A couple who went missing with their newborn child have been found and arrested, although their baby is still missing.
Constance Marten, 35, and her partner Mark Gordon, 48, were first reported missing after their car broke down and was found burning on the M61 near Bolton, Greater Manchester, on Thursday 5 January.
Sussex Police said they were spotted in Brighton by a member of the public just before 9.30pm on Monday before they were arrested and taken into police custody – an urgent search operation has been launched to find their baby.
Here, Sky News looks at what we know so far about the search.
First reported missing
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) released an appeal on Friday 6 January for information on the whereabouts of the couple and their baby.
They said the couple were last seen the day before, on Thursday 5 January, after breaking down by junction four of the M61 near Bolton.
The force said they had evidence suggesting Ms Marten, who comes from a wealthy family, had “very recently given birth, and neither her or the baby have been assessed by medical professionals”.
The couple left the car and walked towards Anchor Lane bridge, which links the Highfield and Little Hulton areas, at around 6.30pm.
They are believed to have paid in cash to travel first to Liverpool and then to Essex, possibly by taxi, according to the Manchester Evening News.
Police appealed directly to Ms Marten, saying their “number one priority” is to keep her “beautiful newborn safe”.
GMP also insisted officers “do not wish to interrupt their family life”.
Police reported there had been a “number of sightings” of the couple in Essex.
GMP, working alongside Essex Police, released CCTV showing someone they believed to be Ms Marten in a red shawl outside Harwich Port at 9am on Saturday 7 January.
The couple were also believed to have been spotted in Colchester.
“Our concern is to make sure Constance, Mark and baby are safe and well,” GMP said.
Couple seen in east London
The Metropolitan Police reported a sighting of the couple in east London.
The force shared CCTVshowing Ms Marten, with a red shawl around her head, and Mr Gordon, with his head lowered and apparently wearing a beanie hat, at East Ham station in Newham, east London, on Saturday 7 January.
Police believe the couple, who were at the station at some point between 10.30am and 12.30pm, took a taxi from Essex.
The couple were also seen buying camping gear on 7 January. Mr Gordon went into Argos in Whitechapel at 6.19pm, and bought a blue two-man tent, sleeping bags and two pillows.
The family was last seen walking along Brick Lane, towards Bethnal Green Road, at about 10pm that day. At 11.46pm they went to Flower and Dean Walk, where they dumped a number of items, including a pushchair.
Taxi to East Sussex
After being spotted on CCTV entering Flower and Dean Walk on Saturday evening, the pair got into a taxi to Haringey, north London.
At 1.24am on Sunday 8 January, they travelled from Haringey to Newhaven, East Sussex, where they were dropped off just outside the port at 4.56am.
They then walked to an overpass where the A259 crosses over the B2109 where they were seen sheltering from the rain.
The pair were spotted again on Sunday 8 January at 5.18am on Avis Road, Newhaven, from a petrol station forecourt CCTV. Around an hour later at 6.25am, they were seen from a house camera on Cantercrow Hill, Newhaven.
They were carrying a number of bags and their blue tent.
‘You’re putting the baby at risk’
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, who is leading the investigation, said in the Met’s original appeal: “We are growing increasingly concerned not only for their welfare, but for the welfare of their newborn child.
“Constance and Mark, I appeal directly to you, please think of your baby’s health and wellbeing and get in touch with us so we can ensure your child is medically well and has no underlying issues.”
In the latest appeal on 21 February, DS Basford said officers had been “working around the clock behind the scenes,” and have viewed more than “660 hours of CCTV” as part of their efforts.
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Midwife and police renew appeal for information on missing couple
Director of midwifery for Barts Health NHS Trust, Shereen Nimmo, also issued an appeal directly to Ms Marten, urging her to get medical checks done on her child.
She stressed that it was “not too late” for the child to have these checks done, but the longer the couple do not access medical care, the more they are “putting [their] baby at risk”.
Arrest in Brighton
Ms Marten and Mr Gordon were spotted in Brighton by a member of the public just before 9.30pm on Monday 28 February, Sussex Police said.
They were arrested and are in police custody.
Their baby remains missing and an urgent search operation is underway in the area, police said.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Britain’s gas storage levels are “concerningly low” with less than a week of demand in store, the operator of the country’s largest gas storage site said on Friday.
Plunging temperatures and high demand for gas-fired power stations are the main factors behind the low levels, Centrica said.
The UK is heavily reliant on gas for its home heating and also uses a significant amount for electricity generation.
As of the 9th of January 2025, UK storage sites are 26% lower than last year’s inventory at the same time, leaving them around half full,” Centrica said.
“This means the UK has less than a week of gas demand in store.”
The firm’s Rough gas storage site, a depleted field off England’s east coast, makes up around half of the country’s gas storage capacity.
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.