Missing airman’s brother to marry girl he met on search
FOr more than a year they have been living in unimaginable horror as they desperately searched for missing airman Corrie McKeague.
But now the relatives of the 23year-old rAF gunner have finally received some good news – his brother has became engaged to a woman he met during the search effort.
Darroch McKeague, 22, has proposed to Leah Mcelrea, 30, who he met while she was handing out flyers in Bury St edmunds, Suffolk, last year.
Mr McKeague, from Dunfermline, Fife, popped the question on Friday night at a charity ball held in aid of SULSAr – a search team that helped to look for Mr McKeague.
his mother, Nicola Urquhart, 48, wrote on Facebook: ‘Darroch met
‘Can’t take this big smile off my face’
this amazing, beautiful, kindhearted lady because of Corrie.
‘Tonight, in front of the people that are important to him, he asked Leah to marry him. I’m delighted beyond words that she said yes.’
Miss Mcelrea, of Needham Market, Suffolk, said she was ‘shocked’ at the proposal and that if she met the missing serviceman, she would tell him she was ‘looking after his brother the best I can’.
She wrote on Facebook: ‘Myself and Darroch would like to say a big thank you to everyone, I am totally shocked Darroch asked me to marry him last night and I can’t quite take this big smile of my face!
‘I met Darroch just over a year ago while me and my mum were handing out missing flyers in Bury St edmunds for Corrie, I never in a million years thought I would ever meet the love of my life this way.
‘We are going to sit down and have a look at dates in 2018 to get married YIKeS!’
Suffolk Police announced at the beginning of October that they would be extending the search at Milton landfill site in Cambridge for missing Mr McKeague and it was expected to take until mid December.
It is thought the airman may have fallen asleep in a rubbish bin after a night out. he was last seen in the area of Bury St edmunds known as the ‘horseshoe’, where there was a bin lorry collection at around 4.15am on Saturday, 24 September, 2016.
Only one bin was collected from the area that morning. Waste from it was initially taken to a transfer station at red Lodge and then to the Milton landfill site.
A review of the Suffolk police investigation was conducted by the east Midlands Special Operations Unit and it concluded that Mr McKeague is ‘most likely’ to be in the Milton landfill.