AIBU to feel it’s wrong to stop searching for Corrie McKeague

[CoolCarrie]

I just heard on the news that the police have decided to stop looking for Corrie McKeague, despite the evidence that he could very well be buried in the land fill state where the bin van left its load. The case will now be a cold case, instead of an active one.
It’s a tragic situation for his family, especially his new baby.
Police budgets apart, Why is it ok to spent millions on certain missing person cases, and not on another?

The job of the police is primarily to keep the public safe from crime. Finding Keith Bennett’s body would do nothing to safeguard any living child, and if they are pretty sure that McKeague was the victim of accidental death (or possibly suicide) then finding his body would not make the general public safer either.

Where there is a real suspicion of murder by person unknown however they need to keep looking for as long as reasonably possible to get the bastard off the streets.

There is an utterly bizarre story today attributed to Corrie's dad saying that he has always thought that Corrie was so devastated by his girlfriend being pregnant (although she says she only found she was pregnant AFTER he went missing), that he went for a kip in a skip 'knowing what could happen'. WTAF????

But I don't blame the police for winding up the investigation. There were very few leads right from the start. The only one was the bin lorry and landfill and they've spent a fortune searching it and found nothing. Police budgets aren't bottomless and there are other priorities. I'm sure that's sad for his family, but for all the people living in Suffolk I'm sure it's something of a relief.

I think it’s fair enough to be honest. Given that it seems more likely it was a tragic accident than foul play it’s a waste of money to keep the search going just to give his family some closure. Resources are finite after all.

juneau I've read his dad's comments. It strikes me that suicide by waste disposal bin would be a pretty bizarre way to go about it. Had the dustbin lorry issue not been so very likely, however, I could imagine a drunken young man's thoughts turning to suicide if he felt his life as he knew it was about to be turned upside down. 23, been in the RAF for three years, possibly promising career, enjoying swinging websites and shagging around, discovers that the woman he's been seeing the most of for a few months is pregnant... I do think talk of "the girlfriend" is slightly disingenuous because it seems pretty clear it was a rather casual and somewhat open relationship and far from being serious. Or perhaps with his being on a gay hook up app (although his brother denies Corrie was even remotely gay), maybe he worried that was about to come out?

So I don't think suicide itself would have been totally outside the realms of possibility. But you'd not do it in that way, surely.

My friend is in a position of knowledge about this landfill and waste disposal.
There is a possibility that the bin lorry went to the incinerator rather than the landfill.

Suffolk police are a disgrace. They messed this investigation up from the beginning. They refused to check cctv after the morning of the sunday. They ignored frequent phone calls and messages of sightings of corrie. They refused and still refuse to allow the raf to aid the investigation. Grotesque. Nicola has so much decorum.

I think it’s fair that when any investigation doesn’t have any leads that it should be scaled back.

I don’t understand why he would have wanted to have killed himself, as his dad has suggested, because his girlfriend was pregnant. There’s plenty of young serviceman with children in a similar situation that he would have been in.

It’s very sad all round

I understand the sentiment, OP, but at this point it is not feasible to keep searching.

So I don't think suicide itself would have been totally outside the realms of possibility. But you'd not do it in that way, surely.

I agree. But also, with Corrie missing and unable to speak for himself, I felt the dad's comments were uncalled for. Corrie is now a dad himself and chances are his son will never get to know him, but once he's old enough he'll now be able to google this awful thing that his grandad said - possibly that he committed suicide because he didn't want to be a dad. That strikes me as just really horrible. I think his dad should've kept that thought to himself, if only to save his grandson from one day reading it.

It's a sad situation for all concerned, but it's a sad situation anyway, whether he is found or not. His child will grow up without a father (although from whats been said on this thread, that was always a possibility from the moment of his conception). The police are pretty clear that the only thing that could have happened is that hes got drunk, gone to sleep in a bin and is in the landfill somewhere. They have looked and looked. He was seen walking into a cul de sac on his own and never came out. The only think in there was an industrial bin. Its unlikely he was murdered as no one followed him in.

I understand why the police are winding it down, but I also understand why the family oppose that.
These cases where people go missing - it must be utter torment for the families. If it was your child you’d never stop looking, you’d raise hell to keep the investigation open. They must live in a state of constant stress and torment, I can’t imagine how awful it is for them.

So yes, I suppose the police if they have no new leads should wind down the investigation- I feel incredibly sorry for the family, and all families going through this. It’s heartbreaking

I don’t see why a serviceman deserves more money spent on him than any other missing person purely because he was in the armed forces. How does this pecking order work? Are doctors worth looking for more than receptionists? Local government workers more than people in the private sector?

In saying that, I do feel for his family and I do think it’s a horrible case. But when there are no leads it has to be looked at realistically - millions have already been spent.

He had a daughter didn't he not a son?
Anyway it's very sad all round really.
Don't blame them for stopping though as there's nothing else to be done surely what with no leads 😔

The problem is that the police appear to have really fucked up the initial stages of the investigation. They opposed investigating the landfill site for an extremely long time, and the mess up over the rubbish lorry calculations and resulting blank refusal to apply any brain power was shocking.

So when an investigation is then forced to continue through those man-made barriers, via media attention and family pressure, it becomes a very different sort of investigation.

I’d not be surprised to find out it probably will be hugely more expensive than a well run investigation would have been, so it’s hard to say ‘it’s cost x million therefore it should end’.

It’s very sad either way though. I have no idea what happened and what could have been found if the police had engaged competently from the start, perhaps nothing more... but sadly, no one will ever know if the weeks, well, months really, that were lost, could have changed the outcome and the level of closure for the family...

If the bin man hadn't lied then isn't it possible Corrie could have been found alive? The police believed him so it was a dead end.

These cases where people go missing - it must be utter torment for the families. If it was your child you’d never stop looking, you’d raise hell to keep the investigation open. They must live in a state of constant stress and torment, I can’t imagine how awful it is for them. It is horrific and a life sentence for the rest of the family. Happened to a member of my family but as it was in the middle of an ocean we had to accept the body would never be found. The pain never goes and the hope (which you know if almost impossible) that they might still be alive means the torment never ends.

So sorry peacheach - I can’t begin to imagine how awful that is :(

Hypermice, thank you. You would think after nearly 60 years it wouldn't be a big issue anymore but I still think at 82 he could be alive. I like to imagine him on a beautiful pacific island with a wife and a whole family of children and grandchildren. Sadly very unlikely but nicer than thinking about what was much more likely.