Man to be charged with murder of 12-year-old Mercedez Layne

Sascha Wil­son

A 26-year-old Pa­lo Seco man is ex­pect­ed to be charged with the mur­der of 12-year-old Mer­cedez Layne.

The Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions has ad­vised in­ves­ti­ga­tors to lay the charge af­ter re­view­ing the file sub­mit­ted by of­fi­cers of the Re­gion Three Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions. Once charged, the sus­pect is ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore a High Court Mas­ter to­mor­row.

The sus­pect was de­tained hours af­ter Mer­cedez’s body was dis­cov­ered. In­ves­ti­ga­tors al­so re­turned to his home at Dick­ie Trace yes­ter­day as part of on­go­ing en­quiries.

Mer­cedez was re­port­ed miss­ing by her grand­fa­ther around 4 p.m. on Sat­ur­day. He told po­lice that at 11.30 a.m., he placed her in a wag­on and asked the male dri­ver, whom he did not know, to take her to her home less than five min­utes away. She nev­er ar­rived.

Po­lice of­fi­cers, res­i­dents and mem­bers of the Hunters Search and Res­cue Team sub­se­quent­ly launched a search for the child.

The fol­low­ing day, at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 6.43 a.m., a work­er with Trin­i­ty Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion Ser­vices dis­cov­ered Mer­cedez’s body ly­ing face down and mo­tion­less near Well ER-46, about 500 feet along a dirt road off Cara­pal Road, Erin.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors found sev­er­al items near the scene, in­clud­ing a plas­tic bag con­tain­ing pack­ets of ra­men noo­dles, a cir­cu­lar piece of wood and a bro­ken beer bot­tle.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion was led by Supt Per­sad and ASP Maraj of the Re­gion Three Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions. Woman Cpl Dy­er-Bap­tiste is ex­pect­ed to for­mal­ly lay the charge.