The inquiry into the disappearance of RAF gunner Corrie McKeague will be stood down and passed to a cold case team, it is reported.
Mr McKeague was 23 when he was last seen walking through Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in September 2016 after a night out with friends.
Police conducted two searches of a landfill site at Milton near Cambridge last year, with the first search lasting 20 weeks and the second, lasting seven weeks, concluding in December.
No trace of Mr McKeague was found.
It is thought Mr McKeague may have climbed into a waste bin and was taken away by a bin lorry, prompting the landfill search.
The Daily Mirror reports Suffolk Police will announce the inquiry will be shelved – as Mr McKeague’s father Martin told the paper he fears the airman may have killed himself.
Martin, 49, said he thought his son knew he was going to become a father which may have affected his mental state.
He said: “I just can’t help thinking this would have weighed on him heavily and he may have actually chosen to get in that bin that night knowing what would happen.
“It’s as probable as anything else and it makes it no less heartbreaking.”
