The mother of missing Fife serviceman Corrie McKeague has admitted she has lost confidence in the police investigation into her son’s disappearance.
The 23-year-old has not been seen for around two-and-a-half months now after a night out in Bury St Edmunds on September 24, and no trace of the RAF airman has been found since.
Corrie was last seen on CCTV at around 3.20am on that date, and police this week have released a number of CCTV images of potential witnesses they wish to speak to.
In the meantime though, Corrie’s family has raised a substantial sum of money to fund a private investigator after Suffolk Police apparently downgraded the search for the Fifer.
A crowdfunding campaign has proved hugely successful, while one private donation of £50,000 has also been received.
Corrie’s mum Nicola Urquhart has appeared on Good Morning Britain in an attempt to bolster the search for her son, and questioned the police’s approach.
Nicola, who is a serving police officer in Fife, said: “I do have sympathy for them – however, their chief commissioner Tim Passmore has gone publicly to say this is being treated at the same level as a murder.
“From day one, I was being told that it was being treated as a homicide, without any evidence or a body.
“Is it acceptable to then remove resources so that you can’t view CCTV, that you can’t put the identities of the people you are trying to look for because you don’t have the resources?
“That’s not the police officers on the ground, that’s at a far higher level.
“I know that as a police officer that they don’t have the funding they need – I can’t change that today.
“We have got a local couple in Bury St Edmunds who have donated £50,000 to find Corrie and bring him back home.
“£50,000 is a life changing sum of money, but we don’t have confidence in the police to be able to deal with the calls – you can’t call after 5pm at night, you can’t call at the weekend, it’s an answer machine.
“If someone is trying to phone up at 3am to tell me where my son is, they might not leave that message, so we’re answering the calls.
“We have an army of people behind us ready to go out and search. The police can’t search everywhere, we can.”
Corrie’s brother Makeyan McKeague added: “Everyone, police, family, friends, at the end of the day all we want is to find Corrie.
“Of course, people have their priorities of how that’s going to happen. We just want people to view the CCTV footage, wrack their brains to the time that Corrie did go missing and think of where they were that night.
“The problem is that many people think: ‘I didn’t see anything’, but you might have. It does narrow down the amount of people. Whatever help we can receive is fantastic.”
A statement from Suffolk Police said: “Finding Corrie remains a priority for Suffolk Police.
“We are continuing to investigate his disappearance and our focus remains on locating him and discovering what happened.
“Since he was reported missing thousands of hours of police time have been spent on carrying out hundreds of enquiries, including searches, comprehensive analysis of CCTV footage, and background work to see if any other factors may have been involved in his disappearance.
“Suffolk Police have been supported by a range of other organisations and agencies – including the RAF and Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue – to carry out this work and to review everything that has been done to try to ensure nothing has been missed. A number of experts external to Suffolk Constabulary have gone over the case and the work that has been done by Suffolk officers and specialists to ensure all possibilities are fully investigated.
“This remains an ongoing process. The detailed work done around CCTV alone has seen repeated viewings to see if Corrie can be spotted in any further images, to see who was in the area at the time and to track everyone there through the town. Extensive work has then been done to identify all those individuals, to trace them and talk to them.
“A large area in Bury St Edmunds and surrounding areas has been searched and a considerable amount of work has been carried out behind the scenes. This is a complex and comprehensive investigation, and police officers are carefully and closely examining all possibilities.
“We want to find Corrie and we have committed time, resources and effort to do this. The resources needed are reviewed by a chief officer on a weekly basis who will draw in the necessary staff according to the needs of the investigation.
“Our work will continue and we would like to thank all of those who have provided support and assistance to date.
“We would ask anyone with information that may help this investigation to call the incident room on 01473 782019 or Crimestoppers, anonymously if required, on 0800 555 111.”
