UPDATE March 22, 2022: Inquest concludes McKeague died after going in the lorry bin. Inquest jurors in Ipswich concluded McKeague died at about 04:20 BST in Bury St Edmunds as a result of “compression asphyxia in association with multiple injuries” and his “death was contributed to by impaired judgment due to alcohol consumption”. McKeague’s parents were happy with the ruling, but if that were my son, there’s no way I would accept it. Why? His body was never found and it is very possible someone put his cell phone into the lorry bin, disposing of the body elsewhere.
UPDATE March 9, 2017: Corrie McKeague: Police ‘confident’ missing RAF gunner will be found in the landfill site
On Sep. 23, 2016, Corrie McKeague, 23, from Fife, Scotland, and a Senior Aircraftman in RAF Regiment’s 2 Squadron stationed at RAF Honington, England, drove from his base to Bury St. Edmunds for a night out with friends.
In the early morning of September 24, 2016, McKeague separated from his friends after leaving Flex nightclub on St. Andrew’s Street. An employee of the club asked him to leave because he had too much to drink. He then walked to nearby Pizza Mamma Mia, his favorite food place, to grab dinner.
At the takeaway, people described McKeague as being in good spirits, even playing rock, paper, scissors with a stranger. He was seen on CCTV at 1:20 a.m. eating his food while walking away from the Pizza Mamma Mia. He passed Grapes Pub, then took a left at Brentgovel Street.
McKeague then walked to Hughes Electrical Store at the corner of Brentgovel and St. John’s Streets, where he laid down in the doorway and slept for two hours. He awoke around 3:00 a.m., responded to a friend’s message, then forwarded an image to that friend from his phone. It was the last time McKeague used his phone.
Around 3:24 a.m., McKeague headed past St. Johns Street towards Cornhill Walk. He walked down a pathway to a loading/refuse collection area behind Greggs Bakery and vanished. CCTV cameras should have recorded McKeague walking back out of the loading area. However, he was not seen on any footage viewed by police.
Police could trace McKeague’s mobile phone from Bury St. Edmunds to the Barton Mills area, near Mildenhall, between 3:24 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., at a speed only a vehicle could travel. His phone turned off at 8:00 a.m. on Sept. 24, 2016. and it has not been used or seen since.
The route McKeague’s phone traveled to the Barton Mills area is the course used by a bin lorry. Police searched the truck but did not find McKeague’s phone.
McKeague’s family has said that all his actions the night he disappeared were typical, even sleeping in the doorway of Hughes. They had also said that he had walked from Bury St. Edmunds back to his base before his disappearance. His family believes he was trying to get back to RAF Honington when he vanished and may have accepted a ride from someone that night; however, there is no evidence to support this theory.
Earlier this month, police released CCTV images of people in the area around the same time as McKeague, hoping the people would come forward with possible information.
There is a £50,000 reward for information leading to McKeague’s whereabouts.
True Crime Diva’s Thoughts
This case is bizarre. I’ve spent hours thinking about the different scenarios and asking myself all kinds of questions. I could easily spend many more hours on it. However, for the sake of publishing this post, I will not. 😉
There is a question asking how Corrie got to Bury that night on the website set up for Corrie under FAQ.
This confuses me because his family thinks he may have tried walking back to the base. Why would he do that if he drove himself to Bury? Was Corrie’s car retrieved from the car park? By whom? Did the police search the vehicle?
Most reports I read said that Corrie was at Flex with friends. But in one report, the bouncer who asked Corrie to leave Flex said Corrie was usually with friends at Flex, but he was alone on this night. So, I do not know why he said that when others say he was with friends, including Corrie’s mother, Nicola. The bouncer also said they had a general conversation outside of Flex and Corrie was not upset over getting kicked out. In the first CCTV footage, it does not appear to me that Corrie is highly intoxicated. He’s walking fine for the most part.
There doesn’t appear to be anyone following Corrie in the footage posted above. There must not have been anyone in other footage police have not released, or else they would have released that info, I’m assuming.
In the 2nd video above looks like something or someone has caught his attention because he looks to his right twice as he crosses in front of the camera. Maybe this is his abductor and/or killer? Or was he going behind the building to urinate, a theory many people on the internet agree on. Me, not so much. The main reason is that he was not seen on CCTV coming out of the loading area, and he should have been. Now, there is a chance the cameras did not catch him because they move to point at different locations within their range. I don’t think this is what happened because another CCTV cam would have shown Corrie. But then again, if this was foul play, the cameras should have picked up another person, and apparently, they didn’t.
I also do not think he attempted to walk back to the base. He was not seen on any more CCTV footage in Bury. If he did come out from behind Greggs Bakery, he was in a vehicle. But I would think the car would have been caught on CCTV, too.
I’m curious as to why police have only released TWO surveillance videos. What about the one that shows him sleeping outside Hughes? What about the one of him walking from Flex to Pizza Mamma Mia?
I am wondering about an employee at Greggs Bakery. The bakery opens at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday. The bakers most likely were there before then, like around 3 a.m., maybe. Perhaps someone saw him as he or she was throwing something in the dumpster or in that area, smoking a cigarette, and something terrible happened. Maybe Corrie knew someone who worked there and knocked on a back door. He was let in one of the buildings, something happened, and the killer hid his body until he or she felt safe enough to dispose of it. Maybe they tossed his phone into the dumpster. I don’t know, but what I do know is aliens did not abduct corrie, nor did he slip through a portal to another dimension, although it makes you wonder.
Did the police search the dumpsters behind Greggs for any evidence regarding Corrie?
The people who were in the area that night around the same time as Corrie should have seen him at some point. Security cameras in the area show that it was busy between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. Plus, Corrie was wearing a pink shirt for Pete’s sake. They had to see something, including Corrie sleeping at Hughes. One person was seen checking on Corrie as he slept. Not sure if this person was interviewed or not, though. I don’t understand why some of the ones seen on CCTV have not come forward. Why not?
I read that three teenagers seen on CCTV near the area, and around the time Corrie was last seen, had been identified and interviewed. They claimed they did not see Corrie that night. How the police decided they were not lying is beyond me.
Let’s talk about his phone. It traveled to the Barton Mills area between 3:24 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. By car, it is about a 24-minute drive, according to Google Maps. What was the bin lorry’s last stop in Bury St. Edmunds? What came from the interview with the bin lorry, I wonder. I could find nothing on that. Did the driver see Corrie at all? Unfortunately, for some strange reason, police have not searched the Barton Mills area. I find this extremely odd because Corrie’sofficials traced Corrie’s phone there.
Corrie’s phone did not shut off until 8:00 a.m., three and a half hours later. I’m guessing that his phone’s battery may have died. Police believe Corrie may have been in this area up until his phone shut off. If so, why was he there? Who drove him there, and why hasn’t this person come forward? Did he kill Corrie?
I don’t think Corrie is alive. I think he would have contacted his family by now, and he hasn’t. The only logical explanation is that Corrie met with foul play after going behind the bakery. It could have been someone in one of the buildings back there, and the killer hid Corrie’s body inside until he could transport and dispose of it elsewhere. Corrie was pretty trusting, accepting rides and asking for rides from total strangers, for example. Maybe someone invited him inside to warm up and have a drink. Then something terrible happened.
I am perplexed by this case. I had a hard time walking away from it so that I could publish it. The case reminds me of Jesse Ross, who disappeared in 2006 while in Chicago for a college trip. Like Corrie, Jesse was not seen on any CCTV’s in Chicago other than the hotel he had just walked out of before he vanished into thin air. Both families have said it was like aliens abducted Jessie. At least, that would be an explanation of what happened to them. Sadly, I believe both met with foul play.
REGARDING LATEST UPDATE (see the top of post): According to The Telegraph, the lorry, which had been due to collect an 11kg load, has since been found to have contained a haul weighing more than 100kg. This means that it is possible that Corrie was in a garbage dumpster all along. That dumpster was taken to the landfill, where police believe they will find Corrie’s remains. Why it took MONTHS to figure this out is beyond me, so that is a little questionable. However, this scenario makes the most sense. The question is: how did Corrie get into the trash dumpster? Did he crawl into sleep? Did someone kill him and dump his body there? I think it’s probably the former. I do not believe he just “fell in” a dumpster.
The police looked at the video to see if the lorry picked up where Corrie was last seen – behind the bakery. Didn’t they already view the video? This investigation seems a little botched. Why didn’t police search the landfill before now? They should have explored it regardless of how much weight the lorry was carrying because a landfill makes a great place to dump a body.
What do you think happened to Corrie McKeague?
21 comments
Wow, the latest news is that the bin lorry company miscalculated the weight of the trash truck that day and that the actual weight it picked up is very close to Corrie’s weight. How devastating!
Really? I need to go read about that! Thanks!
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2773051/corrie-mckeague-new-cctv-footage-of-mystery-witness/
To me, the most logical explanation is that he wandered back there to pee (not unusual after waking up from a night of drinking) and somehow found himself passed out in the garbage. They tracked his phone going literally the same route and speed as the truck, but discounted it because apparently the truck didn’t show the extra weight at that time. I’ve read that these are notoriously unreliable measurements and could easily be off.
The chances of him being randomly met with foul play back there, and everyone somehow eluding CCTV cameras EVERYWHERE, are pretty slim to none. He had to be in that truck.
Anyway, love your blog and your pragmatic opinion about things. Always informative!
Thank you! 🙂 And I agree with what you said! Thanks for commenting!
I agree that the key lies with the garbage truck – unless a car did pick him up behind the bakery when he was last seen?
I do not recall if cars were seen leaving the horseshoe area and whether all of them were investigated. If this has been investigated then the only possibility to me is that he either asked the garbage truck driver for a ride or he fell asleep and was picked up with the trash (and the measurements were off). However, I do think he must have met foul play in the area where is phone was discovered then because otherwise I am sure he’d be home by now. And I am saying this with the assumptions that every inch of the horseshoe area has been investigated and there is no way his body is hidden there somewhere.
I apologize for posting a third comment but this just came to my mind: so the back of the trash truck did not weigh enough for there to could have been a body inside but what if the driver of the trash truck gave Corrie a ride in the passenger seat of the truck? I sure hope this has been looked into.
PS: I just googled the case and there have been developments. They found out that Corrie and his girlfriend had been on sex swapping and dating sites so police are looking into whether this could play a part in the disappearance (he could have met up with a date that night but it still does not make sense as to why he would have disappeared in the back of a bakery then).
The article I read also said they have identified and interviewed 3 out of 5 witnesses so far. Hoping his family and his girlfriend will know more soon! Terribly sad he disappeared before even knowing he was going to be a dad.
I just read about the swinger thing. But I don’t think it had anything to do with that unless he was meeting someone. However, if that was the case, why would Corrie be sleeping in a public doorway and wandering aimlessly around Bury by himself? Wouldn’t we have seen him with someone else at some point? I would guess that any kind of meet-up would have taken place at one of the clubs he was at and not on the streets at 3:30 in the morning. But who knows? This case is so strange lol!
Wow, this is an odd case! I agree that it is definitely not normal to sleep off your drunkenness on the street. I wonder if he had personal problems or issues, especially since it came out the family lied about multiple things.
The river scenario sounds plausible, maybe he did somehow fall in if he was as drunk as stated. But then why did his phone end up in the trash dumpster (wouldn’t it have ended up in the river along with Corrie?) and is it realistic no CCTV would have captured him leaving toward the river then?
I am sure the area was searched extensively but is there a chance his body is hidden in the area where he was last seen (the back of the bakery)? I just don’t see how him leaving or a car taking off from there would not have been captured on camera.
It is very odd! Corrie did some strange things that night. Personally, I don’t think he fell into a body of water and drowned. It’s a good theory and yes, it could have happened, but I don’t think it did. I think CCTV either didn’t capture him again by pure bad luck or the police are not releasing that info.
I think behind the bakery is probably the biggest clue but not enough to tell us what happened. Corrie would have been caught on CCTV somewhere else in Bury IF he walked away from the bakery.
I’m from England and can tell you this was initially all over the main stream media, yet his local newspaper and ‘True Crime Diva’ are the only two sources that have provided any useful insight into his case. It’s been a while now and sadly it has emerged that the case has been hampered by bizarre lies from the family, regarding Corrie’s relationship status, and attempts to excuse his behaviour. I say bizarre as there is no reason whatsoever to lie about him being single when he has a (now pregnant) girlfriend, it has little to do with the case, and why fall over yourself to excuse his drunkenness? We have all done it, and again it’s little concern to the case, it just makes him vulnerable. Having read a lot of more opinion based threads on the case via ‘Websleuths’, I have realised the subtle thoughts in my subconscious shouldn’t be excused. Corrie wasn’t “tipsy”, he was drunk, you can blatantly see him nearly stumbling into those two lads on the way up the street with his food. Secondly, he mother states “Corrie is a creature of habit, and often sleeps off the booze before walking home”. If that’s true then how would he usually collect his car the next morning? Particularly taking into consideration parking charges and being over the limit the morning after. How would he have usually travelled into Bury the next day? Bus, or on foot? If that was his usual routine, why do I get the feeling these questions haven’t been answered/asked? If he usually goes drinking with mates, then why would he “often sleep it off”, wouldn’t any decent friend ensure you got into a taxi? It also raises questions over Corrie’s state of mind. Going for a drink, or hitting a club alone isn’t abnormal behaviour, but getting hammered and touring the pubs and clubs alone and then sleeping by a bin is. This is not the behaviour of a happy man. Did he have something on his mind that night? Bad week? Was he just generally unhappy? Again, his own mother said he would often sleep on the street, it’s not what anybody does through choice, more than once. Thanks to ‘True Crime Diva’ Ive a far better idea of his last moments, but at the same time left even more confused as essentially he goes missing in an area the size of my room! The police are adamant he could not have left on foot without being seen, and thus any vehicular movement would have been monitored as well. Its a pedestrianised area, so any vehicles would have been commercial, employees of local businesses or overnight parkers looking for a sneaky free spot. So who on earth did he encounter? Or what did he encounter? Great article, hopefully more developments soon. So many English lads disappearing after a night out never to be seen again.
Oh I didn’t know that about the girlfriend! That is strange that the family would leave out this information. I found it odd, too, that he would sleep off the alcohol on a street. That is not normal behavior, I agree! Everything about this case is weird. Some reports say he was with friends, others say he wasn’t. If he was with friends, they should have made sure all of them returned home safely. So many questions in this case with very few answers, unfortunately. We have a lot of guys go missing here after a night out. Some fall into bodies of water, others vanish without a trace. This seems to happen more to males than females.
Absolutely agree with you. Ive been learning about criminology for years. From every case Ive ever read about, with missing females is almost always some sort of relationship. From a romantic one, to friends, family and acquaintances. Even if the victim doesn’t know the perpetrator, he will know her. It’s seldom a mysterious disappearance is not linked some sort of relationship, that is always where detectives look. With missing men it can be absolutely anything, a million different reasons, and the only motive detectives are ever usually able to discount, is that of a drugs link. Which still leaves a million other possibilities. I fail to see how Corrie would have gone AWOL from the RAF, because he would have just taken a hike and gone, not got drunk and leave his car. Sadly I fear the worst, the most perplexing aspect of this case, is how he has avoided any kind of video surveillance. Either he or his attacker(s) have managed to leave the area incognito, which the police say is impossible. Or Corrie has literally disappeared in a space the size of someones living room, which adds a lot more credence to the theory of him falling in the rubbish bin. I can only sympathise with the frustration of investigators and his family. I can think of two other disappearances of young men after nights out, one in Scotland and one in the Irish Republic and both are equally as ‘open ended’ as this one, both males are seen on CCTV then disappear as soon as they leave sight of the camera. No witnesses, no evidence, no trail of any kind, and no known enemies. 15 and 5 years on and still not a shred of developments in both cases.
In a way it seems impossible for someone to just vanish into thin air, but cases like this almost make me believe it is very possible. Corrie’s case is just mind-boggling because of the circumstances. I just hope his family isn’t still waiting for closure 15 years or so from now. Thanks for commenting!
This case reads like so many of the cases of young men out on the town drinking with friends. Get seperated from them not to be seen again.Or they end up in the river. When you mentioned there was a river near by that sent a shiver up my spine.
I know! It’s sad. Honestly, I never even thought of him falling into water. There is a river not too far from where he was last seen. But there should have been CCTV footage of him AFTER going behind Greggs. There wasn’t. That’s the only thing that gets me. From what I understand, there are tons of CCTV cameras throughout Bury. So he should have been caught on tape again but he wasn’t. However, any scenario is possible until he is found and we know for sure what happened to him.
The thinking in the uk is that he fell in a nearly river. He was drunk and this sadly does happen when water is close by
Yes it does, unfortunately.
Is it possible this young man fell into the dumpster and the trash truck driver unknowingly transported him to the Barton area?
The truck load weighed less than 33 lbs so this is why they do not believe he was in the truck. I thought that too, at first.