Corrie McKeague's Mum says inquest verdict is 'almost closure'
An inquest into the death of the airman concluded earlier this week
We've been speaking to Corrie McKeague's Mum following the conclusion of an inquest into his death earlier this week.
A jury ruled that the 23 year-old RAF Gunner died after climbing into a bin on a night out in Bury St Edmunds in September 2016 - which was then emptied.
The inquest concluded that he died from asphyxiation and compression, in association with multiple injuries.
During the investigation in the years that followed his disappearance, the police went through over 2,000 hours of CCTV footage identifying and tracking the movements of anyone in the nearby area.
They also tracked the location of his phone, which appeared to follow the route the bin lorry took.
Landfill sites were also searched in order to find Corries body, but nothing was found.
In March 2018, his case was handed to a cold case team.
After the inquest ended we spoke to Nicola Urquhart, Corrie's mother to see whether or not this has brought a sense of closure: "Closures a very difficult thing to try and explain.... I know that there's nothing else I need to do or that I can do to be able to find Corrie.
"That's what all of this has been about from the day he went missing up until the jury gave their inquest, it was about what can we do to try and find him, to help the police.
"Knowing that there is nothing else I can do it's almost closure up if you like, but we've still got to try and process the information that we've been given.
When asked what she was feeling Nicola told us: "Just very, very numb right now, to be honest.
"This, I'm not experienced this before, so it's trying to process all the information that we've been given and trying to find a way of doing something practical about it to be able to update people on social media.
"It's about deciding what we're going to do next and some kind of service for Corrie.
"It's practical things that I'm thinking about just now, so that I can allow myself the time to catch up with with the reality of what we've we've just been faced with."
Nicola also told us how grateful she is for all the support her family has recieied: "The support that we've had from our family for a start, we have obviously a close family and talk to each other a lot.
"We're all dealing with it in our own individual ways, but I know that I've got my family to lean on if I need them.
"The friends I have down here, the friends I have back home, the people that are on the find Corey page, the support, the love that they send us all the time.
"My work have been amazing. There's nothing that they could have done to support me anymore than they have been.
"I'm a bit blown away, to be honest. By all the support that we have been shown support from the press, from, from the public in, in trying to get answers for us. It's it's insane."
Not only this but Nicola is grateful to finially have answers after 5 and a half years.
"The senior corner, Mr Nigel Parsley, the job that he has done and holding this inquest and the way that he's treated the family, I cannot express our gratitude enough.
"He has got us the answers come that we so desperately needed.
"I am so grateful that he has because he didn't have to write a prevention of future deaths report, and I'm glad that he has found it appropriate to do so."
Nicola is a Sergeant in Police Scotland, she told us what she thought of the police investigation in Suffolk: "It's made it easier in some cases because I have an understanding, but it's made it very difficult in other situations that we've dealt with because I have an understanding.
"I have had occasion to criticise the police and I've not liked doing it... but what I would like to say now is we have met with the police our request and they agreed to meet us and sit down.
"We had a very long conversation and it was immeasurable, the peace that, that has given us.
"We were able to thank them after that for the work that they've done in this investigation and genuinely mean it."
At the time of Corrie's death, his girlfriend was pregnant. We asked Nicola what it was like to have a granddaughter that carries on a piece of Corrie: "It's amazing, but in these circumstances, the fact that we've lost Corrie, but we still actually have a part of Corrie and we will be able to watch her grow up. It's made something that is an awful awful situation, it's, fitting.
"Corrie saw the positive and everything Corrie tried to be happy and positive all the time and he's left us with something so positive, she's adorable."