Police looking for missing Corrie McKeague to begin landfill site search in Milton
Written by News on 06/03/2017
Police looking for missing RAF serviceman Corrie McKeague will begin searching a landfill site this week.
The 23-year-old gunner, who was stationed at RAF Honington in Suffolk, vanished on a night out with friends more than six months ago.
Officers from Suffolk police announced last month that they would be searching a landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire, and are now ready to start following work to move 8,000 tonnes of bulk material to make the area safe.
Mr McKeague, originally from Dunfermline in Fife, was last seen in Bury St Edmunds in the early hours of 24 September 2016.
CCTV footage showed him entering a cul-de-sac loading bay area known as the ‘Horseshoe’ at 3.25am. However, there was no sign of him leaving.
Police seized a refuse vehicle which made a collection in the area a short time after the last confirmed sighting of Mr McKeague. It was released after forensic examinations revealed no traces of him.
However, the bin lorry theory has remained an active line of inquiry.
Waste collected from Bury St Edmunds on the morning Mr McKeague went missing was deposited at the landfill site police will be searching.
Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott said: "The search is likely to take six to 10 weeks to complete, although this will obviously depend on daily progress on the site.
"We have a large area, around 920 square metres, up to a depth of eight metres, of waste to search through and a plan has been put in place to manage this process to ensure a thorough and comprehensive search is undertaken.
DS Elliott said searching the site had the potential to cause an increase in odour and steps had been taken to reduce this.
"We hope residents will understand that we and the site owners have taken all these things into consideration when making a decision to go ahead with the search," she said.
"However we also hope they will also understand why we are doing this as part of our ongoing inquiries to find Corrie."
Suffolk Police arrested and bailed a man in connection with the disappearance of Mr McKeague last week.
The 26-year-old was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice, before being released to answer bail in April.
Footage of two people still not identified and seen separately in the area around the time Mr McKeague disappeared has also been released.
Detectives say the pair are "potential witnesses".
It shows them on foot between 3.20am and 5.20am on Saturday 24 September.
(c) Sky News 2017: Police looking for missing Corrie McKeague to begin landfill site search in Milton
