UK UK - Corrie McKeague, 23, Bury St Edmunds, 24 September 2016 #1

[Amonet]

I've just read through this thread and have a few thoughts, I don't know how relevant they may be.The description of phone pings sounds like tower pings, and I'm not sure how often the ping is made but I believe the process is to use pings off at least two towers to then triangulate an approximate location for the phone at the time of the ping....but it's not a moving ping, so it would be like doing dot-to-dot, you'd draw a line between each ping and then look at which roads and pathways are the closest match. I'm not an expert in this, and it's a shame we don't have someone on this board who could tell us more about this topic.

This case, on the surface, reminds everyone of young people getting drunk and coming to an accident on their way home. But the phone info and what the police are now saying doesn't seem to match that, at least not on a simple level.I'm not good at remembering names, but this case reminds me most of the story of Kayleigh in the Ibstock area? So what if someone driving around the town centre in the early hours of the morning, after the pubs and clubs had shut, was driving with nefarious thoughts in their mind? What if they offered him a lift? He's a strapping young lad, I think he would have had to get in voluntarily (or be pulled in by more than one person?) They drive so far and the driver pulls out a knife and demands his money, and Corrie is killed? Or maybe Corrie's appearance did lead to someone who is homosexual thinking Corrie shared those preferences and there was a fight when it turned out he was wrong? Then all those searches between BSE and Honington would be looking in the wrong place. The trees are dropping leaves at this time of year...

After an attack, the attacker might look in his pockets and turn the phone off....are they searching the area of the last ping? I presume the checking of CCTV footage is including checks on car number plates, and maybe that's where the investigation is focusing right now, while keeping all options open.

And I could be completely wrong.

My heart goes out to Corries family and friends, and I hope for a positive outcome, but I hope they will not have to wait too much longer for answers...they must be going through such hell right now

 

[MelmothTheLost]

After an attack, the attacker might look in his pockets and turn the phone off....are they searching the area of the last ping?

Simply switching a phone off does not stop it pinging nearby towers. You have to take the battery out or the battery has to go flat for that to happen.

 

[Amonet]

I'm Googling this and it seems to be a very contentious point. I'm not sure if it's relevant to worry about the difference here.

A phone being turned off or the battery being removed, both are deliberate acts, yet both seem unnecessary and would take thinking about. If you wanted to cover your tracks because you'd abducted someone, then just throwing the phone away without stopping the pings wouldn't give much more information than the last ping would.

If you'd taken someone back to your home, or a place that could easily be associated with you, and they still had their phone on their person, and it's at this point you decide you don't want anyone to find them, then yes, you want to stop the phone pings, because you don't want anyone to track the person to this specific location, and it's too late now to worry about earlier pings.

If we go any further on the phone route, then we're talking about someone who thinks they're tech savvy, or is tech savvy, specifically with mobile phone technology, and has paranoid thoughts regarding tracking. If we did a poll here, I think most people would just discard the phone and keep driving.

I don't know if any of this is relevant, but it does seem relevant if Corrie was still with his phone at the time of the last ping.

Simply switching a phone off does not stop it pinging nearby towers. You have to take the battery out or the battery has to go flat for that to happen.

 

[eucalyptuz]

Peak District burned body 'is not Corrie McKeague'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-37658753

 

[eucalyptuz]

A few new facts in this article and a street view of the area where Corrie's phone last pinged:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19808...ce-of-the-earth-from-near-terror-snatch-site/

Other, unreleased footage shows Corrie sleeping in a doorway before getting up again at 3.23am. The trail ends there.
Police know from phone records that Corrie had his Nokia Lumia 435 handset on him at 3am as he sent a picture to his friend.

His phone remained in Bury St Edmunds until around 4am, according to signal records, and can be traced moving 14 miles away to Barton Mills, near the RAF base at Mildenhall, at a speed that suggests in was in a vehicle

 

[Happygirl]

What intrigues me is that for someone who owns a BMW but his phone is a Nokia... usually you would find most of the youth today would have the IPhone, Samsung etc which you can't take the battery out of, so I'm wondering did he intentionally use the Nokia as part of a plan to disappear as you can take the battery out of it? This is just me thinking out loud, no offence intended.

 

[DakotaMayi]

What intrigues me is that for someone who owns a BMW but his phone is a Nokia... usually you would find most of the youth today would have the IPhone, Samsung etc which you can't take the battery out of, so I'm wondering did he intentionally use the Nokia as part of a plan to disappear as you can take the battery out of it? This is just me thinking out loud, no offence intended.

Im so glad you have said this. I have wondered this for a while and typed it out a few times, never did sound right when I worded it.

 

[mrazda71]

Maybe he was using an older phone because he'd already lost or broken a phone and was using that one until upgrade time? All 3 of my daughters have done this before ...

I respect your opinion but I have to strongly disagree, I don't think he's just disappeared of his own choosing at all.

 

[DakotaMayi]

Possible. I (luckily) have not yet smashed my iphone however I know a few who have broken cells and just get them fixed. I dont think a Nokia Lumia is that cheap to be a spare. I suppose all options should be looked at. Gives him the best chance of coming home.

 

[Kitkat28]

My 19 year old uses a Nokia Lumia by choice, as he likes the Windows phone interface and integration with his laptop. It wasn't especially cheap either!

 

[Gardener1850]

How old was his BMW? I wouldn't say he is necessarily wealthy just because of the car he was driving. He could have been gifted the car from family members or bought it with engine problems for cheap and fixed it up if he was handy with cars.

 

[TheTruthWillOut]

A few new facts in this article and a street view of the area where Corrie's phone last pinged:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19808...ce-of-the-earth-from-near-terror-snatch-site/

What we really need to know, and I'm not sure why the Police have kept hold of this key info, is the exact location of the doorway he walked away from at 03:23.

Looking on Street View it looks like there is CCTV down St John St and down the pedestrian way into Cornhill. This leaves the pedestrian way down to Short Brackland that doesn't appear to show any CCTV I can see. If the phone pings show it remained in Bury until 04:00 then I would like to know if it was stationary or moving around. ~40 minutes is quite a long time gap. Then suddenly if goes at car speed to Barton Mills.

I wonder if the businesses and homes around Short Brackland have been searched inside?

A very baffling case.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

The owner of Mama Mia said Corrie usually went in with an American friend. RAF Mildenhall has USAF staff based there. His phone was tracked going up towards Mildenhall and initial reports said he might have been there on Sat morning (though whether this is just based on phone pings I don't know). Could there be a link?

I agree with TTWO that Short Brackland and Cannon Road are a possibility if he headed home, I just went for a little wander on street view and couldn't see any CCTV up there. It looks like that would be an straight route from where he was to get to the A134.

Have there been appeals to people in those areas to search their property?

 

[TheTruthWillOut]

The owner of Mama Mia said Corrie usually went in with an American friend. RAF Mildenhall has USAF staff based there. His phone was tracked going up towards Mildenhall and initial reports said he might have been there on Sat morning (though whether this is just based on phone pings I don't know). Could there be a link?

I agree with TTWO that Short Brackland and Cannon Road are a possibility if he headed home, I just went for a little wander on street view and couldn't see any CCTV up there. It looks like that would be an straight route from where he was to get to the A134.

Have there been appeals to people in those areas to search their property?

That is interesting from the owner of Mama Mia combined with the fact his phone tracked close to Mildenhall. If there is a link I'd imagine it could potentially be a political hot potato..

I'd imagine all owners of the businesses and homes around Short Brackland would have allowed Police to search inside and they have stated he definitely isn't in Bury anymore so assume these searches took place?

The seeming secrecy around the other CCTV footage of him leaving the doorway is bugging me so much though, especially as they gave so much detail about the phones movements after. I wonder if Corrie's mum has seen the all the CCTV footage?

 

[Gene Hunt]

I think the photograph on there is showing the shop doorway (Hughes)
The pub where he was caught on cctv which has been released is 3 doors to the left

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I'd imagine all owners of the businesses and homes around Short Brackland would have allowed Police to search inside and they have stated he definitely isn't in Bury anymore so assume these searches took place?

I notice that one of the businesses on Short Brackland has a number of large wheeled bins accessible from the street. I wonder how soon those bins were emptied after his disappearance. They are more than body-sized if something happened to him in the town centre.

The green bins are probably for recyling materials that would be sorted by hand but the blue one may well be for non-recycling waste that would go straight to landfill.

 

[Gem2626]

I wonder if Corrie set his phone alarm to wake him up at 3am with the plan to walk back with his friends when they left the club. He wakes up at 3, sends a message to a friend straight away, no reply (not sure if that's the case) then hangs around until 3.25 in the hopes that they'll reply. Then when they don't he decides to get up and make his way home alone.

I find it somewhat strange that he woke up and hung around in the door way for 25 minutes. Surely you'd wake up and want to get moving straight away. I imagine after eating and sleeping for 2 hours he would have sobered up somewhat and he would have been cold.

Also, i'm wondering if he did get in a car and said 'take me back to base' maybe whoever was driving was heading to the wrong one, Corrie realised too late. Driver wouldn't turn around and take him back an argument came about and he told him to get out the car or there was a physical confrontation.

Corrie's disappearance is similar to Luke Durbin's who has never been found

http://findluke.com/

 

[mrazda71]

Does Luke case have a thread on here?

 

[Gem2626]

Does Luke case have a thread on here?

Yes!

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?178508-UK-Luke-Durbin-19-Ipswich-12-May-2006

 

[Wolf Dreamer]

What intrigues me is that for someone who owns a BMW but his phone is a Nokia... usually you would find most of the youth today would have the IPhone, Samsung etc which you can't take the battery out of, so I'm wondering did he intentionally use the Nokia as part of a plan to disappear as you can take the battery out of it? This is just me thinking out loud, no offence intended.

As he's military he may go to places where he needs to be able to take the battery out of his phone for security reasons. I suspect the car is second hand - he had a 2004 MG until a couple of years ago. He's very young, older cars would be cheaper to insure.