THE father of missing Scots gunner Corrie McKeague has begun a blockade of a rubbish tip where his son is thought to be buried – and said he will continue his protest until police restart their search.
Martin McKeague, 48, from Cupar, Fife who has been staying near the site for months in his camper van used the vehicle to block the entrance to the Cambridgeshire landfill site after police said it was ending their search on Friday afternoon.
He and his former wife Nicola Urquhart, a police officer from Dunfermline, Fife, have both made appeals to officers from Suffolk and Norfolk police to reverse their decision and resume searching the site in Milton, near Cambridge, but there is yet no sign of a U-turn.
Mr McKeague has been living in a camper van close to the landfill site with his new wife Trisha, 54.
Search teams have trawled through more than 6,500 tons of rubbish in a bid to find the missing infantryman who went missing after a night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, last September.
It is believed he fell asleep in a bin, which was then taken to the landfill.
“We need to find Corrie and put him to rest," said Mr McKeague. "It’s a living nightmare it really is. “They need to keep continuing. Right now he is in that landfill and I don’t want this to stop.
“I will block this entrance off until I get what I need. I am not trying to cause anybody trouble at all, I just want my son back.”
Ms Urquhart has urged the police to ask the army for help searching the landfill.
She believes it is “possible” that the 23-year-old had been drugged before he went missing.
“Although I am a police officer and very proud to be, I speak purely as a mother here, first and foremost every single time," she said.
“I’d rather be waiting for news, knowing that something is being done, rather than what we are left with which is they are telling me my son is there, in the landfill but they have stopped searching.”
She added: “I just don’t understand that, if money isn’t an issue, why have they stopped searching if they still believe he’s in there? It’s a question that I will be asking them.”
She has said her concern is that if the landfill is handed back and filled in before they are given the opportunity to discuss the options with the police “then we have no options”.
Ms Urquhart said that was why she considered seeking an injunction to stop police filling in the landfill site.
A giant crater was opened up in the landfill by teams of searchers including police from Norfolk and Suffolk, uncovering waste from the relevant time period.
But after 20 unsuccessful weeks, the £1.2 million search was finally brought to a close when officers found “no trace” of the missing Scot.
The search has been one of the biggest and most complex searches of a landfill site in the country. Searchers have worked in 20-30 degree heat, while wearing layers of protective clothing, and have needed hydration tablets and supplies of water to combat the risk of heat exhaustion.
Meanwhile police said a skull found amid the large-scale search was not that of the missing airman. The force said the skull was female and dates back to pre-1945.
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