Corrie Mckeague: Up to 100 join mother's search

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-38711407

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Up to 100 people joined a search for missing airman Corrie Mckeague, but failed to find any trace of him.

The 23-year-old RAF gunner vanished after a night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on 24 September.

His mother Nicola Urquhart organised the public search off the A11 near Barton Mills in conjunction with Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue.

She previously said she had lost faith in the police. This is the second search she has arranged.

Mr Mckeague, from Dunfermline in Fife, was last seen walking alone in Bury St Edmunds at about 03:25 BST.

What we know about Corrie Mckeague's disappearance

Investigators tracing his phone's signal found it had moved from the town to the Barton Mills area, but the phone has never been located.

Joining the search, Mrs Urquhart said: "This area here, at Barton Mills, is where Corrie's phone 'pinged' off the mast, and this is the one bit of evidence we've been given.

"If he was to try to get back to Honington [RAF Honington, where he was based] he's got to walk through the woods that we're going to be searching."

She said she "understood" police did not have the resources to search "such a vast area with only one tiny bit of evidence".

Volunteers were split into teams lead by experienced searchers.

About 40 members of the public joined rescuers from organisations in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Essex.

Five cadaver dogs - used to search for bodies - were also brought in, as well as a drone.

Andy King, chairman of Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue said this latest search concentrated on "areas of interest".

"We've looked in places that he could perhaps be if he'd been hit by a car.

"There are also possible places where you might go if you wanted to dump a body. Some have been searched before, others haven't."

The search had been "a success in terms of ruling out some areas, but it cannot be called a true success until we find him, and unfortunately that's not the case today", he said.