reason, you couldn’t simply bring in a large gung-ho group with heavy machinery everywhere. This is a forensic search, like an excavation, to be treated delicately and with care.”

Insisting he would “do anything to be out there with them,” Martin went on to say: “This is not classed as a low-risk search, where you can bring in volunteers, and search areas where this is very little if any chance of finding Corrie there. Those tend to become like media spectacles with little or no value.

“What’s also important to remember is how the search has arrived at this point, in this wasteland.

If it weren’t for the incredible efforts of the Suffolk police force and their persistence in going over and over the data - even as other serious lines of enquiry continued - the human error in the calculation of the weight of the bin that likely carried Corrie here may never have been found.”



Corrie’s dad pays heartfelt tribute to cops sifting “80 tonnes of rubbish a day

17 March 2017

[...]

Martin McKeague thanked Suffolk police officers for their efforts to find the missing 23-year-old saying “no words” could describe how indebted his family were to them.

[...]

“I’m humbled by their efforts, and the words to describe how indebted we are to these people escape me.

“It was a very emotional day for us and it’s not getting any easier. I can’t believe the incredible progress this team has made from last week to this week.

[...]

“And to avoid any confusion whatsoever, the Suffolk police have confirmed that none of the information provided by private investigation agency McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS) – who were employed with publicly crowdfunded money – has led to the search of this landfill site, nor has the information provided by MIS told the police anything they didn’t already know.

“Now, if Trisha and I had at any time felt, even for a moment, that the landfill site should have been searched sooner based on the information that was available at the time, then we would have been the first to say this to them, and shared those sentiments with you. But this was not the case.”
 
Suffolk Police Update

24 March 2017

As a search continues at a landfill site in Milton in Cambridgeshire, police are confirming that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will be working alongside officers investigating Corrie McKeague’s disappearance.

A team of specialist trained search officers from Suffolk and Norfolk Constabularies are continuing work at the site and have now been through more than 845 tonnes of material in the search.

Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott said; “Officers have been liaising with the HSE as part of the investigation into the circumstances around what happened to Corrie.

“At this stage our search at Milton continues. If there is a find on the site then the HSE will have a role to play in looking into the procedures that were in place and we have been speaking with them to ensure they are aware of our investigation to date.

“Officers have completed thousands of hours of enquiries to find Corrie and through the work that has been completed over the past few months we have gathered a substantial amount of information which will inform both our own and any potential HSE investigation as we move forward.”
 
Health and Safety Executive working on Corrie McKeague investigation as 900 tonnes of landfill searched so far

24 March 2017

[...]

A spokesman for HSE said they are helping police using their specialist knowledge of the waste system.
They said: “Using specialist knowledge on the safety aspects of waste collection, HSE is assisting Suffolk Police with its ongoing enquiries into missing airman Corrie McKeague.”



Corrie Mckeague: Sixty tonnes of waste a day searched for airman

24 March 2017

[...]

Mr Mckeague's father Martin said the "long wait" to find his missing son was "heartbreaking".

He said: "We're six months down the line that Corrie went out and it hasn't got any easier.

"I think now all the leads are leading to Corrie being in the landfill site.

"It's the unknown. Its just been horrendous, there are no words for it."

[...]

Despite earlier claims, police said the decision to search the site was not prompted by data provided by an intelligence firm, hired by Mr Mckeague's family.

Mr Mckeague's mother Nicola Urquhart brought in McKenzie Intelligence Services after she expressed concerns with the police investigation.

Its managing director Forbes McKenzie said data provided about Mr Mckeague may have helped direct police to the landfill site.

But, police said they had planned to search the site before it was revealed a bin collected from the area where Mr Mckeague was last seen was heavier than first thought.

A spokeswoman said: "Officers have been liaising with the company that provided the [bin weight] data to check and re-check the information provided.

This has involved them going back through thousands of lines of raw data to check the information, leading to the error being found.

"This was not in any way linked to data provided by MIS, the private company employed by Nicola Urquhart."



Missing Corrie: "Suffolk Police Have Let The Public Down"

24 March 2017

The landfill search for missing airman Corrie McKeague should have started much earlier, says a retired detective superintendent.

Nick Biddiss, who during his career has carried out a number of investigations involving landfill searches, says that it was "fairly obvious" that the site should have been examined.

[...]

Steve Gaskin, former Metropolitan Police detective chief inspector, was also very critical of Suffolk Police:

"You don't even need to be a detective to understand that there has been mistakes here. Any reasonable person would have undertook an investigation of that site a lot earlier. All you need to see are the words bin, lorry, landfill site"

[...]

Suffolk police's full statement in response to this report is below:

The former officer is not aware of the full circumstances of the case and he clearly speaks with the benefit of hindsight, not with the knowledge of the investigation team who have worked tirelessly to find Corrie since the start of this enquiry.

The landfill site search was always one possibility police were looking at, after it was thought Corrie’s phone may have been in the bin lorry, however it was only one of the possibilities. It was thought extremely unlikely that he went with his phone due to the information officers had at that time about the weight of the pick-up. Officers were told that the waste pick up from the area was just 11kg, and it was only through comprehensive checking and re-checking by police that this was recently found to be incorrect.

The bin lorry had also been forensically examined and this did not reveal any traces of Corrie.

Initial witness accounts indicated that Corrie may have tried to walk back to Honington. There was also speculation that something else may have happened to him – that he may have been taken against his will, for example - and officers could not afford to rule out any of these options.

Painstaking work followed alongside searches, comprehensive CCTV examination and background enquiries to see what may have happened. The combination of the lack of CCTV sightings and witness information gradually ruled out many of the other possibilities but it was only by carrying out these enquiries – and the work to check the data provided - that this was found to be the most likely option.

We knew the cost of any search would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds - it is estimated the cost of the search will be around £500,000 if it lasts ten weeks - but this was always going to be the case. The difference now is that we believe we’re looking for more than just Corrie’s mobile phone, which we already had acquired data from through other means.

It is worth noting that this investigation has called upon major crime and specialist expertise from across the UK.

It is always disappointing when a former investigating officer fails to realise the complexities of a case. He better than anyone should know that police have to work with facts, not rumours and speculation, particularly when we have an active investigation into the full circumstances of Corrie’s disappearance."
 
Father of missing Corrie McKeague tells of heartbreak

24 March 2017

[...]

Speaking to STV News, Corrie's father Martin said he had now visited the landfill site three times.

Martin McKeague said: "I just never imagined being here six months down the line.

"It's just utterly heartbreaking and I don't wish this on anybody.

"I don't even know where the time has gone, I'm kind of just existing. I'm trying day by day to get through this mess."
 
Suffolk Police Update

28 March 2017

Police can confirm that a young woman who was one of two remaining people seen on foot in the area where Corrie McKeague was last seen has been spoken to by officers.

The woman had been seen on CCTV in the Brentgovel Street area of Bury St Edmunds around 5.15am – 5.20am on Saturday 24 September and officers had been making appeals to trace her, along with an older gentleman who has yet to be traced.

She has now been spoken to and has confirmed she is the person in the images but she has not been able to add anything further to assist the investigation.

Officers are now in the fourth week of work at a landfill site in Milton in Cambridgeshire and have now been through around 1,000 tonnes of waste material in the search.
 
Corrie Mckeague: Airman landfill hunt in 'the right place'

24 April 2017

Officers have been searching waste in Milton, Cambridgeshire for eight weeks.

They have now started to unearth rubbish from 10 September and said the items uncovered indicated they were "searching in the right place".



Police searching for Corrie McKeague make major breakthrough

24 April 2017

Police searching for missing serviceman Corrie McKeague have identified landfill rubbish from the same time period when the 23-year-old vanished.

[...]

Speaking on the search, mum Nicola Urquhart posted on Facebook: [...]

"Although other enquiries are still ongoing, the other vehicle in the horseshoe after the bin lorry has still not been ruled out but the search is taking absolute precedence. Details were passed weeks ago to police to try to assist with the final identification police are asking for, they have not completed these enquiries as yet.

"There is still a huge amount of rubbish to search, potentially a further 4 weeks. We know now that the process that's been carried out would not prevent Corrie, (or your child) ending up in the landfill. We also do not know, and without finding Corrie, we will never have a hope of knowing if someone is responsible for what's happened.



Mum of missing Corrie McKeague spent the day watching CCTV while helicopters circled landfill site

25 April 2017

The mother of missing airman Corrie McKeague revealed she spent today (April 25) with police watching nearly two hours of CCTV footage of her son sleeping in a doorway on the night he went missing.

Nicola Urquhart, 48, watched the footage with sons Makeyan and Darroch while speculation grew over potential developments at the Milton land fill site when a helicopter was spotted circling.

[...]

Cambridge and Suffolk police forces were uncertain about the helicopter, but believe it could have been from a television station.
 
Cost of Corrie Mckeague investigation exceeds £1million

5 May 2017

[...]

A spokeswoman for Suffolk police said the total spend on the investigation so far is estimated to be more than £1m.

She said: “The total spent on the investigation above and beyond staffing costs is currently around £544,250.

“With an estimation of staffing costs, including salaries, overtime and specialist resources included in the total, over £1 million has been spent on the investigation to date.”

This is one of the most expensive investigations conducted by Suffolk police.



Corrie landfill site search area extended

5 May 2017

Police searching a landfill site for missing airman Corrie McKeague have widened the search are after finding the rubbish has naturally shifted.

They have now completed work on searching the cell at the Milton site that was originally identified and have expanded to peripheral areas which may still hold the answer to Corrie’s disappearance.

Officers have found material which indicated they are in the right area – finding waste that was clearly identifiable as being from Bury St Edmunds and within the right time frame. However, towards the edges of the area it has also been noticed that the waste may have naturally shifted from the original deposition area. Police are expanding the search parameters to take this into account and the search will be continuing into the tenth week of work on Monday.



Corrie Mckeague’s mother is confused as to why he has not yet been found at landfill site

5 May 2017

The mother of missing airman Corrie Mckeague is still confident her son will be found at a landfill site despite the search area believed to hold the key to his disappearance throwing up no clues.

[...]

A Suffolk police spokesman said: “As the search has been carried out officers have found material that have indicated they are in the right area – finding waste that was clearly identifiable as being from Bury St Edmunds, and within the right time frame.

“However, towards the edges of the area it has also been noticed that the waste may have naturally shifted from the original deposition area.

“Police are expanding the search parameters to take this into account and the search will be continuing as the tenth week of work on site gets underway on Monday.

“Throughout the search, the work being completed has been reviewed. This remains a continuing process, with a number of factors including the dates on items being found and advice from both the police search advisor and the site team being taken into account.

“The officers carrying out the search have been working extremely hard in difficult circumstances – with the nature of the waste being searched through, safety considerations, the weather and the depth of the search required presenting a number of daily challenges.

“Throughout the search Corrie has very much been in the forefront of officers’ minds.

“Enquiries have been continuing while the search has been going on at Milton, with officers gathering further information about Corrie’s lifestyle and background.”
 
Suffolk Police Update

9 May 2017

Search work at the Milton landfill site will continue for at least a further week as the hunt for missing Corrie McKeague continues.

Officers have now cleared well over 3,100 tonnes of waste on the site and have completed work on searching the cell that was originally identified. However, towards the edges of the area it has also been noticed that the waste may have naturally shifted from the place where it was originally deposited and the search has been extended into these areas which may still hold the answer to Corrie’s disappearance.

Throughout the search officers have found material that have indicated they are in the right area – finding waste that was clearly identifiable as being from Bury St Edmunds, and within the right time frame.

The work being completed is continually being reviewed, with daily updates being passed to senior officers overseeing the investigation. In view of the dates on items still being found and advice from officers on the ground and the site team, the search will continue into week 11.

The officers carrying out the search have been working extremely hard in difficult circumstances – with the nature of the waste being searched through, safety considerations, the weather and the depth of the search required presenting a number of daily challenges.

Throughout the search Corrie has very much been in the forefront of officers’ minds.

The total cost of the investigation to date, including the search of the site, is estimated at over £1million and enquiries have been continuing, with officers gathering further information about Corrie’s lifestyle and background.
 
The mother of missing Corrie McKeague says she will never give up search for him

11 May 2017

Video report by ITV News Anglia's Kate Prout

The mother of missing airman, Corrie McKeague, says she's convinced he will be found in a landfill site in Cambridgeshire, but if he isn't she will never give up her search for him.

Nicola Urquhart was speaking to ITV News Anglia as specialist police officers widened their search at a landfill site in Milton.



The search for Corrie McKeague: 'We may never find my son' says dad

12 May 2017

There is a "growing chance" that police may never find Corrie McKeague, according to his father.

[...]

Martin, who has been living close to the landfill site in a camper van, said on Facebook: "Today marked the eleventh visit to the landfill site where the search for my son has continued over the last ten weeks.

"And maybe the hardest thing that Trisha and I are now trying to come to terms with, as we near the completion of the search effort within the extended parameters that have been set, is that despite the dedication and efforts of the Norfolk and Suffolk police forces there is a growing chance we may never actually find Corrie here.

"Now, let me be clear about what that means so no one starts thinking my son is not somewhere in this landfill site, or that the police are somehow searching in the wrong place.

"He is [in the landfill] and the police are searching in the right place. And any suggestion to the contrary simply does not marry up to the evidence."



Missing Corrie McKeague's girlfriend April Oliver posts pregnancy photo

13 May 2017

The girlfriend of missing airman Corrie McKeague has posted a picture of herself showing her pregnancy alongside an emotional message to her unborn child.
 
Suffolk Police Update

17 May 2017

A search on the landfill site at Milton in Cambridgeshire will continue as Suffolk Police continue to investigate the disappearance of Corrie McKeague.

Over 3,500 tonnes of waste have been searched through over the past ten and a half weeks as specialist search trained officers from both Suffolk and Norfolk police continue to look for anything that may assist the investigation.

No trace of Corrie has been found to date, however, throughout the search, officers have been finding items that are from the correct dates, around the time that Corrie went missing, and that are clearly from Bury St Edmunds.

The search has been expanded after waste linked to both the right dates and the right location were found outside the initial cell area identified.

As this type of search is so unusual, it was not known how the waste would have moved and as the work has progressed officers have gained a greater understanding of both how the waste is deposited and spread out, and the nature and construction of the site. Officers continue to take all of this into account as the search continues.

The work is under constant review and now, in week 11, in view of the dates on items still being found and advice from officers on the ground and the site team, it is likely the search will continue for at least three further weeks to ensure that the area holding waste from the relevant period is comprehensively examined.
 
Missing airman Corrie McKeague "knew" his girlfriend was pregnant days before disappearance

27 May 2017

Missing airman Corrie McKeague knew he was to become a father days before he went missing, according to his dad.

Martin McKeague, 48, claims that the 23-year-old knew his girlfriend April Oliver, 21, was pregnant six days before he disappeared.

He also admits that Corrie was suffering from depression and was taking medication at the time.

Martin said that April revealed the pregnancy to Corrie during a trip to London.



Missing Corrie McKeague 'spotted' by delivery man hour after last known sighting

29 May 2017

Corrie McKeague was spotted near a dogging site an hour after the final known sighting of the 23-year-old, a new witness has claimed.

A delivery driver told the police he saw the airman at 4.30am on the day he vanished, around 66 minutes after he was last seen on CCTV during a night out with friends in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Roy Hawes, 55, said he saw a man matching Corrie's description 12 miles from where he was last seen entering a refuse area behind a Greggs.

But he claims police failed to investigate his sighting properly. Roy, a bread delivery driver, said: "I saw him clear as day."

[...]

Roy said he and his wife Maria both reported the sighting to Suffolk Police but says detectives failed to follow up the lead.

A police spokesman said: “Police have the report, the time given was prior to Corrie’s phone leaving Bury St Edmunds. There was nothing to link this to Corrie.”



Police deny van driver’s ‘sighting’ of missing Corrie was ignored

30 May 2017

Police have denied reports that they ‘ignored’ a van driver’s claimed sighting of missing airman Corrie McKeague crossing the A11.

Suffolk Police have been backed up by Corrie’s dad Martin McKeague who says it and other claimed sightings were investigated early in the search for the missing RAF Regiment airman.

Delivery driver Roy Hawes told the Mirror at the weekend that he had seen Corrie, wearing the distnctive pink shirt he was last seen in, crossing the A11 at Barton Mills about an hour after he was last seen in Bury St Edmunds on September 24.

He said: “He stood out because it was 4.30am, very cold and he was in shirt sleeves.”

The Mirror said his report was ‘not followed up’.

But Suffolk Police said today that they had located Mr Hawes report, which was not made until November.

A spokeswoman said: “No description of the person could be given, and it was said to have been around 4am but the caller could not be specific about the day. The time given was prior to Corrie’s phone leaving Bury St Edmunds and there was nothing to link this to Corrie.

“As part of early enquiries, police carried out searches in the Barton Mills area to see if Corrie could be located, and carried out extensive CCTV viewing, which showed no positive sightings of Corrie leaving the area on foot.

Our investigation continues and currently remains focused on the search at Milton landfill site after the weight of a refuse bin taken from Bury St Edmunds was found to be significantly higher than first thought.”

[...]

Martin McKeague backed-up the police claim on social media saying “We were made aware of this sighting way back when it was first reported. What I can tell you is that this sighting, and the many others like it, most certainly was looked into by the police.”
 
Search for Corrie McKeague at Milton landfill halfway through after 4,000 tonnes of rubbish sifted through

31 May 2017

[...]

Martin McKeague praised the police teams from Norfolk and Suffolk as their search for the missing RAF airman reaches the halfway point.

[...]

He wrote on Facebook (May 28): "The police are digging and raking through what's been called a "cell" or large area.

[...]

"At present the police have searched approximately half of that cell's total area, and that search has now been extended into beyond that primary search area."

[...]

Police began searching the landfill site, believing he may have ended up in a large dumpster, which was taken to the site in a bin lorry.

Detectives fear Corrie could have been crushed in the vehicle.

[...]

[Martin] added: "The reason the police are searching the landfill site now is because there is hard evidence to suggest that they will find my son there."
 
Search for missing Corrie McKeague at Milton landfill site could end next week

1 June 2017

The search for missing serviceman Corrie McKeague could end next week.

Specially trained officers are currently in week 13 of searching a landfill site in Milton where police believe he might have been carried by a bin lorry.

[...]

A spokesperson for Suffolk Police said: "It's been 13 weeks and we expect it to go into next week. It's business as usual. At the end of next week it will be 14 weeks and a decision will be made after that."



Search for missing Corrie could end next week

1 June 2017

[...]

Suffolk Police say the search at the Milton landfill site near Cambridge has been going on for 13 weeks, but there could be a further extension depending on what's found.
 
Suffolk Police Update

5 June 2017

The search at the landfill site at Milton in Cambridgeshire will continue as officers work to trace missing Corrie McKeague.

Specialist officers from Suffolk and Norfolk police have been searching the area of the landfill site which was identified as holding waste from the Bury St Edmunds area in the relevant time period.

The work is constantly being reviewed and, as the search team are still finding items from the right time frame that are identifiable as coming from the town, the search will continue on a week by week basis.

Throughout the search officers have been working to understand exactly where waste was deposited and how it may have been spread out during the process.

This week police will be bulk-moving further material to allow the work to continue. This is being done to ensure all parts of the relevant area are covered following further detailed and specific work completed around the GPS positioning of the vehicle which brought the waste to the site.

This has led to an expansion of the original search parameters as work continues to locate anything that may help the investigation into Corrie’s disappearance.

Around 4,430 tonnes of waste have been searched through to date.
 
'Those moments never leave me.' Corrie's father on watching the landfill search for his missing son

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22 June 2017

The father of missing airman Corrie McKeague has thanked the teams searching for him in a landfill site at Milton near Cambridge and released a new photo of him at a younger age.

Read Martin McKeague's thoughts on the search [at the link above].



Corrie McKeague’s mother says she ‘continues to wait for phone call’ in landfill search for son

26 June 2017

Nicola Urquhart, 48, posted a detailed social media update on the search of the Cambridgeshire landfill site, where officers have been working for the past 17 weeks.

[...]

A spokeswoman for Suffolk police said: “We have been finding things with those dates on throughout the search.

“While we are still finding things with the dates on, the search will continue.”



Corrie McKeague's mum says he could be found at any moment

27 June 2017

[...]

Nicola Urquhart wrote on the 'Find Corrie' Facebook page on Sunday that police were finding rubbish related to the time that her son disappeared meaning Corrie could be found very soon.

The Dunfermline mum wrote: "Due to the rubbish that is being found, if Corrie is in this landfill he could literally be found tomorrow.

[...]

Ms Urquhart also confirmed that the search was taking a lot longer than she originally thought, because Police had found rubbish just outside the original search zone that was from the correct time and location.
 
Quagmire fails to defeat Corrie tip search officers

29 June 2017

[...]

The dedicated team has now sifted more than 5,000 tonnes of rubbish, clearing 50 to 90 tonnes a day. They continued their work on Wednesday when record overnight rain had made the site a Somme-style quagmire and still managed to work through another 70 tonnes.

A Suffolk police spokeswoman said today: “They are still very much finding stuff that’s from the relevant time and date range, so the search will continue.”
 
Mother praises Corrie search team by sharing treasured photo

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3 July 2017

The mother of missing Corrie McKeague has praised the work of all those who have searched for her son by sharing a treasured photo.

Nicola Urquhart took to social media to thank all those who have supported her family by posting a photo of herself and her son the night before he joined the RAF.

The Dunfermline mother said officers had continued to face another week of searching a landfill site in challenging conditions as they enter the 40th week anxiously waiting for news since Corrie's disappearance.
 
Corrie McKeague's mum says his drink could have been spiked on the night he disappeared

16 July 2017

[...]

Police search teams who have sifted through more than 6,000 tonnes of rubbish at a tip 13 miles away in Milton, Cambs., continue the search for him.

[...]

After reading a Facebook post suggesting Corrie may have been drugged, Nicola said: "This is possible.

"We need to find Corrie to follow that line of enquiry.

"I have watched the CCTV of Corrie in the doorway. From him walking in to leaving.

"Every single second. When Corrie slept in the doorway it wasn't because he was looking for somewhere the sleep He slide down the wall he was leaning on. Then fell over on his side. It wasn't what looked like a conscious decision."

The CCTV footage showed Corrie wandering alone in the town centre, which is eight miles from his base at RAF Honington, after being ordered out of a club by a bouncer.

"Corrie looked confused that he was asked, but left with no problems at all," Nicola told the Sunday Mirror.
 
Suffolk Police Update

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21 July 2017

The search of a Cambridgeshire landfill site to find anything related to the disappearance of missing Corrie McKeague will be completed this afternoon.
Officers are now in the 20th week of a targeted search at the Milton landfill site directed by the information and intelligence gathered as part of the investigation, and, while officers have been finding waste from the correct time frame throughout the work, no trace of Corrie has been found.

The search team will have completed work by 3pm this afternoon, Friday 21 July, and will have searched through more than 6,500 tonnes of waste.

Police have been searching the area where waste was deposited between Monday 19 September – when the new cell 22 was opened for waste deposits - and Monday 3 October, which is when police notified the site after early enquiries had indicated the bin lorry may be of interest.

Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott said; “Our thoughts are with Corrie’s family as we had hoped that this search would have provided them with the answers about what happened to him.

“This has been an unprecedented search, in the scale and amount of waste that has been examined. We have searched the whole area where we believed Corrie could be. We had compelling information that directed us to this area however we haven’t found Corrie and this is bitterly disappointing.

“We have searched over 6500 tonnes of waste, excavating a huge area. Without anything further to tell us where he might be on such a vast site the search cannot continue.

“Officers have been finding items such as newspapers and other material that have September 2016 dates on them. This is the time that Corrie went missing. Some items have been clearly identifiable as coming from Bury St Edmunds and this has confirmed that we have been searching in the right place, however none of these items have had any link to Corrie. We have also found items such as mobile phones, footwear and clothing and each one of these items has been checked to ensure it did not belong to Corrie.

“We have completed the search of the area where we know waste was deposited in this period. In fact we have searched an area that is larger than was originally designated. The work was initially extended to include areas containing additional waste dated in the correct time frame and was further extended in response to new information regarding the location of further relevant waste.

“Sadly, we have not found Corrie or any trace of his clothing or mobile phone.

“All the work we have carried out, particularly around the weight of the bin lorry collection, points to Corrie being taken to the landfill site.

“The search has been complex, systematic, thorough and comprehensive. Throughout the process the work being completed has been reviewed by national experts.

“The investigation behind the scenes hasn’t stood still while the search has been carried out, but all the information we have still points to the fact that Corrie was transported from the ‘horseshoe’ area in the bin lorry.

“Having been through all of the possibilities in detail, there is nothing to support any theory other than that Corrie was in the bin. There are no further sightings of him on CCTV to suggest he left the area, and we have explored the other possibilities as to how he left – such as being taken from the area by someone – and there is no evidence to support that this is the case.

“On CCTV he appears to be alone and we have traced and spoken to everyone who walked through Brentgovel Street around the relevant time, and none of them have seen anything suspicious.

“We know that Corrie’s phone travelled away from Bury St Edmunds at the same time as the bin lorry that collected waste from Brentgovel Street. The theory that Corrie was in the bin that was emptied into the bin lorry shortly after he was last seen is strengthened by credible information that we have obtained through our enquiries that Corrie had been known to go to sleep in rubbish, following a night out.

“We’ve explored every other reasonable hypothesis – and there is nothing to support any other explanation.

Police have confirmed other details around the search;

Milton landfill site is over 48 hectares and accepts approximately 96,000 tonnes of waste per year.

Police contacted the site on Monday 3 October, a week after Corrie was reported as missing. As soon as he had been reported missing, on the afternoon of Monday 26 September, police began an extensive search for him, carrying out ground, air and water searches within the first week, completing initial background enquiries, while also looking at CCTV for positive sightings to try and trace his movements after he left his friends in Bury St Edmunds.

Officers had quickly viewed CCTV to track where he had been and determined that he had been seen in Brentgovel Street around 3.25am. While CCTV was being examined around the area for further sightings, the viewing was also moving forward in time and it was then identified there had been a bin lorry collection in the area around 4.15am - 4.20am on Saturday, 24 September. Further enquiries determined the waste was taken to Milton for landfill disposal. This was the only bin collected from the area on Saturday 24 and waste from it was taken first to a transfer station and then onto Milton landfill site.

It is known there were several collections in Bury St Edmunds after the Brentgovel Street one before the bin lorry went on to other collections in Mildenhall, Newmarket, Soham and Ely.

Police were initially advised that the weight of the bin pick-up was 11kg however, following repeated checking with the company by officers, it was discovered the weight of the bin was much higher than originally thought – over 100kg.

Cell 22 was opened on Monday 19 September and waste from the relevant time period and from Bury St Edmunds was deposited here, as well as waste from other parts of the region. However it has been determined during the course of the search that waste may have been spread and moved across the area as part of standard procedures on the site. This has informed our search parameters. Cell 22 and its borders are where police have been searching.

The site is a combination of waste material and heavy clay soil – making the search difficult due to the intense physical activity of raking through the clay and the type of items that have to be searched through.

The officers carrying out the search have been working extremely hard in difficult circumstances – with the nature of the waste being searched through, safety considerations, the weather and the depth of the search required presenting a number of daily challenges. Throughout this time their minds have been very focused on Corrie and what might be found.

Det Supt Elliott said; “I cannot thank them enough for their efforts; in recent weeks searchers have been working in 20-30 degree heat while wearing layers of protective clothing – heavyweight trousers to protect from sharp items, face masks and gloves - and have needed hydration tablets in addition to supplies of water to combat the risk of heat exhaustion.

“We have been absolutely committed to finding Corrie and none of us wanted to be in this position, where we are unable to provide the answer.

“This has been one of the biggest and most complex searches of a landfill site in the country. This search process has been reviewed as it has been carried out and what we have learned and the expertise gathered during the search is now being called upon by other constabularies.

“We would like to thank contractors and staff at the site for all their assistance throughout the work.”

Officers have been exploring all possibilities since the start of the missing person investigation. The initial CCTV work has given detectives a good picture of who was in the area at the relevant times and police have a number of statements which corroborate each other after cross-referencing various witness accounts.

Police have been looking at what may have happened including whether Corrie got into the bin himself or whether it may have been physically possible for someone to have lifted someone of Corrie’s build into the bin between the last confirmed sighting at 3.25am and the bin lorry collection around 4.18am, and whether there could have been an accident or any criminal activity.

Officers have also looked at Corrie’s previous behaviour and have spoken to friends and colleagues about his actions during and following a night out.

Suffolk Police have commissioned a review of the work completed since the start of the investigation to see if anything further can be done to trace Corrie McKeague.

We remain open minded and should this review reveal further lines of enquiry that will help us find Corrie we will pursue them vigorously.

It is estimated the investigation has cost over £1.2million to date, the vast majority of this relating to the cost of searching the site.

The Police & Crime Commissioner for Suffolk understood the necessity to do this work and provided the funds for this search.
 
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