Corrie McKeague's father blocks landfill site after police end search

The father of the missing RAF gunner, Corrie McKeague, has reportedly blocked the entrance to a landfill site where he believes his son’s body lies.

Police confirmed last week that they would no longer search the site in Milton, Cambridgeshire, for the serviceman, who vanished after a night out with friends in Bury St Edmunds last year.

Officers sifted through 6,500 tonnes of waste during an “unprecedented” 20-week operation, which was halted after no trace of the 23-year-old was found.

His father, Martin McKeague, was photographed blocking the entrance of the site near Cambridge with his motorhome. He told the Cambridge News: “I hope they make the right decision ... to continue to look for my son.

“The facts and all the evidence lies in this landfill site and as father, or mother, or anybody, I think you would probably do the same thing. I need them to do the right thing and continue to look for Corrie.”

It comes after Corrie’s mother, Nicola Urquhart, said she may seek an injunction to stop police filling in the 48-hectare landfill site. A petition backing her calls has been signed by almost 25,000 people.

The page reads: “Corrie’s family and friends deserve to know if he is actually in there, after waiting weeks before starting the search, it is disgraceful that they would end the search without finding him but claiming he is in there. Why start a job if you are not going to complete it.”

On the Find Corrie Facebook page, Urquhart said: “This is their strongest line of inquiry and as such they are not looking at other possible lines or have dismissed them already as they so firmly believe Corrie is in the landfill.”

Police said McKeague had a history of falling asleep in unusual places, including in bins. His last movements, captured by CCTV, showed him walking into a horse-shaped area used as a bin loading bay in Brentgovel Street in Bury St Edmunds.

Around the time the serviceman was last seen, a bin lorry was captured on CCTV near that area. It followed a path that appeared to coincide with the movements of McKeague’s phone.

Det Supt Katie Elliott of Suffolk police said they had “compelling information” that directed them to the landfill site. She added that they hadn’t “found Corrie and this is bitterly disappointing”.

She said any new lines of inquiry would be “vigorously” pursued, adding that they had searched the area where they believed McKeague could be.

Elliott said: “It’s never been about money in this investigation. We have searched the areas where we have information where that waste was deposited. Beyond that it’s very difficult to establish exactly where we would search for Corrie.”

Last month, McKeague’s girlfriend, April Oliver, announced that the missing serviceman had become a father with the birth of their daughter.