It’s a worrying disappearance on which London Police are currently dealing. A British couple has not shown any sign of life since early January, BFMTV discovered.
The latest trace left by Mark Gordon, 48, and Constance Marten, 35, is their vehicle, which was engulfed in flames on January 5 by the side of the road near Bolton, neighboring Manchester. Since then no one has heard from them. But what particularly worries police is that the young woman may have given birth in the car the day before, or just days before she disappeared, without her or the newborn being examined. According to the BBC, police don’t even know if the child was born prematurely.
According to the information available to investigators, the couple does not appear to want to be found. Both left the spot where their car burned on foot. They would first have taken a taxi to Liverpool (more than 45km west) then to Harwich in the south east of the country. They were also filmed in a tube station in the British capital on January 7, although they try to hide their faces when seeing surveillance cameras. “Our main priority is to ensure the baby’s safety and well-being,” said London Police in charge of the investigation, adding that there was no evidence of self-harm but that the main priority was to make sure the newborn was safe and his mother doing well.
An heiress and former prisoner
According to police, Mark Gordon and Constance Marten may have left their home in Eltham, a suburb of London, in September and have been out and about, particularly sleeping in AirBnBs, since September. They would now be traveling without luggage, their belongings completely burned in the fire in their vehicle, the Guardian reports.
Beyond the mystery of this disappearance just days after the birth, the couple’s personalities are intriguing. Constance Marten has ties to the British royal family. Her grandmother was a goddaughter to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, and a classmate of Princess Margaret (Elizabeth II’s sister). His father was one of the Queen’s pages. For his part, Mark Gordon spent 20 years in prison in the United States, where he was convicted of a rape he committed when he was 14 years old. He was then deported to England.
According to the BBC, citing police sources, Constance Marten was no longer connected to her family. A distance probably related to his relationship with Mark Gordon. In an interview with The Independent, the young woman’s father assures her that she is “very much loved” and asks her to go to the police.
The 30-year-old, who is benefiting from a sizeable sum from an inheritance, could have put cash aside to go undetected for a while. Which makes the police investigation relatively difficult.