Authorities said today they are continuing to search homeless shelters and other locations in New Jersey and California for Hanif Sims and Monique Lynch, two former tenants of a home where the decomposed boy of a child was found in crawl space on May 14.
The El Paso County Coroner’s Office has not determined what killed the girl, estimated at 7 to 10 years old.
Investigators have collected DNA from Sims’ family members to see whether the girl is his daughter, Genesis, who would have been 6 or 7 years at the time Sims and Lynch lived in Monument.
A Newark, N.J., woman, Jopetia Garretson, told the Colorado Springs Gazette that she is Genesis’ mother, and that El Paso County officials had told her they would return the child’s cremated remains for a memorial, if the DNA matches.
“It’s scary because I have to wait a little longer to have the answer for something that I felt was wrong for a little more than a year now,” Garretson, 30, told the Gazette. “It’s mind-boggling, it’s gut-busting. Literally, it’s killing me.”
Sims was given custody of Genesis when she was 15 months old, Garretson said..
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Sims and Lynch can call 719-390-5555.
