An investigation into the mysterious disappearance of RAF gunner Corrie McKeague is to be stood down and passed to a cold case team, according to reports.

There have been no sightings of Mr McKeague since he went missing after a night out with friends in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in September 2016.

Police twice searched a landfill site at Milton near Cambridge last year, with the first lasting 20 weeks and the second lasting seven weeks, but no trace of him was found.

Image: Police officers search a landfill site in search of Corrie McKeague in March 2017

It is thought the then 23-year-old may have climbed into a waste bin and been taken away by a bin lorry, with his father Martin fearful that he may have killed himself after learning he was to become a father.

He told the Daily Mirror: "I just can't help thinking this would have weighed on him heavily and he may have actually chosen to get in that bin that night knowing what would happen.


"It's as probable as anything else and it makes it no less heartbreaking."

The paper also reported Suffolk Police are to announce that the inquiry is to be stood down.

In December, mother Nicola Urquhart told Sky News that officers had received reports that her son had been murdered.

She added: "We don't believe Corrie was ever at the landfill site, but police seemed so set on that theory that they didn't take the crime reports seriously."

Suffolk Police has previously said that a review of its investigation by East Midlands Police Special Operations Unit had endorsed its conclusion that Mr McKeague had ended up in the waste disposal process.