Sister says woman at heart of Monument investigation would not hurt a child

News that authorities are searching for a woman in connection to the discovery of a young girl’s body in Monument has torn the woman’s family apart, her sister said Saturday.

Cassandra Lynch, the sister of Monique Lynch, said her family has been “torn to shambles” and is “pulling at straws” to find out more information.

“We don’t know what to believe,” said Cassandra Lynch, in a telephone interview. “We know her and it’s very hard for us to accept what the media is saying about her. She could not hurt a child, she just couldn’t. It’s not in her.”

El Paso County Sheriff’s investigators have been sent to New Jersey and California  in a search for Monique Lynch and Hanif Sims, who lived in a Monument townhome where a child’s body was discovered in a crawl space last week.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lt. Lari Sevene said detectives are seeking to interview relatives of Sims and Monique Lynch, who moved out of the townhome at 764 Century Place, Unit A, in early 2009. She said investigators also are trying to collect DNA samples from relatives to see if they match the body found in the crawlspace.

“That’s just to give us a standpoint, either to determine or to rule out,” Sevene said Saturday.

She said Sims and Lynch are not suspects in the case at this point, but possible witnesses. Investigators believe the couple may be living in California, but they have not been located, Sevene said.

Cassandra Lynch said her sister, formerly of Newark, N.J., has been with Hanif Sims for about three years, though the two never married while living in New Jersey.

They both had children when their relationship began. Monique Lynch had a son, Davon, who is now about 13; and Sims had a daughter, Genesis, who was 6 or 7 years old when the couple moved away, she said.

They moved to Colorado around December 2008, she said, to “start a new life and give her son a better chance of growing up because things in the neighborhood were getting out of control and too violent,” Cassandra Lynch said.

Monique Lynch phoned her mother shortly after leaving New Jersey to tell her she was in Colorado, though she revealed few specifics.

The sisters have not spoken since then, though Cassandra Lynch said she knew from online postings that her sister had another baby.

Cassandra Lynch said she has not been contacted by law enforcement officials concerning the investigation.

Both Sims and Lynch have warrants against them in New Jersey, authorities said. Lynch has a drug-related probation violation and Sims has a weapons violation.

The case remains classified as a “suspicious death” and has not yet been ruled a homicide, Sevene said.

Cassandra Lynch said the entire ordeal has been tough to comprehend.

“It’s sad that people come up with their own ideas of what kind of person she is because of the little bit of information they’ve received,” Cassandra Lynch said. “But her life is bigger than the little bit of time she spent in Colorado.”

Cassandra Lynch said her sister previously tried to end her rocky relationship with Sims, but continued to go back.

“I don’t know how the rest of the world sees it but it’s kind of hard when you’re afraid of someone,” Cassandra Lynch said.

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Gazette reporter John Ensslin contributed to this report.