Missing RAF airman Corrie McKeague ‘developed binge-drinking problem as teenager after finding friend’s body’

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Mr McKeague’s father said in a statement read by lawyer Peter Taheri, counsel to the inquest: “Corrie was a happy child, however there were major events that shaped Corrie’s life. “This has been a heart-breaking tragedy.” Nicola Urquhart, mother of missing 23-year-old RAF gunner Corrie McKeague, pictured with his brothers Darroch and Makeyan at Sufolk Police head quarters in 2016 Ms Urquhart, in a statement read to the inquest in Ipswich by lawyer Adam Walker, said one of her son’s “very close female friends was hit by a train and killed instantly”. Suffolk’s senior coroner Nigel Parsley said Mr McKeague, who had served in the RAF for three years, drank a “significant amount of alcohol during the evening” of 23 September. He said jurors will hear evidence about Mr McKeague’s movements on 23 and 24 September, his contact with any witnesses and “hypotheses and possible scenarios relating to Corrie’s disappearance”.