Police in Brighton have uncovered the remains of a 2-month-old baby who had been missing since it was born in early January, following the conclusion of a two-month search for the infant’s mother earlier this week. Constance Marten, 35, and her partner Mark Gordon, 48, are being held in custody in the city on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford of the Metropolitan Police declared on Wednesday night, “It is my very sad duty to update that this afternoon, police officers searching a wooded area close to where Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were arrested, discovered the remains of a baby.” Marten, who hails from a well-to-do and aristocratic family, and Gordon went off the grid in September after the pregnancy came to the attention of social services in the London borough in which they lived. Gordon, a registered sex offender who served 20 years in a U.S. prison for rape and battery for a crime committed when he was 14, is thought to have been the source of the social workers’ concerns.
The couple spent most of the autumn and early winter travelling around the country in various Airbnbs until, on Jan. 5, their vehicle broke down on the M61 motorway near Bolton in Greater Manchester. It was found abandoned and on fire on the hard shoulder. It is assumed that Marten had given birth in the car, but there was worry when she did not go to a nearby hospital or seek any medical attention. Greater Manchester Police determined that the couple and the baby had left the motorway and took a taxi to Liverpool, and then to Harwich in Essex and east London. The last sighting of the couple was in Newhaven, East Sussex on Jan. 8.
They subsequently went into hiding and it was feared they were sleeping outside, possibly in a tent, with the infant in the cold weather of January and February. On Monday evening, they were spotted and arrested in Stanmer Villas, on the northern outskirts of Brighton, after withdrawing money from an ATM at a convenience store. Marten’s father, Napier Marten, said he was relieved she had been found but he said it was “very alarming” the baby was missing.
The couple were initially arrested on suspicion of child neglect but on Tuesday, when there was still no sign of the baby, they were rearrested on suspicion of manslaughter by gross negligence. Basford said a post-mortem examination would be held “in due course” to determine the cause of death, which will influence the police and the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision when it comes to charging Marten and Gordon. He urged the media and the public to refrain from speculating on the issue for fear of prejudicing “potential court proceedings.”
Hundreds of officers from the Metropolitan Police and Sussex Police, as well as search and rescue volunteers, had been combing through 90 square miles of land on the edge of the South Downs, near Brighton, when they discovered the baby’s remains. CCTV footage was released of the couple in Stanmer Villas on Monday night, showing Gordon limping and using a large stick to walk. The couple are believed to have been living rough on Hollingbury golf course and nearby allotments in the last week. Gordon was convicted in Florida of kidnapping and sexual battery, according to U.S. law enforcement records, and was deported back to Britain after his release. He is known to have met Marten in 2016, when she was a drama student. PA Media contributed to this report.