A petition has been launched to continue the landfill search for missing Corrie McKeague following the news that it has been called off.
Yesterday, the family of the 23-year-old RAF gunner spoke of their devastation at the announcement by Suffolk police that the 20-week search of the Milton landfill site would be completed that day - despite the investigation still pointing to him being there.
The £1.2m search for the RAF Honington man, missing for 10 months, has ended with no trace found in some 6,500 tonnes of waste.
Kelly Morris has started the 38 Degrees petition, which already has more than 17,000 signatures.
She says on the website: 'Corrie's family and friends deserve to know if he is actually in there, after waiting weeks before starting the search, it is disgraceful that they would end the search without finding him but claiming he is in there. Why start a job if you are not going to complete it.'
She added: 'He deserves to be located and his family/friends deserve closure.'
Corrie's mother Nicola Urquhart, who is a police officer in Scotland, shared the petition on the Find Corrie Facebook group.
In a separate post, she wrote: 'Suffolk and Norfolk joint MIT team have been searching the landfill for 20 weeks. It is their belief that Corrie is in there.
'This is their strongest line of enquiry and as such they are not looking at other possible lines or have dismissed them already as they so firmly believe Corrie is in the landfill.
'Yesterday's decision to stop searching at the landfill means they have now given up on finding Corrie.
'Suffolk police have handed back the landfill and are trying to have it filled back in this week.'
She also said she is getting advice about the possibility of an injunction to stop them filling the landfill site.
At yesterday's press conference, Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott said: 'Our thoughts are with Corrie's family as we had hoped that this search would have provided them with the answers about what happened to him.
'This has been an unprecedented search, in the scale and amount of waste that has been examined. We have searched the whole area where we believed Corrie could be. We had compelling information that directed us to this area however we haven't found Corrie and this is bitterly disappointing.
'We have searched over 6,500 tonnes of waste, excavating a huge area. Without anything further to tell us where he might be on such a vast site the search cannot continue.'
Corrie went missing on September 24, 2016, after last being spotted on CCTV at 3.24am entering a refuse area off Brentgovel Street, since dubbed the 'horseshoe area'. He had been on a night out with friends.
To see the petition go here.
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