Twelve-year-old Mer­cedez Layne nev­er made the short jour­ney home, like she was sup­posed to. More than a week af­ter her mur­der, she will fi­nal­ly re­turn to her Erin home—this time in a cas­ket—be­fore be­ing laid to rest on Tues­day.

The na­tion was plunged in­to shock and sad­ness when Mer­cedez’s se­mi-nude body was dis­cov­ered in bush­es off a dirt track along Cara­pal Road, Erin, last Sun­day.

The pre­vi­ous day, at about 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.