Fifty-three days after going on the run with a newborn baby, missing aristocrat Constance Marten and her boyfriend Mark Gordon were finally caught – with help from a member of the public outside a corner shop.
he couple were recognised by a passer-by thanks to media appeals, and police swooped just six minutes later as they walked up a nearby Brighton street.
“Just after 9.30pm [on Monday] a member of the public – off the back of media reporting of images of the couple – sighted them outside of the Mulberrys convenience store on Hollingbury Place,” Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford told a press conference.
“They saw the couple withdrawing cash and dialled 999. The time between that call being registered and police arriving at the scene was six minutes.”
He described Ms Marten and Mr Gordon as “heavily clothed for outdoor activity” and said they underwent medical checks in custody after being arrested on suspicion of child neglect.
It had been over seven weeks since the last confirmed sighting of the pair, who were caught on CCTV around 16km away in Newhaven on January 8.
Police believe they had been sleeping rough and walking long distances on foot, potentially through rural areas of the South Downs, to avoid detection.
With Ms Marten and Mr Gordon in custody, an intense search involving 200 officers got under way for their missing baby, amid concerns for the infant’s welfare in freezing temperatures. Yesterday, the two-month-old child’s remains were found near to where the pair were located.
The senior investigating officer, Det Supt Lewis Basford, told the press conference the couple had gone to “great lengths” to hide Ms Marten’s pregnancy and avoid her giving birth under the care of health authorities.
It is an immense relief to know my beloved daughter Constance has been found
He said that after going on the run, the newborn baby had been hidden from sight inside Ms Marten’s coat, and that taxi drivers had only been able to see the shape of the infant moving and hear it crying during journeys early in January.
Det Supt Basford said he had been concerned about the couple’s behaviour “in terms of movement [around the UK] and avoidance”.
As well as combing allotments and green areas near where the couple were arrested on Monday night, police are conducting house-to-house enquiries and trawling CCTV.
Ms Marten (35) and Mr Gordon (48) had been avoiding police since the baby was born in early January, moving around Britain, paying for everything in cash and covering their faces when on CCTV.
The investigation started after their car was found on fire and abandoned on the hard shoulder of the M61 in Bolton, and a family were seen walking away on January 5.
The following day, they took a taxi to Liverpool and then on to Harwich, Essex, where they were seen by a member of the public at around 9am on January 7.
But by that afternoon, they were in London, being caught on CCTV near East Ham, where Gordon purchased camping equipment including sleeping bags and a two-person tent.
At that point they were carrying a baby’s buggy, but dumped it near Brick Lane before taking taxis to north London and then onwards to Newhaven.
They arrived in the East Sussex ferry port shortly before 5am and were tracked walking to an overpass, before disappearing with their tent and bags into the fields beyond.
Ms Marten, who is from a wealthy aristocratic family, was a promising drama student when she first met Mr Gordon in 2016.
Since then the couple have led an isolated life, and in September, as Ms Marten’s pregnancy progressed, began moving around rental flats.
Her father, Napier Marten, told The Independent that “whatever the weather, I love her dearly and will support her best I can”.
“It is an immense relief to know my beloved daughter Constance has been found,” he added.
“For whatever reasons she and her partner went on the run, the consequences of their actions have increased manifold. It would have been far better if they had handed themselves in earlier.”