POLICE searching for a missing RAF gunner who vanished while on a night out with friends are examining a phone found close to where the airman’s mobile was last detected.
Corrie McKeague, 23, from Fife, was last seen in the early hours of September 24 in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.
A mobile phone found by a member of the public in the Mildenhall area – some 14 miles from where McKeague was last seen – is now being examined by police to see if it is linked to the case.
On Monday, it was revealed that April Oliver, 21, McKeague’s girlfriend, is expecting his child.
Oliver discovered she was pregnant in October – weeks after McKeague’s disappearance.
She said: “I’ve had to make a massive decision by myself. I was hoping and praying that he’d come back so we could make the decision together.”
The baby is due in late spring or early summer and she said McKeague did not know about the pregnancy.
The pair had been together for about five months after meeting on a dating site.
McKeague’s mother Nicola Urquhart, a police officer from Dunfermline, said: “It’s incredibly difficult to bounce my head from the excitement of a new baby to what we’re actually trying to focus on, which is finding Corrie.”
McKeague, a gunner and team medic based at RAF Honington, was separated from friends while leaving the Flex nightclub on St Andrews Street South.
He was last seen in Bury St Edmunds town centre on CCTV at 3.25am wearing a light pink Ralph Lauren shirt, white jeans and brown suede Timberland boots with light soles.
The last sighting shows him walking from a shop doorway and into a horseshoe-shaped area with no sign of him emerging.
A spokeswoman for Suffolk Constabulary said: “Police are continuing searches to try to locate Corrie McKeague.
“As part of this, a small team of officers has been carrying out work in the vicinity Corrie was last seen, which was in the St John Street area.
“This involves visiting premises, speaking to staff and employees and searching buildings.
“Many of these people will have already been contacted previously as part of the ongoing investigation.
“It is important to ensure that all possibilities are explored.”
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