Corrie McKeague’s mum refuses to give up hope in search for missing RAF airman as dad claims he’ll ‘never be found’
CORRIE McKeague's desperate mum has said she will never give up searching for her missing son.
Nicola Urquhart posted an emotional statement on Facebook today, where she vowed to keep fighting for answers after the RAF airman vanished in 2016.
It comes a day after Corrie's dad Martin McKeague claimed the 23-year-old was "no longer missing" and is somewhere "in the Suffolk waste disposal system."
Nicole said: "I can only keep fighting for the answers I need.
"To do what helps me, my son's and our family through this.
"Having said this I can tell by the hundreds of messages and calls we are getting that there is some confusion, some people think Makeyan, Darroch and I have given up.
"WE HAVE NOT GIVEN UP.
"Corrie is still missing, he has not been found, nor has there been any corroborated evidence shown to me yet to say what has happened to my son."
The RAF airman has not been seen since a night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on September 24, 2016.
Police had managed to piece together some of his last movements on - with CCTV footage showing him eating takeaway food at around 1.20am.
At 3.24am, he was spotted taking a nap in a nearby doorway before he leaves the view of the camera in the last ever confirmed sighting.
After months of investigations, detectives revealed Corrie could have been crushed by a bin lorry after falling asleep on one.
Specialist cops spent hundreds of manhours sifting through scrap at a tip in Milton, Cambs, but no trace of the RAF gunner was found.
But Nicole said she is still plagued by unanswered questions as she hit out at police for not "securing" more CCTV when her son first vanished.
She said: "When a person goes missing, they may never be found. This does not mean they are no longer missing, however in England it is the decision of the coroner to look at all the evidence with an unbiased and impartial eye and they can declare the missing person is presumed dead.
"They will only do this when there is sufficient evidence. Suffolk police have presented all the evidence to the coroner as they were asking if the coroner would issue a death certificate to say Corrie is missing presumed dead.
"To date, the coroner has refused. I agree with this view point at this time."
Speaking yesterday, Corrie's dad Martin said he believed he knew where his son's remains were, but that they were "essentially irretrievable".
In a lengthy statement on social media, the distraught dad said: "We do know what happened to Corrie and we have to accept that it is impossible to search those areas for him now.
"And accepting that conclusion has clearly not been easy for the McKeague family in Scotland, nor anyone else.
"That’s why we feel Corrie is no longer missing, but rather his body is irretrievable because the remaining waste disposal environments are either too toxic to search, and the size of Cell 22 is so vast that it could take years to do so in order to find out exactly where he came to rest."
How the multi-million pound hunt for Corrie unfolded
- Corrie McKeague went missing in the early hours of September 24 2016 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
- Prior to his disappearance he ordered a take away between 1.15am and 1.30am
- He responded to a message from a friend on his mobile
- He was last seen entering a cul-de-sac containing a number of wheelie bins at 3.25am
- Police were able to trace Corrie’s mobile phone from Bury to the Barton Mills area 12 miles away, near Mildenhall, at a speed indicating it was in a vehicle
- The mobile phone was either switched off at 8am, ran out of battery or was damaged – it has never been found
- There is no information about his whereabouts on Sunday, September 25
- He was reported missing the following afternoon when he failed to turn up for work
- Police made their first media appeal for information at 4.10am on September 27 - a police helicopter joins the search hours later
- Search teams involving Suffolk police, Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue (SULSAR) and RAF Police start scouring possible routes between Bury and Honington
- Another police appeal is made on October 4 for the missing phone
- A third police appeal is made on October 5 for three teenagers who were seen in the area at the time - they came forward on October 9
- A new police missing person poster is released on October 8
- Search dogs joined the teams on October 11
- Corrie's mum offers £50,000 reward for information
- Family hires private investigator on January 5, 2017
- Corrie's girlfriend reveals she is pregnant on January 9
- On February 10, police confirm they will search the landfill site at Milton
- A second search of the landfill site was carried out in October 2017
- Suffolk Police announced on March 26, 2018 that the search for the missing airman would be stood down
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Corrie's family has been left devastated by his disappearance, with his girlfriend April Oliver announcing she was pregnant after his disappearance.
Baby Ellie-Louise was born on Father's Day, June 18 2017.
And last week it was revealed that – just days before his younger brother married a woman he met during the search.