A New Jersey couple who police have been searching for in connection to the death of a girl found in Monument had been investigated in their home state for possible child abuse, according to the Denver station, KMGH.
According to the station, Hanif Sims and Monique Lynch had been on the brink of losing the two children in their care when the family moved to Monument. The case was passed to the El Paso County Department of Human Services which never opened a case, the station reported.
A woman who says she’s the mother the young girl said she is waiting anxiously for the chance to bring her oldest daughter’s remains to Newark, N.J., so that the family can hold a memorial.
Jopetia Garretson, 30, said El Paso County sheriff’s detectives have offered their help in getting the remains of Gensis Sims, whom she plans to have cremated, back to her family.
Their offer, though, will have to wait until DNA tests, which required a sample obtained last week from Garretson and could take several weeks, are completed, she said.
“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 said Wednesday. “It’s mind-boggling, it’s gut-busting. Literally, it’s killing me.”
On May 14, construction workers remodeling a vacant Monument townhome at 764 Century Place found a child’s body, since identified as a girl 7 to 10 years old. The body was decomposed and the autopsy could not determine the girl’s identity, cause of death or how long the child had been dead.
The case remains a “suspicious death” and has not yet been ruled a homicide.
Investigators, though, have focused much of their efforts on finding Sims and Lynch, who stayed at the house from late 2008 to early 2009.
They both had children when their relationship began. Lynch had a son, Davon, who is now about 13, and Sims had a daughter, Genesis, who born Jan. 19, 2001, from his relationship with Garretson,
Sims and Lynch also have a child, which was born in April 2009.
Lynch and Sims left Monument abruptly in early 2009. The couple and their teenage and infant sons, turned up in March at a homeless shelter in Los Angeles, according to Andy Bales, who runs the United Rescue Mission. They left the shelter in December 2009, after the mission helped the couple get their own apartment and rent assistance.
Sims and Lynch are believed to be on the run without their children, who were left at a friends’s home and have since been taken in by relatives, Bales said.
Garretson said she met Sims on Super Bowl Sunday in 2000 at a Newark sports bar. He walked out on her, she said, soon after Garretson told him she was pregnant.
Garretson said she cared for Genesis until she was about 15 months old. Hanif was given custody of their daughter because of “unfortunate problems” Garretson was having. She did not elaborate.
When Genesis was 3, custody was awarded to Hanif’s aunt, Garretson said. Hanif’s aunt and uncle played a large part in Genesis’ life during custody battles between Garretson and Sims.
“They’re grieving hard now,” Garretson said.
After Sims left New Jersey with Genesis, Garretson said tried unsuccessfully to regain custody. All she knew was that her daughter was in Colorado with Sims and Lynch.
Garretson now sits in her house, grieving and venting to neighbors. Her 5-year-old daughter — the middle child of three daughters — remembers Genesis.
“Pretty much when she’s by herself or even around my youngest daughter, who happens to resemble Genesis a lot, she becomes angry and withdrawn,” Garretson said.
Garretson plans to hold a memorial service June 19 in a small banquet hall.
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