Finally, 4 months on, Corrie police will search rubbish dump linked to his mobile
Hunt for clues comes after 4 months
POLICE hunting missing airman Corrie McKeague are to search a landfill site – four months after linking his phone to the area.
Officers closed the dump a week after the 23-year-old vanished to prevent any more rubbish being buried there.
He was last seen walking into the refuse area of a cul-de-sac in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on September 24. Less than an hour later a bin lorry collected waste from the area before tipping it 30 miles away.
Signals emitted by his phone show the device travelled to a nearby village of Barton Mills before cutting out. It was the same route the lorry took before reaching the landfill site at Milton, Cambs.
The police search could last up to 10 weeks and sources said the team will be looking for Corrie’s phone, clothes or even body. Friends criticised officers for taking so long to move their hunt to the dump.
Carole Hatrick wrote: “At last. Landfill should have been one of the first places to have been searched.”
Katherine Wray added: “I know this must be a horrendous job for the police, but I wish this had been done right away.”
But Corrie’s mum Nicola Urquhart praised detectives over the search.
The 48-year-old said: “This is a massive task. And our gratitude to each individual officer carrying it out is immeasurable.
“It will be an incredibly difficult time waiting for news each day.”
And Suffolk Police Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott defended the delay in searching the landfill. She said: “This is the next logical step in the investigation. Behind the scenes we have been working systematically through the options and we have examined a very broad range of evidence.
“This has involved an examination of CCTV, phone and social media analysis, searches, media appeals, talking to those who had contact with Corrie, investigating his background and social life.
“While the search may not provide the answers as to what happened it is something we need to do.”
Specialist search teams will trawl through hundreds of tons of waste, eight metres deep in places. Detectives said it was identified as an area of interest a week after Corrie,whose girlfriend April Oliver, 21, is pregnant with his child, disappeared. It was initially believed the gunner, who was stationed at nearby RAF Honington, could not have been inside the vehicle. Its load weighed less than 15kg. Forensic tests were also carried out on the lorry, and no trace of him was found. But after exhausting other lines of inquiry they are now focusing on the site. Security was tight at the dump yesterday. The search is likely to start on February 22. Corrie’s family, who live in Dunfermline, Fife, will informed of developments by senior detectives.