Amid the stench & a hawk to deter scavengers, cops are sure Corrie lies here...
TRAGIC HUNT FOR BODY OF MISSING AIRMAN
There’s just no way realistically that Corrie was not in the bin NICOLA URQUHART ON HER SON CORRIE’S FATE
THE stench of tens of thousands of tonnes of rubbish is overwhelming at the landfill that could hold the key to the agonising mystery of airman Corrie McKeague.
Pools of muddy water litter the bleak landscape, where rubbish pokes through the black soil.
Hawks and falcons watch over the 10,000 square foot tip to ward off gulls and scavengers, as huge fans dotted around the site whirr constantly to keep the odour away from the nearby village.
This is the hellish place where police have revealed for the first time they are confident they will find the body of the missing 23-year-old RAF gunner.
And his heartbroken mum believes it is “only a matter of time” before Corrie’s remains are found at the dump, where the Mirror spent yesterday afternoon observing the grim search.
Ten specialist officers work 10 hours a day, from 8.30am, sifting through sixmonth-old rubbish by hand in the hope of finding some clue as to what happened to Corrie. Diggers bring rotting matter to the officers, who are dressed in white overalls, yellow hi-vis jackets and black face masks.
Devastated mum Nicola Urquhart, 48, said yesterday: “We know we are going to find Corrie in the landfill.
“It’s just a matter of time now. There’s just no way realistically that Corrie was not in the bin. Regardless of how he’s ended up in there, I cannot get my head around how he’s ended up in landfill.”
And she said what originally seemed like an impossible outcome had been “the one thing that was giving me hope that he was still alive”.
Police became convinced Corrie’s body would be found in the dump after it emerged a rubbish collection linked to his disappearance weighed about 14 stone more than officers were first told.
A police source said the condition of Corrie’s body could depend on the type of rubbish in the lorry with him and whether the collection was wet or dry.
The team has sifted through 60 tonnes of rubbish at the site with landfill almost 26ft-deep in Milton, Cambs, since the search began on Monday – nearly six months after Corrie vanished. The delay has angered family and friends, but police defended their probe.
Det Sup Katie Elliott, of Sussex Police, told the Mirror: “We’ve conducted the investigation methodically throughout. We’ve had specially trained detectives working through the information.
“We’ve checked and re-checked, and our priority right the way through has been to find Corrie, and so we are where we are because we’ve worked carefully through extensive information.” Liaison officers are updating Corrie’s girlfriend April Oliver, 21, who was
pregnant at the time he went missing and is due to give birth in the late spring.
Originally from Fife, Corrie vanished on September 24 on a night out with friends in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, 10 miles from his base at RAF Honington.
The airman was last seen on CCTV near a horseshoe-shaped area in the town at 3.25am. At an early stage in the probe, police learned a Biffa waste firm lorry picked up a bin there hours later.
Signals from Corrie’s phone matched the vehicle’s journey. But as its load was recorded as 1st 10lb, officers believed it was too light to contain his body. They later discovered the actual weight of the rubbish was more than 15st 7lb. A 26-year-old man, who was not the lorry driver, was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, but has been told he faces no further action.
Police had put off searching the landfill as they pursued Corrie’s secret life as a swinger and the possibility he was targeted by terrorists.
Det Supt Elliott said the waste disposal firm’s “genuine mistake” was frustrating, adding: “It’s a question of how they read a sheet of data.”
Explaining the decision not to probe the tip when Corrie was first reported missing, despite the phone signals, she said: “On the night he went missing, he told people he was going to walk home, so to come and search here on limited and very scant information, I don’t think
really could’ve been justifiable.” The operation at the landfill, carried out by Suffolk and Norfolk police, has been in the pipeline for up to a month and could take 10 weeks to complete at a cost of £500,000. In the meantime, Corrie’s loved ones face the agony of not knowing about his final hours. Det Supt Elliott said: “We don’t know if he was alive when he went in the bin, or whether he was alive when he was in the wagon.” Asked how sure police were that Corrie was in the landfill, she said: “We don’t mount an operation of this kind lightly.
“It has taken weeks of planning, work with the Health and Safety Executive, national specialists in terms of the National Crime Agency, to advise on the best way of searching an area like this.”
Det Supt Elliott added: “We want to find answers for Corrie’s family, we want to find Corrie for them, and the information we’ve got now leads us to believe this is the most likely place for us to find him. “I have a high level of confidence we will find him.”