Body found in search for Constance Marten’s missing newborn baby
News is ‘heartbreaking for community’ say police questioning couple on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Police searching for runaway aristocrat Constance Marten’s missing newborn baby say they have found a body.
Detectives described the news as “heartbreaking for the community” and thanked members of the public who offered information.
A massive search was undertaken over 96 sq miles around the Brighton area for two days, leading to the discovery. A post-mortem examination on the baby will be carried out in due course, detectives said.
Ms Marten, 35, and her partner Mark Gordon, 48, were arrested in Brighton on Monday night, following a more than seven-week search sparked by the discovery of their burnt-out car on the M61 near Bolton.
The couple were detained by Sussex Police after being spotted by a member of the public, prompting the intensive search for their missing baby.
The pair were arrested on suspicion of child neglect and gross negligence manslaughter, and remain in custody after police were granted a 36-hour custody extension by Brighton magistrates.
More than 200 police officers from the Metropolitan Police and Sussex Police were involved in the search for the child, aided by a police helicopter, sniffer dogs, thermal imaging cameras and drones.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford of the Metropolitan Police announced on Wednesday evening that remains had been found.
A crime scene is in place and work is expected to continue for some time in the area.
“This is an outcome that myself and many officers who have been part of the search had hoped would not happen,” he added.
“I recognise the impact this news will have on people who have been following the story closely and can assure them that we will do everything we possibly can to establish what has happened.”
Ch Supt James Collis of Sussex Police said the announcement would be “heartbreaking” for the local community.
He said: “I would first and foremost like to extend my heartfelt condolences on behalf of Sussex Police to the wider family of the baby at this time.
“I understand that the conclusion of this search will be heartbreaking for the local community and the wider public who have been impacted by and so supportive of this search and the investigation from the outset.
“I would like to thank again the public, including the member of the public whose information led to the arrests, the huge number of people who came forward with information and those that have volunteered to assist with the searches.
“We continue to support the Metropolitan Police as they conduct their investigation and also the wider community as we all come to terms with this tragedy.”
In their search for the couple, detectives had long stressed their concern for the welfare of the child, which is not thought to have been assessed by medical professionals since his or her birth in early January.
A heavy police presence remained in the area on Wednesday near where the couple were arrested, and police and staff from London Search and Rescue combed through Wild Park Local Nature Reserve, which backs onto Hollingbury Golf Course.
Users of nearby allotments were told that officers had forced entry to every shed on the site, and would remain there for some time.
Earlier in the investigation, it emerged that detectives believed Ms Marten may have given birth in the back seat of the car, which was left abandoned on the hard shoulder near Bolton.
The couple are thought to have then travelled hundreds of miles in taxis while using cash to live off-grid. They had been last spotted in the Sussex port of Newhaven on 8 January, walking towards open fields.
Gordon is believed to have bought camping gear the previous evening at an Argos in Whitechapel Road in London, with police reiterating on Tuesday that their working hypothesis remained that the couple had been living outdoors.
Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford appealed on Tuesday for members of the public living between Brighton and Newhaven “to report any potential sightings, or information about where they [the family] may have been sleeping”.
DS Basford said police held out hope of finding the baby but warned they had to consider the possibility that the child had “come to harm”.
“We have had a significant period of time in custody facility with both Constance and Mark,” he said on Tuesday.
“At this time we have not furthered that information, which has now obviously led to the position where we feel that the risk is getting so great that we now have to consider the possibility that the baby has come to harm.”
Officers were initially working outwards from the location of their arrest in Stanmer Villas, on the outskirts of Brighton.
Police wearing gloves were seen methodically working through plants and undergrowth at the site, which sits on the edge of a golf course that runs into the nature reserve, and then into the South Downs National Park.