POLICE searching for a missing Scots RAF serviceman said a search of a bin lorry has failed to locate his phone, as they extended an appeal for witnesses.
Corrie McKeague, 23, disappeared 11 days ago after going out for the evening with friends in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Officers who examined mobile phone data believed his handset may have been lost or discarded and ended up in a bin lorry. But the Nokia Lumia 435 phone was not found in a refuse truck that was seized and searched, and the vehicle has now been released. The phone is thought to have been in a black PVC leather-look case which was frayed and worn around the edges.
Searches for the phone are continuing. It was in Bury St Edmunds early on Saturday, September 24, but then moved to the Barton Mills area. It had been thought that this movement mirrored the journey of a bin lorry.
Police are studying hours of CCTV for further sightings and are appealing for people with private footage of the local area from September 24 to alert police if they think it may be of use.
Officers are also asking any market traders who were setting up in the early hours of that day to come forward if they have not yet spoken to the team working on the case.
The National Police Air Service helicopter was up in the Bury St Edmunds area yesterday, and Suffolk Police continue to receive support from Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue volunteers and RAF personnel.
Officers said they received a small number of calls as a result of an appeal by the missing man’s mother, Nicola Urquhart, of Dunfermline.
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