UK UK - Corrie McKeague, 23, Bury St Edmunds, 24 September 2016 #3

[c4nd1_83]

People dont just get taken in a busy town randomly by some opportunistic weirdo when all the clubs and pubs are kicking out. Think about it. The family have said now that that area he went into had cars and people coming and going. I would imagine its like a pick up also for people getting lifts home.

I honestly think he had arranged to meet someone. Maybe someone he knows maybe someone his never meet other than online before. If something had happened in that area someone would have seen or heard something or he would have tried to get away or the cameras would have seen people running off etc etc. They said only way out physically was by a car. Which I think he got in willingly to start.

Then they have driven off similar time to bin lorry. His phone battery probably ran out as he was using it all night. So coincidence maybe.

Then something has happened. His either still with this person or this person has done something to him.

Thats my thoughts on the matter.


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[MrClueless]

I agree, he must have been waiting to meet someone.

I strongly doubt he was dealing in drugs! But you've raised a good point about his car...what did it cost, I wonder, and was it affordable on his salary? Unless his family are comfortable off and he also had a nice nest egg in the bank, how did he afford an expensive car?

Someone suggested they thought he may have been secretly working as a gay escort after they viewed his Instagram and saw certain posts on there...

It's a terrible aspersion to make upon someone's character when they don't even know them, but as he's been missing for almost eight weeks now all unsavoury aspects have to ruled out....

Pay is around £17,500 p/annum plus benefits. There are things like jump pay (for being a parachutist etc). I'm not sure what rank he was, or pay grade - if he had been in for a couple of years then anywhere around £19,000 p/annum would be likely. If he has been to Afghanistan as force protection then the danger pay element comes into play also.

Using his car isn't a good indicator. Squaddies (RAF Regiment included), tend to live well outside their means. Credit cards, loans, hire purchase etc etc.

 

[soundssuspicious]

I still haven't discounted terrorism. Frankly, that they tried to abduct servicemen in broad daylight before is pretty stupid. Maybe they wised up and decided to do it at night. They could have even used Grindr or Tinder to target a serviceman late at night - they certainly could post any fake picture they wanted.

If there are negotiations going on now, I doubt they'd communicate that to Nicola. They seem to be communicating more information to Tony than Nicola, although I could certainly be wrong about that. Tony was the one who slammed them, and is clearly very intelligent.

Tony has discounted terrorism.

Also, there's no evidence that the attempted abduction of a jogger in daylight (who happened to be a serviceman) had anything to do with terrorissm.

 

[MrClueless]

Sorry for sounding thick....but what's a beasting?

Depending on the context it means a number of different things.

A hard PT session you would say "that was a beasting"
A fight "give him a good beasting"
A beasting in the context of what we're discussing are usually left for crows (new recruits), or soldiers who have messed up. Which could include regimental baths, or other weird & wonderful things that are meant to be a welcome to Battalion to reinforce hierarchal status. I don't think they go on as much nowadays.

 

[Dcflag]

Am I reading right, Nicola has confirmed the cctv had only been viewed until 8am? Either the investigation really has been run terribly or hey have enough to go on that they reasonably believe he left the area before then.

 

[Amonet]

Yeah, that makes sense. Let's say it's not "geek" level of internet activity? And neither is he on FB three times a day telling everyone what he had for dinner or that he has a cold, so I wouldn't put him down as a social media addict. He made the POF account but he might just have made it and put in his email addy and waited to see if he got any notifications, but at that point it seems he'd be more interested in having a phone chat and then making a date to meet? So he's not spending all his spare time on the internet, he's spending it with people, and he doesn't feel like a geek or a nerd.

That phone is fine for his needs. He might not even have a laptop, and if he does it's probably not turned on more than a couple of times a week. But this analysis also helps me understand him a little better. I don't see any sign that he's had multiple FB accounts in the past, and he's not doing anything to cover his tracks anywhere, he's not looking for privacy that I can see, he's very open.

Also, knowing what kind of internet user he is helps me to know how much he can cover his tracks. He doesn't strike me as either geeky or paranoid, and for someone to be good at covering their tracks, ideally they need to be both, otherwise they just won't do a good job of it. That doesn't mean someone can't be elusive online, but without those two traits, usually you'd be able to follow someone around online, sleuth everything about them that they didn't want you to know. I'm not seeing signs of that from Corrie. Considering some of the thoughts that are being suggested, I think it's relevant to note that.

He has more social media accounts then the average jo. And his mum has said he does have tinder and plenty of fish dating accounts, along with youtube, facebook, instagram, twitter and snapchat. Thats alot. More than anyone I know and I am a big social media user.


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[c4nd1_83]

Also would like to add that Nicola briefly said in an interview that they managed to track his phone based on the use of internet apps like Facebook. But she couldn't explain it as she said she didn't understand it and that Tony could explain it better.

So I am going to try hard to explain here.

Basically when you open up Facebook on your mobile it picks up your location automatically. I am not sure how it stores this information but thats how they managed to know the phone went on that journey. Also I have a google maps thing on my which keeps track of my movements and when I get in my car its kept data of my regular journeys and pings up to tell me the traffic is ok and it will take a certain amount of time to reach my regular destination. Its all very high tech and even I am sometimes in shock that these apps can follow you.

So what I am saying is thats how they got info on phone journey based on mobile apps.


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[BookCollector]

Tony has discounted terrorism.

.

Has he? The last I heard him comment on it was during the podcast. He didn't rule it out - he said he believes it's low on the list of possibilities. He could either be telling the truth, or downplaying it deliberately.

 

[Dcflag]

Surely for terrorism purposes that would make this a targeted event. There doesn't appear to be any signs of that.

 

[BookCollector]

Surely for terrorism purposes that would make this a targeted event. There doesn't appear to be any signs of that.

Not necessarily. The instructions to lone wolves recently have been more along the lines of "if you see an opportunity, take it, whether small or large"

 

[Dcflag]

Not necessarily. The instructions to lone wolves recently have been more along the lines of "if you see an opportunity, take it, whether small or large"

But they would need to know him to know his job, he wasn't in uniform or near base. I guess unless they were out that night talking to be people, but to have targeted him that night and had opportune moment as they did must be unusual in itself.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

If you Google gay dogging you'll find they have hook-ups all throughout the night, and lesser in the day. It's not just lorry drivers....gay/bi men will leave their homes in the drably hour s and travel by car for a hook-up.

I was just thinking that if you are a lorry driver and gay/bi, a hookup site next to an established lorry parkup layby is possibly one you would choose overnight rather than one that wasn't.

So active round the clock to varying degrees - thanks.

 

[BookCollector]

But they would need to know him to know his job, he wasn't in uniform or near base. I guess unless they were out that night talking to be people, but to have targeted him that night and had opportune moment as they did must be unusual in itself.

I'll have to disagree with you there. Having lived near many military bases, you can tell the military guys at a glance out of uniform. The hair, the walk, it's really so obvious.

 

[PurpleWitch]

If I was a guy looking to hook up it wouldn't be with some potentially sweaty lorry driver. If you look at the Flex photos he doesn't look any different to most of the lads on there, apart from wearing pink that night

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Someone suggested they thought he may have been secretly working as a gay escort after they viewed his Instagram and saw certain posts on there...

It's a terrible aspersion to make upon someone's character when they don't even know them, but as he's been missing for almost eight weeks now all unsavoury aspects have to ruled out....

I'm not sure it was a "terrible aspersion" but a realistic suggestion. (The someone might have been me) Over the past 20 years we've seen a tremendous "normalisation" of the sex industry and young people these days don't seem to look on sex work in the same way as we older folks do. Many students are using sex work to help pay their way through university, for instance:

The study, paid for by the Big Lottery Fund, involved 6,750 students, of which 5% of men and 3.5% of women said they had worked in the sex industry, while nearly 22% overall said they had considered doing so.

https://www.theguardian.com/educati...dents-sex-work-living-costs-tuition-fee-debts

 

[rogerthelodger]

I'll have to disagree with you there. Having lived near many military bases, you can tell the military guys at a glance out of uniform. The hair, the walk, it's really so obvious.

I agree , servicemen the same as policemen stand out a mile out of uniform.

 

[JamesKing]

Just think about the "pre arranged meeting" thing.

A lot of Burt St Edmunds is One Way ? To pick him up in Brentgrovel Street would be a bit of a "pain in the bum".
Whereas, Short Brackland looks easier.

But then that is also true if you if you arrive in town...park for a few hours....and then want to leave town without going "around the houses", literally. The Short Brackland bin area offers "good parking" for people "just visiting".

But a car arriving into Short Brackland loading bay area at anytime of day or night would have to arrive (and be possibly seen passing camera 09) and leave (and be possibly seen passing camera 09).

Then I thought, its not such a good area to park. You have a bin lorry collecting for a start. It must be a "restricted area", even late at night. If someone beats you to the "best parking spot", then you either have to chance the bin being scrapped down you motor or you have to drive back down and find another parking spot. That would be annoying !

So what was his motivation for being in that particular area ? I still think he was indeed going for a pee. But that he was waiting in Bury for someone.

Any news on that "as yet unidentified Silver Car" that was parked in full view of at least one camera...and that was "at some point being sort....and now no one seems to give a hoot about" and that would have to pass a further 3 cameras as it left Bury ? Is it still being sort by the police....who think he walked home, but insist on searching motorway embankments several miles in the other direction.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Basically when you open up Facebook on your mobile it picks up your location automatically. I am not sure how it stores this information but thats how they managed to know the phone went on that journey. Also I have a google maps thing on my which keeps track of my movements and when I get in my car its kept data of my regular journeys and pings up to tell me the traffic is ok and it will take a certain amount of time to reach my regular destination. Its all very high tech and even I am sometimes in shock that these apps can follow you.

It's years since I had a Nokia so have no idea how old or capable his particular phone was. Would it be using Google maps or something else, possibly less effective? How effectively could it use a map app if it was an old phone with capabilities that perhaps didn't allow it to take full use of upgrades, or if it were on a fairly limited data plan? If it was an old phone coming up to upgrade time he might have been behind the curve in this respect.

 

[JamesKing]

Also would like to add that Nicola briefly said in an interview that they managed to track his phone based on the use of internet apps like Facebook. But she couldn't explain it as she said she didn't understand it and that Tony could explain it better.

So I am going to try hard to explain here.

Basically when you open up Facebook on your mobile it picks up your location automatically. I am not sure how it stores this information but thats how they managed to know the phone went on that journey. Also I have a google maps thing on my which keeps track of my movements and when I get in my car its kept data of my regular journeys and pings up to tell me the traffic is ok and it will take a certain amount of time to reach my regular destination. Its all very high tech and even I am sometimes in shock that these apps can follow you.

So what I am saying is thats how they got info on phone journey based on mobile apps.


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It's even easier that than.
Even when you're phone is in your pocket, the App's are normally set to "Auto Sync". That's how you get a "push notification" about incoming mail or a whatsapp message or whatever
You can set this "sync" to only happen over your home WiFi or every hour or whatever, to save on "roaming" for example if you're overseas.
But normally. on home turf, when you're out and about, your phone is just sync'ing away in your pocket. And pinging of different towers as you travel along.

 

[soundssuspicious]

I don't know but Corrie doesn't seem like a huge internet person. He seems outgoing, gregarious, preferring to meet and talk to people in person. He seems more of an action person, which would fit with joining the RAF? The thing with this image of him is that it would fit to be a bit of a risk-taker, and rather than just being oblivious to risk, he might find risk exciting.

If he can get what he wants out of a relatively basic phone, then why not save the money to spend on his beloved car, trips back home, nights out, etc?

It's a Windows phone, he's can't be a techy type? Some of those cheaper windows phones take good pictures, Corrie seems to like taking selfies, chatting on the phone, a little bit of chat apps with family and friends...if you know that's all you want, then the sensible thing is to not buy a really expensive Iphone that could get damaged or lost.

I beg to differ.

Corrie is clearly into high tec apps including all the social media apps, youtube, videos, snap chat, photos etc...he also loves top of the range cars, designer clothing....so you'd expect him to want the very latest high tec phone. All young men hanker after them. And you don't buy them, you get them free with your phone contract....so it doesn't add up that he's got an expensive, flash car but a rubbishy old phone. I suspect he could have two phones, and takes the rubbishy one out with him when he knows he's going to drink loads....