ERIN, Trinidad — Police have opened a homicide investigation following the discovery of the body of 12-year-old Mercedez Layne, a student of Erin R.C. School, on Sunday. Mercedez was reported missing on Saturday after she was placed into a vehicle by a relative at Lorensette North Trace in Rancho Quemado to be transported to her home along Los Iros Road, Erin. According to investigators, the driver was the sole occupant of the vehicle. The child never arrived at her destination, prompting an extensive search involving police officers, specialized investigative units, hunters and residents from surrounding communities.

Investigators later discovered the girl's body along a gravel roadway near a WASA pumping station off Carapal Road in Erin. Police sources said the location is near an area the vehicle reportedly entered after passing the point where Mercedez was expected to be dropped off. The discovery brought a devastating end to a search that had mobilized officers from the Erin, Santa Flora and Siparia police stations, the South Western Division, the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, the Region Three Homicide Bureau of Investigations, the Special Investigations Unit, the Cyber Crime Unit and other law enforcement agencies.