Mercedez Layne to be buried Tuesday

Sascha Wil­son

Twelve-year-old Mer­cedez Layne will be laid to rest on Tues­day, more than a week af­ter she was found mur­dered in Erin.

The na­tion was shocked by the dis­cov­ery of Mer­cedez's se­mi-nude body in bush­es off a dirt track along Cara­pal Road, Erin, on June 7. The pre­vi­ous day, at 11.30 am, a rel­a­tive had placed her in a PH taxi at the cor­ner of Lorensette Road to take her home, less than five min­utes away. She nev­er ar­rived. An au­top­sy lat­er re­vealed that the St Fran­cis R.C. School stu­dent had been beat­en to death.

Rel­a­tives said that be­fore her fu­ner­al ser­vice at the Sev­enth-day Ad­ven­tist Church in Erin at 1 pm on Tues­day, the hearse will make a fi­nal stop at her home. Fol­low­ing the ser­vice, she will be buried at the Erin Pub­lic Ceme­tery.

Mean­while, a can­dle­light vig­il in Mer­cedez's ho­n­our will be held to­day from Cara­pal Junc­tion to the fam­i­ly's home.

Or­gan­is­ers have asked at­ten­dees to gath­er at 6.45 pm and wear pink or white in trib­ute to her mem­o­ry.

Pa­lo Seco res­i­dent Richard Re­nalis, 26, has been charged with her mur­der.