What happened to Corrie McKeague? Police call off search for missing gunner

The police investigation into the disappearance of Royal Air Force gunner Corrie McKeague is to wind down, according to reports.

McKeague went missing in the early hours of 24 September 2016 after a night out in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. He was last seen walking into a bin loading bay in the town and was 23 years old at the time of his disappearance.

After his phone was found to have taken the same route as a bin lorry on the night he disappeared, it’s suspected that McKeague, who was intoxicated, may have climbed into a waste bin and been taken away by the vehicle, says the BBC. Police searched a landfill site at Milton, Cambridgeshire twice late last year, but no trace of him was ever found.

The Daily Mirror reports that a cold case team is to take over the investigation into McKeague’s disappearance.

His father, Martin, says he’s fearful his son may have killed himself after unexpectedly learning he was to become a father, Sky News reports.

He said: “I just can’t help thinking this would have weighed on him heavily and he may have actually chosen to get in that bin that night knowing what would happen.

“It’s as probable as anything else and it makes it no less heartbreaking.”

Following a Freedom of Information request filed by the BBC in January, the investigation was found to have been the second-most expensive missing persons case ever undertaken in the UK. It has cost Suffolk Police £2.1m – £1,325,000 on the investigation, plus £826,000 in officers’ salaries. 

At £10m, only the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007 has cost more.

The figures also show that more than 34,000 man-hours have gone into the search, including an extra 5,600 hours of overtime, Cambridge News reports.