Corrie Mickeague went missing on the 24th September 2016 went missing from a night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Background on Corrie:
SUFFOLK CONSTABULARY
Corrie was born in Perth, Scotland but was raised to Cupar. At the age of 9 Corrie’s parents divorced and his mother moved to Dunfermline. Corrie went with his mother alongside his two brothers. Corrie joined the RAF in October 2013 and was based in RAF Honington.
Five months before his disappearance he started dating a girl named April Oliver who was pregnant with his baby at the time of his disappearance; Corrie and April did not know this at the time until after he disappeared. This was not an exclusive relationship as Corrie was on loads of dating apps and was still acting single.
His mother described him as a “funny, “gregarious” and someone who “loved to be the centre of attention”. His mother told everyone that “you don’t forget Corrie if you meet him once”. Corrie also had a puppy at the time of his disappearance called Louell who “he loved to bits” and he had plans to go home for Halloween.
The disappearance:
On the 23rd of September 2016, Corrie had plans to go out with some of his mates from the RAF as they had the weekend off, they planned to go to a nearby town called Bury Saint Edmunds.
SUFFOLK CONSTABULARY
The outfit he was wearing that night: a light-pink Ralph Lauren shirt, white jeans and a pair of Timberland suede boots. He is white, 5ft 10ins (1.78m) tall, of medium build, with short light brown hair.
He missed his lift into the town with his friends, so he decided to drive his BMW Z4 into town and he parked on Robert Boby Way just after 22.00 BST. He called his brother Darrach for approximately 30 minutes whilst he had a few drinks in his car.
At 10.50 he joined his friends at So Bar, then headed over to the Wetherspoon Corn Exchange pub at about 23:30 BST. At 12.30 they headed to Flex night club this was his last stop. Corrie got kicked out of this club due to being too drunk which he agreed with. He left by himself and CCTV showed that he went to Pizza Mamma Mia and ordered a lot of food. People in the takeaway shop said he was happy and was talking to everyone.
He sat and ate his food outside an electrical stores ‘Hughes’, after eating his food he took a 2-hour nap. At 03.08 BST Corrie sent a photo from a previous night out to a friend. Then at 03.25 his last movements were caught on CCTV, he got up and walked into a “horse shoe” area behind the store Greggs.
The horse shoe area
There are no CCTV cameras in this area so it is unknown what happened to Corrie next. Police say it is impossible he could leave without being caught on CCTV, the only way he could would be to go through a back entrance to one of the shops (not possible as doors would have all been locked). In this Horse shoe was back doors to businesses, cars and bins.
Corrie was reported missing on the 26th September 2016 as he failed to turn up for work, this was totally character for Corrie as he loved work.
A massive search started with police, volunteers and investigators all out searching roads, rural land and the town. No trace was found anywhere. Police turned to looking at his phone records for a location. Corries phone showed to be at Barton Mills, this was 90 minutes from where he was last seen. However, it only took him 30 minutes to get there so it is believed he would have travelled in a vehicle. At 08.00 his phone cut off this would be as a result of being switched off, destroyed or out of battery.
A Biffa bin wagon was seen at the horse shoe around the time of Corries disappearance, all Biffa vehicles are tracked and have a weighing device. The wagon had taken the same route as Corrie, was at the same time and ended at the same town. On the 24th of September 2016 the wagon weighted 116 kilos which was an unusual weight as the bins normally weighted 20-30 kilos. Police at the time did not look into this as they were given the wrong weight, they were told it weighted 15 kilos.
Police then started to look into different options. 39 people were seen in the same CCTV footage as Corrie so police decided to make a public appeal to find them, thirteen of these people were identified but all of them ended up being dead ends with no information. They then started to focus on the possibility that someone had given Corrie a lift on his way back to the RAF base or got into one of the vehicles that was in the horse shoe, there was no evidence to help this theory.
In December 2016, many searches had taken place at the RAF base, Burton Mills and around the area he was last seen. On the 17th of December 2016 they decided to stop the search, by the end of December a £50,000 reward has been raised by the public to help anyone that knows where he is to come forward.
Police decided to search the landfill where the Biffa bin wagon was emptied, by the end of the search they had looked through 9,400 tones of landfill. They started to find receipts from the day he disappeared from the horse shoe bin but there was nothing. Police decided to stop the search on the 21st of July 2017. They also searched the bin and wagon that was used that night, but nothing came from it, no DNA or sign.
In August 2018, Nicola, Corries mum, that she did not think that he was in the landfill. She thought he was still out there and got out of the horse shoe without a trace. There were five cars that went in and out of the horse shoe area before 07.00, any of which Corrie could have gotten in to without being seen.
Corries father on the other hand believes that he is in the landfill somewhere due to the unusual high weight of the bin. Corries father and two brothers plan on holding a private memorial for him as they believe he is 100% in the waste disposal system.
