Missing Corrie’s mum believes he is still alive

Fife airman has been missing now for almost three weeks

The mother of missing Fife airman Corrie McKeague “absolutely” believes her son is still alive.

In her first national television interviews since the 23-year-old gunner was last seen almost a month ago, Nicola Urquhart pleaded for information to help find him.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain on ITV and the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme, Mrs Urquhart said she was going through a “living hell.”

Corrie, who comes from Dunfermline, is based at RAF Honington in Suffolk.

He vanished after a night out in Bury St Edmonds in the early hours of Saturday September 24.

He was last spotted on CCTV walking alone and eating takeaway food at 3.20am but there are no images of him leaving the town.

“He is quite clearly seen on CCTV walking in the middle of the road then into this loading bay where vehicles and bins and stuff are,” said Mrs Urquhart.

“He never gets seen coming back out. There’s not one image of Corrie on CCTV in the entire area of Bury that’s been captured.

“It would take an expert months of preparation to be able to avoid that and Corrie wasn’t trying to.”

A trace on the serviceman’s mobile phone showed it moved from Bury St Edmonds to the Barton Mills area early that morning.

Mrs Urquhart said it would be in character for her son to get into a stranger’s car.

She added: “It’s been a month and so many people don’t know about this – an active serviceman just disappearing in the middle of the streets.

Mrs Urquhart said there was no reasonable explanation for Corrie’s disappearance.

“There was nothing going on in his life. There was no major event, nothing that might cause him to suddenly think of leaving at 3am after he’s had a drink ... when he’s left his little seven-month-old puppy in his room.

“There are only three possibilities. Either he’s had an accident ... and he is unfortunately now dead.

“Or he’s left voluntarily – but there has been no preparation whatsoever. There has been no motivating factor to make him go.

“Or he’s been taken against his will. I don’t want that to sound like it has anything to do with terrorism.

“There is one piece of evidence that suggests it’s not terrorism and that is nobody has come forward and claimed him and they would have by now.”

Mrs Urquhart appealed for anyone with any information to contact police.

Nicola Urquhart, right, believes son Corrie McKeague is still alive.