Police have revealed the body of missing airman Corrie McKeague could have been in a bin lorry.
Corrie disappeared after a night out in Bury St Edmunds last September.
CCTV has shown that a waste lorry made a collection in the area a short time after his last confirmed sighting.
Officers have now confirmed the initial weight of the waste pick-up supplied to the investigation was incorrect and that it was far higher than originally thought.
Mr McKeague's mother, Nicola Urquhart, wrote on Facebook that the news could "devastatingly only mean one thing".
Bins in Bury St Edmunds near to where Corrie McKeague was last seen.
Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott said: "Through the persistence of officers and their detailed work we recently identified that the data provided was incorrect.
"We now know the weight of the waste collection from the ‘horseshoe’ on the night Corrie went missing was over 100kg, when the original information we were given indicated that this was 11kg, and this makes our search of the landfill the next logical step to try to find Corrie."
She added: “The investigation has identified that the company who provided the data usually charge per collection, not per weight of load collected, and it appears that it was genuinely believed by the company that the data provided was correct.
"There was no intention to mislead the investigation, however our discovery, through persisting with this through our enquiries and evidence gathering, now puts a new emphasis on the search."
Det Supt Elliott added: “Corrie’s family have been made aware of this new information and we continue to liaise with them as we move forward.
“Our extensive work around CCTV to see if Corrie could have left the Brentgovel Street area and the vast number of other enquiries we have been making have been crucial to getting us to this point.
“We have had to be methodical and systematic in our approach to ensure we were not ruling out the line of enquiry that may give us the answers.
"The search of the landfill is a huge undertaking, and still may not provide the answer as to what happened, but now, with new information uncovered by the officers working on the case, this is the priority."
A 26-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice as part of the continuing Corrie McKeague missing person investigation has been told he will face no further action.
Last updated Tue 7 Mar 2017
Corrie disappeared after a night out in Bury St Edmunds last September.
CCTV has shown that a waste lorry made a collection in the area a short time after his last confirmed sighting.
Officers have now confirmed the initial weight of the waste pick-up supplied to the investigation was incorrect and that it was far higher than originally thought.
Mr McKeague's mother, Nicola Urquhart, wrote on Facebook that the news could "devastatingly only mean one thing".
Bins in Bury St Edmunds near to where Corrie McKeague was last seen.
Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott said: "Through the persistence of officers and their detailed work we recently identified that the data provided was incorrect.
"We now know the weight of the waste collection from the ‘horseshoe’ on the night Corrie went missing was over 100kg, when the original information we were given indicated that this was 11kg, and this makes our search of the landfill the next logical step to try to find Corrie."
She added: “The investigation has identified that the company who provided the data usually charge per collection, not per weight of load collected, and it appears that it was genuinely believed by the company that the data provided was correct.
"There was no intention to mislead the investigation, however our discovery, through persisting with this through our enquiries and evidence gathering, now puts a new emphasis on the search."
Det Supt Elliott added: “Corrie’s family have been made aware of this new information and we continue to liaise with them as we move forward.
“Our extensive work around CCTV to see if Corrie could have left the Brentgovel Street area and the vast number of other enquiries we have been making have been crucial to getting us to this point.
“We have had to be methodical and systematic in our approach to ensure we were not ruling out the line of enquiry that may give us the answers.
"The search of the landfill is a huge undertaking, and still may not provide the answer as to what happened, but now, with new information uncovered by the officers working on the case, this is the priority."
A 26-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice as part of the continuing Corrie McKeague missing person investigation has been told he will face no further action.
Last updated Tue 7 Mar 2017