Body of baby found close to where runaway British heiress and sex offender partner were arrested
A 55-day search for a missing baby reached its tragic conclusion when the British authorities found the body in a woodland area near Brighton, close to where runaway heiress Constance Marten and her sex offender partner Mark Gordon were arrested on Monday.
The investigation into the missing baby began when the couple’s car was found on fire near Manchester on Jan 5, with the local authorities discovering a placenta in the back seat of the vehicle.
Marten is the daughter of British aristocrat Napier Marten and a former page to the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was godmother to her grandmother Mary Anna Marten.
The heiress was last seen on Jan 7, said London’s Metropolitan Police Service.
The 35-year-old was spotted with the 48-year-old Gordon – a convicted sex offender who had spent 20 years behind bars in a Florida prison for rape and battery – leaving a taxi at Whitechapel Road in London’s East End with their heads and faces covered.
Gordon was wearing white plastic bags over his shoes, which were later removed, according to closed-circuit television footage.
Detectives established that he bought camping equipment, following which the pair evaded police for several weeks, before their arrest on Monday night after they were spotted by a member of the public.
CNN reported on Wednesday that a host of police resources had been activated to search for the missing baby after the couple were arrested, including police helicopters, sniffer dogs, thermal imaging cameras and drones.
Meanwhile, more than 200 officers were on the ground participating in the search.
The couple were initially arrested on suspicion of child neglect, but once the body was found, they were “further arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter”, said London’s Metropolitan Police.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford of the Metropolitan Police’s East Area Command was reported as saying that investigations were expected to continue for some time, after a crime scene was established around the baby’s remains.
“This is an outcome that myself and the many officers who have been part of the search had hoped would not happen,” he said.
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