Mother Marks Decade Since Son's Disappearance
The mother of a missing Scottish airman, believed to have died after falling asleep in a bin, reflects on the 10th anniversary of his last sighting.
Ten years after Royal Air Force gunner Corrie McKeague was last seen, his mother, Nicola Urquhart, continues to mourn his absence, stating that 'missing him never gets any easier.' McKeague, 23, vanished on September 24, 2016, after a night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
CCTV footage showed McKeague entering a bin-loading area. Despite a £2.1 million search operation, no trace of him was found. An inquest in March 2022 concluded that he likely died after climbing into a Biffa waste bin that was subsequently collected and tipped into a bin lorry.
In a Facebook post ahead of the tenth anniversary of his disappearance, Urquhart shared her ongoing grief. "Corrie is in my heart and thoughts every single day. Missing him never gets any easier," she wrote, also noting the 'constant effort' required to manage the impact of the investigation on her family.
McKeague was last seen at 3:24 a.m. in an area known as the Horseshoe. Eight months after his disappearance, his girlfriend, April Oliver, gave birth to their daughter, Ellie-Louise Corrie Oliver. McKeague was unaware of the pregnancy at the time of his disappearance.
In October 2018, Suffolk Police stated their belief that McKeague's body was at a landfill site in Cambridgeshire. This conclusion was reached after a meeting with Biffa, which confirmed that the bin collected from outside Greggs, where McKeague was last seen, weighed 116kg – significantly more than typical collections from that location. Police spent 137 days searching over 7,000 tons of rubbish at the Milton landfill site.
By March 2018, the disappearance was moved to the major investigation cold case team. On the third anniversary of his disappearance in 2019, Urquhart expressed acceptance of her son's death but maintained hope of finding his remains.
McKeague's father, Martin McKeague, also shared his daily remembrance of his son, describing him as 'a proud gunner with the RAF, a deeply loved son and grandson.'
A spokesperson for Suffolk Constabulary extended condolences to McKeague's family and friends on the 10th anniversary. "As we have explained previously, the active inquiry into Corrie McKeague’s disappearance is now closed. Unless any new, realistic and credible information becomes available, then the investigation remains complete."