Inside Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s 54-day bid to evade capture as map reveals their movements and cops hunt baby | The Sun
MISSING aristocrat Constance Marten, her boyfriend Mark Gordon and their new born baby evaded police for 54 days.
On Monday night the pair were finally arrested on a residential street in Brighton – but their "high risk" baby is missing.
A frantic search is now underway to find the baby who is thought to have been born a day or two before their car burst into flames on January 5 on the M61.
It is unclear whether the child – whose sex is unknown – was born in the car or near it, but a placenta was found in the motor.
Here, The Sun looks back on how Gordon, a registered sex offender, and Constance, who has links to the Royal Family, went undetected for so long.
NOMADS
The pair left their home in Eltham, south-east London, sometime in September 2022, and began a nomadic lifestyle.
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It was around this time that Constance, 35, was showing the first signs of pregnancy.
Following the pair's disappearance, police told how the aristocrat became estranged from her family after meeting Gordon while a drama student in 2016.
Gordon was deported to Britain from the US in 2010 after spending 20 years in prison for raping a woman when he was just 14.
CASH
Before they vanished, it is thought Marten withdrew £15,000 of cash from an ATM.
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The pair then bought burner phones with multiple sim cards.
CAR
The couple's car was found on fire on January 5 on the M61 near Bolton, Lancashire.
The runaways abandoned the burning motor and went on the run with their days-old baby swaddled in blankets.
It sparked a nationwide hunt for the trio as police begged the runaways to confirm if the baby was safe.
They paid by cash to get to Liverpool the same day their car burnt before heading to Essex.
CAMPING GEAR
The pair are believed to have slept rough between January 5 and 7.
That was until Constance was spotted outside Harwich Port in Essex on January 7.
Later that day they appeared at East Ham station in East London before being spotted buying camping equipment from an Argos in the area the same day.
Weighed down with bags as they walked along Brick Lane in East London, the pair then got a taxi to Haringey in the North London.
In many of the CCTV images, the pair hide their faces with facemasks and hoods in an effort to evade detection.
At the time of the sighting temperatures in the UK plummeted to sub-zero – potentially lethal for a new born.
This was made more concerning as the baby is understood to have received no medical attention since it was born.
EAST SUSSEX
On January 8, the pair appeared in Newhaven, East Sussex, carrying a blue tent – it would be the last time the pair were seen.
CCTV captured images of the hooded duo dumping their child's pram in the port town.
It is thought the trio then headed into the South Downs national park where they camped out.
At the end of January, detectives offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the couple's whereabouts.
MISSING BABY
After 54 days on the run, Constance and Gordon were finally arrested on Monday night on a residential street in Brighton – but their baby was nowhere to be seen.
It came as a member of the public tipped cops off after spotting the runaways walking off the Sussex Downs.
Witnesses said they heard "screams" as the pair were cuffed by cops and held on suspicion of child neglect.
Police have been seen searching under cars and behind bins in Stanmer Villas this morning in a bid to find the newborn.
The nearby Roedale Valley Allotments are now being treated as a "potential crime scene".
In a dramatic revelation on Tuesday, a pink pair of child ear muffs were recovered.
The condition of the baby remains unknown.
But police are still hoping the baby is alive and have appealed to anybody who might be looking after the child to come forward.
So far, Constance and Gordon have refused to tell police the sex of their baby.
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The daughter of Napier Martin, a former page to the Queen, and granddaughter of Mary Anna Marten, whose godmother was the Queen Mother, Constance comes from a family of wealthy landowners.
She was deemed an 'it girl' when she appeared on upmarket mag Tatler's babe of the month page while she was a student in 2008.
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