Suspect In Custody Following Grim Discovery Of Missing Child…
A 26-year-old Palo Seco man is in police custody as homicide detectives continue intensive enquiries into the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Mercedez Layne, whose battered body was discovered near an oil installation in Erin less than twenty-four hours after she was reported missing.
Mercedez, a Standard Four student of the St. Francis Erin RC School, was placed into a private-hire vehicle around 11:30 AM on Saturday by her grandfather in Lorensotte to make a short five-minute trip home to Los Iros Beach Road. When she failed to arrive, frantic search operations were launched across the district. The search ended in tragedy early Sunday morning when an oilfield maintenance worker discovered the child’s semi-nude body off Carapal Road.
