Remains found during search for Constance Marten’s baby, police say
Police searching for the baby of Constance Marten announced they have found the remains of an infant.
Officers from the Metropolitan and Sussex forces have been scouring 91 square miles of land around the South Downs following the arrest of Ms Marten and her boyfriend Mark Gordon in Brighton on Monday evening.
Fears had grown over their baby’s safety since the last previous sighting of the couple in Newhaven on Jan 8.
A Post Mortem will take place in due course. They said a crime scene was in place and work was expected to continue there for some time.
Lewis Basford, a Detective Superintendent with the Metropolitan Police, told a press conference: “Officers searching a wooded area close to where Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were arrested discovered the remains of a baby. A post mortem will be held in due course.
“This is the outcome we hoped would not happen. We will do everything we can to establish what has happened.”
DS Basford added that the couple remain in custody after magistrates granted police an extension until Thursday evening allowing officers to question them further.
It comes as the Telegraph revealed Ms Marten and Mr Gordon broke cover after running out of cash and food.
Ms Marten, 35, from an aristocratic family, and 48-year-old Mr Gordon had used a slush fund of thousands of pounds to live off grid and evade detection.
But it has emerged that they were forced to take increasingly desperate measures to get provisions after their cash ran out. They are understood to have survived on handouts from food banks for nearly a week before their arrest in Brighton on Monday.
The pair triggered a police alert that night when they used a bank card to withdraw money from a monitored bank account at a cash machine at a Mulberrys convenience store in the Sussex city. The alert came moments before a member of the public spotted them buying supplies at the same shop and dialled 999.
The couple’s bank was being monitored by police in case funds were accessed and a location for their whereabouts was then established.
A Met Police spokesman said: “Simultaneous to the call from the member of the public, the investigation team was alerted to the use of a bank card. The pair were arrested minutes later.”
The couple were seen using a cash machine outside the Mulberrys convenience store on Hollingbury Place on Monday. It was not clear whether the cash withdrawal was the first time Ms Marten and Mr Gordon had used their bank card or activated a police alert that the bank account had been accessed.
The shop is a short walk from where they were arrested at around 9.30pm after a member of the public who recognised them from media coverage alerted police.
However, staff at both the food bank and shop where the pair bought supplies said nothing was purchased for a baby.
They had obtained milk, pasta and rice from volunteers at the Brighton Food Bank in the Calvary Church Building last Wednesday, before apparently returning to their makeshift shelter on the edge of the South Downs.
They did not pick up anything obviously intended for a baby such as nappies or powdered milk, which were available at the food bank.
A food bank worker said: “They were given tinned food, bread, pasta, milk and rice. They were not registered with us, which is how we usually operate. The baby was not with them. We have supplies here, but they didn’t ask for anything for a baby. They came asking for help for themselves.”
The food bank worker, who only recognised the couple from photographs after they were arrested, added: “She did the talking. She asked for help. She was wearing a lot of layers and, looking back, she looked like she’d been outside for a while.
“She did the talking. We didn’t take any details, we just gave them food because we thought they needed help.”
