Corrie McKeague's body is at landfill after cops confirm 'unusually heavy' bin collected on day he vanished
Police have today confirmed that the body of missing Scottish airman Corrie McKeague is at a landfill site in Cambridgeshire.
His dad, Martin McKeague, says the family will be holding a private memorial for him in the near future after Suffolk Police released a statement saying they believe Corrie was taken away in a Biffa bin and taken to the rubbish tip in Milton.
It comes after Suffolk Police attended a meeting with Biffa Head Office, who confirmed the weight of the bin, which was picked up from outside Greggs in the Horseshoe area of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk on September 24 when Corrie went missing.
They believed he climbed into the waste bin and fell asleep and the data showed the bin weighed 116kg – much higher than bin collection weights from the same place normally.
Corrie McKeague went missing in 2016 after a night out with friends (Image: PA)
In a statement Suffolk Police said: “We reviewed the data for 24th September in particular and I remain confident that the bin did weigh 116kg as previously stated.
“We then went onto identify the weights of the Greggs bin which was collected each Saturday during the period of Jan 16 and Feb 17.
“Our findings were that the weights of these bins were consistently low (mostly between 20-30KG) and it was extremely unusual for the Greggs bin collection on a Saturday to be anywhere near 100KG let alone over this figure.
“In the whole of this yearly period we identified only one other occasion where the weight exceeded 100kg, other than a date where a system error had occurred which recorded a weight in excess of 1000KG which is known to be impossible.
“As stated earlier, all this information has been held within this enquiry and previously reviewed. There is no new evidence that has come to light as a result of this meeting.
“As the SIO for the investigation into Corrie’s disappearance, I am now completely satisfied that the data provided by Biffa can be relied upon, as can the 116kg recorded weight of the Greggs Bin collected on 24.9.16.
“This investigation has found no other reasonable explanation for that unusually high bin weight, thus when this data is considered alongside the other evidence held within this enquiry it confirms and consolidates my view that the preferred outcome and finding of this investigation is that during the early hours of 24th Sept 2016 Corrie came to be in the bin that was collected by the Biffa lorry and was transported away from the Horseshoe area to Red Lodge transfer station.”
The last CCTV image of Corrie McKeague on the night he disappeared (Image: PA)
Suffolk and Norfolk police spent 137 days looking for Corrie at the Milton tip and trawled through more than 7,000 tonnes of rubbish.
In March this year they announced they announced his disappearance had been moved to the major investigation cold case team.
Mr McKeague said on Facebook : “The police have confirmed the Biffa bin weight that suggests my son ended up in the Suffolk waste disposal system.
“They also confirmed that there is no new evidence whatsoever. Whatever anyone has read in the newspapers to suggest otherwise is a lie.
“My son is gone and the McKeague family in Scotland will be holding a private memorial for him in the near future. Thank you all again for standing up and standing by us.”
Corrie was last seen in the area of Bury St Edmunds known as the “horseshoe where there was a bin lorry collection at around 4.15am to 4.20am on Saturday, 24 September, 2016.
Police confirmed the body of missing Corrie McKeague is at the landfill site in Cambridgeshire (Image: PA)
Only one bin was collected from the area that morning. Waste from it was initially taken to a transfer station at Red Lodge and then to the Milton landfill site.
Milton landfill site is around 485,623 square metres and Cell 22 measures 10,000 square metres.
The original 20-week search for Corrie was stopped in July 2017 after nothing was found.
Officers searched through more than 6,500 tonnes of waste during this time, at a cost of £1,291,181.
A further search started on October 23, 2017 and finished in December 2017 at an estimated cost of £240,000.
Police say despite a huge amount of publicity nationally and locally, there have been no confirmed sightings of Corrie after 3.24am on September 24, 2016.
The police investigation into missing Corrie has cost £2.1million to date, according to a Freedom of Information request ordered by the BBC. It makes the case one of the most expensive undertaken by a police force.
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