Corrie McKeague: Father says missing RAF airman 'is in waste disposal system'

Police believe 23-year-old climbed into a waste bin and was taken away by a refuse lorry

Corrie McKeague is “no longer missing,” his father said, as he claimed he knows what happened to the RAF airman.

Admitting that his son will never be found, Martin McKeague said he was certain Corrie was "somewhere in the Suffolk waste disposal system," adding that "his remains are essentially irretrievable.”

The -23-year-old serviceman was stationed at RAF Honington, around 10 miles from Bury St Edmunds, when he went missing in the Suffolk town on 24 September, 2016 after a night out.

In a Facebook post, his father wrote: “Corrie is no longer missing. What we mean by this is that after looking at all of the facts and evidence we now know what happened to our son. We are certain he is somewhere in the Suffolk waste disposal system, but his remains are essentially irretrievable.”

Police who said in March that the investigation was being handed to a cold case squad, believe Corrie climbed into a waste bin and was taken away by a refuse lorry. No trace of him has ever been found.

Martin wrote that officers had visited the family in Scotland to review the facts of the investigation in detail last October and then again in February.

Police officers search a landfill site while searching for missing RAF airman Corrie McKeague on 8 March, 2017 in Milton, near Cambridgeshire in England (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The evidence presented to him was “as thorough as it was compelling,” he wrote.

Experts “concluded beyond any doubt that Corrie had ended up in the Suffolk waste disposal system”, he added.

“Accepting that conclusion has clearly not been easy for the McKeague family in Scotland, nor anyone else," he said.

He said the remaining areas were either “too toxic to search” or “so vast it could take years to do so”.

His son’s disappearance had been an “unbelievable and horrific journey of grieve [sic] and acceptance for the McKeague family”, he said, adding that there are plans for a memorial for Corrie in the future.