RAF gunner Corrie McKeague, who vanished on a night out in 2016, died after getting into a bin which was then tipped into a waste lorry, an inquest has concluded.
The airman, of Dunfermline, Fife, was 23 when he disappeared in the early hours of 24 September in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
He was last seen on CCTV at 3.25am entering a service area behind a Greggs shop. His body has never been found, despite extensive searches.
On Tuesday, an inquest jury recorded in a narrative conclusion that McKeague died at approximately 4.20am in Bury St Edmunds as a result of “compression asphyxia in association with multiple injuries”, jurors recorded.
In their conclusion, they said McKeague’s “death was contributed to by impaired judgment due to alcohol consumption”.
They said there were “ineffective bin locks”, an “ineffective search of the bin” before it was tipped, and “poor visibility through a Perspex viewing window on the lorry”.
His father, Martin McKeague, said after the ruling that he hopes his son can “finally be left to rest in peace”, with the inquest shining “a new light on the truth for everyone”.
At the time of his disappearance, McKeague was based at RAF Honington, in Suffolk, about 10 miles from Bury St Edmunds. He had trained at the base in 2013 and remained when he joined the parachute trained II Squadron RAF Regiment.
Family have said he loved his time with the service, which had seen him travel to Africa and France and sail a 21-metre (69ft) yacht to Brazil. He relished the camaraderie of military life and had made “very close friends”.
On Friday 23 September, McKeague’s friends at the base decided to go out in Bury St Edmunds. McKeague drove into the town. He had been drinking in his on-base flat before he left and was likely to have been over the legal drink-driving limit.
During the inquest, his father told jurors he believed his son had developed a significant binge-drinking problem at the age of 15 after he was the first to find the body of a close friend who had just been killed on a train line.
While he was prescribed antidepressants in the past, his mother Nicola Urquhart told the inquest he was “back to his usual happy self” by 2015.
McKeague ended up in a nightclub called Flex. After midnight, he was asked to leave by the bouncer, Will Hook, who decided McKeague was too drunk to stay any longer – though Hook has previously said McKeague was not misbehaving.
He wandered off to Pizza Mama Mia on St Andrew’s Street North. After finishing his food, at about 1.20am, he leant up against the door of Hughes electrical store, on Brentgovel Street, slid to the ground and fell asleep.
After a couple of hours, he awoke, stood up and a little dazed walked into a loading and refuse collection area – known as “the Horseshoe” – behind, among other shops, a Greggs bakery. It was about 3.25am in the early hours of Saturday 24 September.
By midday on Monday 26 September, McKeague hadn’t turned up for a parade at work. When he couldn’t be found on the base, he was reported missing to police.
After tracing his movements using CCTV to the Horseshoe behind Greggs, the police identified four vehicles that went into the loading area, including a bin lorry, a delivery vehicle and a vehicle owned by an employee of one of the adjoining shops. A total of 31 people of interest near the area were identified, including the owners or drivers of all the vehicles.
A key piece of evidence suggested McKeague was in the bin lorry. His mobile phone signal was traced until it ran out at 4.25am near Barton Mills, about 14 miles north-west of Bury St Edmunds, after crucially following the route of the truck.
And there was anecdotal evidence that he had done something similar before.
His best friend, Paul Robb, who served with him in the RAF, told the inquest McKeague slept under bin bags after a night out in Lichfield, Staffordshire, in 2014.
In his witness statement, Robb said: “Corrie had always been extreme with his drinking and there were no half measures with Corrie.”
