The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Thousands back Corrie search campaign
Signatures total 22,300 in bid to stop rubbish dump from being filled in
A petition to continue a landfill search for missing Fife airman Corrie McKeague had yesterday gathered more than 22,300 signatures.
On Friday, Suffolk Constabulary called off excavation work at the Milton landfill site in Cambridgeshire after a search spanning 20 weeks uncovered no traces of the 23-year-old from Dunfermline.
Corrie’s mother Nicola Urquhart, 48, is considering seeking an injunction to stop the search site from being filled in.
However, she has admitted that her son may never be found.
She wrote on her Facebook page: “Please remember that Suffolk police do desperately want to find Corrie and have done an amazing amount of work to do just that. For which we are so grateful.
“I understand realistically that Corrie may never be found. I also understand the police have to draw a line in the sand at some point. My aim here is to make sure that myself, Makeyan, Darroch and our family have done everything we can to find Corrie.”
It is believed that following a night out in Bury St Edmunds last September, Corrie may have fallen asleep in a bin and ended up at the landfill site.
Ms Urquhart added: “My biggest concern is that if the landfill is handed back and filled in before we are given the opportunity to discuss possible options with the police, then we have no options.
“This is why consideration to an injunction was mentioned, but hopefully not needed.
“This is also why I approved the petition. So that the police would see that it’s the community they serve that also doesn’t understand the decision and hopefully hold off.”
Corrie, a Royal Air Force Regiment gunner, has been missing since a night out in Bury St Edmonds near his base at RAF Honington.
He was last seen in the early hours of September 24 walking into a loading bay which is used as a bin store. Police said Corrie had a history of falling asleep in unusual places, including in bins.
A bin lorry was seen on CCTV near Brentgovel Street in the town around the time Corrie was last sighted, and it took a route which appeared to coincide with the movements of his phone.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a skull found amid the large-scale search for Corrie was not that of the missing airman. Police said the human bone was found at a landfill site in Landbeach, Cambridgeshire, at a time when police were trawling the landfill at nearby Milton.
Police said the skull was female and dates back to pre-1945. Mr Mckeague’s family was informed of the find.