Constance Marten and Mark Gordon arrested; Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been arrest on further suspicion of murder as police search for their missing child.
Police say they are now considering the possibility that the baby was injure.
But they say they remain hopeful that the child will be find safely.
The pair were arrest in Brighton on Monday – initially on suspicion of child neglect . After they had been missing for 53 days. The child was not with them.
They were take into custody after members of the public spotted. Them in a shop in the Fiveways area of North Brighton and called the police. They remain in custody.
The search for Ms Marten and Gordon – a convict rapist. A register sex offender – began when their car was find on fire on the side of the motorway on January 5.
Police confirmed that Marten recently gave birth without a midwife or medical assistance.
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon arrested; Chief Constable Lewis Basford, Chief of the Metropolitan Police. Said at a press conference on Monday evening. That the risk to a child increases with time, especially in cold weather.
He added that the police now “need to be open to the fact that this is not going to end the way. We want it to.”
More than 200 officers are searching a 91 square mile area in Sussex. But it’s late in the day and temperatures are forecast to drop to 1C overnight. Snow dogs, drones, a police helicopter and thermal imaging cameras are use in the search.
Police have appeal to members of the public between Brighton. Newhaven – where the pair last seen on January 8 – to report any sightings or information about where they may have been sleeping.
Local residents were also ask to check sheds and outbuildings.
Researchers believe that Marten and Gordon lived in “open countryside and open areas”.
Extensive research was carry out throughout the day on plots adjacent to the nature reserve and on a golf course. Det Supt Basford told reporters little information had been glean from police interviews with the couple. Police did not yet know the gender of the baby. It is possible that someone could be hiding the child, although they think this is unlikely.
After the car fire in January, police said the family left the scene safely. Quickly traveled to Liverpool, Essex, London and East Sussex.
Police believe the child was alive when the family was last seen in Newhaven. But little is know about the family’s movements in recent weeks.
At the end of January, police offered a £10,000 reward for information and made a special appeal for anyone who could help the couple.
The couple’s home is in Eltham, south-east London, but they have been living among nomads since last September, when Marten first showed signs of pregnancy.
After the couple were find on Monday, Marten’s father, Napier Marten, told the Independent he felt “tremendous relief”, although it was “tempered by the very scary news that the baby [Mrs Marten] still hasn’t been found”.
Ms Marten, 35, comes from a privileged background, grew up in a respectable home and attends a private school.
Police previously said her inherited wealth allowed the couple to remain at large for a long time.
After meeting Gordon, 48, at drama school in 2016, she became estranged from her family.
