Corrie Mckeague: Mother believes missing airman may have come to harm

Nicola Urquhart appealed for anybody who may have given her son a lift to come forward

The mother of an airman missing for more than a month has said she is preparing for the possibility that he may have come to harm.

Corrie Mckeague, 23, based at Suffolk's RAF Honington, vanished on 24 September after a night out in Bury St Edmunds.

His mother Nicola Urquhart said his family were starting to believe there may have been "third-party involvement" in his disappearance.

She appealed for anyone who might have given her son a lift to come forward.

Mr Mckeague, from Dunfermline, Fife, was last seen on CCTV walking alone and eating fast food in Brentgovel Street, Bury St Edmunds, at about 03:20 BST on 24 September.

Speaking at Suffolk Police Headquarters, Mrs Urquhart said the lack of leads that had emerged during the month-long police inquiry had led the family to consider third-party involvement, possibly from someone who picked her son up in a car.

'Please tell me'

She said somebody may have tried to give him a lift back to his base seven miles (11km) away, but had taken him the wrong way and got lost, and was now too scared to come forward.

Appealing directly to that person, she said: "Please, you were trying to do the right thing the first time... please come forward and tell us where you dropped him off.

Corrie Mckeague was last spotted on CCTV walking alone and eating takeaway food in Bury St Edmunds on 24 September

"But if it's something more untoward and somebody has done something awful to him I still want my son back, so please tell me where he is."

On Monday Suffolk police said they were looking into a possible sighting of Mr Mckeague by a driver on the Hollow Road Industrial Estate, and on Wednesday search teams covered an area at Great Livermere, close to RAF Honington.

Mrs Urquhart said she did not believe abduction by terrorists, or kidnap, were likely scenarios.

"I have never known a terrorist organisation or group to take somebody and keep it secret - it doesn't serve their purpose so why on Earth would they do it," she said.

On the possibility of kidnap, she said: "Nobody has come forward wanting anything or asking for anything.

"Just now - today - Corrie's alive. I want him home.

"If somebody can come home alive after this time then it's him, and I will keep feeling that and make myself feel that until I get news that's an absolute fact to the contrary."