COST OF CORRIE SEARCH
Officers have spent nearly 40,000hrs on investigation
THE search for missing Corrie McKeague has cost more than £2.1million to date, police have said.
The RAF gunner, from Fife, was 23 when he vanished after a night out with friends on September 24, 2016.
Corrie, who was based at RAF Honington in Suffolk, was last seen on CCTV at 3.25am as he walked through nearby Bury St Edmunds.
Suffolk Police yesterday said £1.325million had been spent on the investigation and £826,000 on salary costs.
The force revealed that about 34,000 officer hours had been spent on the case, not including police staff time and overtime.
Officers involved in the investigation also worked an additional 5600 overtime hours to date, costing £235,000.
This figure excludes overtime that will be paid this month relating to December claims.
A Suffolk Police spokesman said: “Careful consideration is always given to all decisions regarding the resourcing of any long-running major investigation.”
Officers conducted two searches of a landfill site at Milton, near Cambridge, last year. The first lasted 20 weeks and the second, which ended last month, seven weeks.
No trace was found of Corrie, who it is thought may have climbed into a waste bin that was then taken away by a bin lorry.
A review of the police investigation to date agreed that it was most likely that the missing serviceman, who became a father after he vanished, ended up in the waste disposal process.
Police have said they are “committed to continuing with the inquiry”.