Discharged from hospital only yesterday, the mother of 12-year-old Mercedez Layne will be closely monitored today as she bids a final farewell to her child, relatives said.
They explained that the health of Mercedez’s mother, Annarese Layne, deteriorated after her daughter went missing and worsened after the child’s body was discovered.
Last Wednesday, her condition took a turn for the worse and she was rushed to the Point Fortin Hospital before being transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital, where she was warded in a serious condition.
On Saturday, relatives, community members and well-wishers came together for a candlelight vigil in the family’s hometown of Erin, where they called for an end to violence against children. The mother, however, remained hospitalised. Relatives said that before her funeral service at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Erin at 1 pm today, the hearse will stop at her home at Los Iros Beach Road. Following the service, she will be buried at the Erin Public Cemetery.
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, on June 7. 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. An autopsy later revealed that the St Francis Erin RC Primary School student had been beaten to death. Palo Seco resident Richard Renalis, 26, has since been charged with her murder.
