On Friday, April 14, Monica Sykes should have been relaxing from the celebration of her 26th birthday the night before and furthering her plans to take over management of Granny’s Home Daycare, the business operated by her grandmother, Alesia Elam.
Instead, her family and loves ones will be celebrating her life, which was cut short on or about October 27 of last year, when she went missing after leaving the home of her sister, Dana Sykes in Berkeley. Her remains were found almost exactly five months later in the neighboring town of Kinloch on Tuesday, March 28.
The Celebration of Life for Monica Sykes will be held 1-3 p.m. Friday, April 14 at Carr Central Neighborhood Center, 1629 Biddle St. in St. Louis. The family is inviting the public because so many people got involved in the search for their missing loved one.
“We know everybody else is mourning too,” said Regina Sykes, Monica’s mother.
Regina said there would be no formal ceremony, just “a matter of fellowshipping,” with notecards provided for mourners to write memories of Monica for the family to read and treasure.
Her immediate survivors are her mother; her father, Leonard Sykes; her sister; and four brothers, Nathan, Cullen, Justin and Brandon Sykes.
In the meantime, and thereafter, Regina said, the family will “continue to fight for justice.”
Charges have been brought against Ray Ellis, a young man Monica was dating at the time. He picked her up from her sister’s home on the day she was last seen alive. But Regina said she believes, even if Berkeley Police has found her daughter’s killer, that he had accomplices who have not been identified and charged.
Regina said the family is distraught over Berkeley Police’s handling of the investigation. The department claims to have 35 full-time police officers, under the supervision of an interim police chief; Chief Frank McCall retired a few weeks before Monica’s disappearance.
One of those officers, Robert Howard, dropped Monica off at her sister’s home early on the morning of the day she disappeared. Though Howard was never named as a suspect or person of interest, and he told the Riverfront Times he thought Berkeley Police had arrested the guilty party, the family believes his relationship with their daughter was a conflict that should have been removed by handing the investigation to an outside party.
Berkeley Police did not agree. Neither did the St. Louis County Police or the St. Louis County prosecutor, whom the family petitioned. A spokesperson for the County Police said the decision was left in the hands of the County prosecutor. A spokesperson for the prosecutor told The American that Berkeley Police “was doing everything they were supposed to be doing” when the Sykes family brought the matter to them.
The family also is angry that a news station that employs a daughter of Berkeley Mayor Ted Hoskins broke the news of the discovery of their daughter’s remains before they had a chance to tell everyone in their family.
Hoskins told The American he had nothing to do with the news getting out, but that it was appropriate for the news media to report it at that time, as the immediate family had already been notified. Hoskins said he was not aware that his city’s police department had promised the family to wait for their approval to announce the discovery. Both Hoskins and the family accuse the other party of being “hostile” and have not spoken for months. Hoskins has not called the family since Monica’s remains were discovered.
“They have been so hostile to me, I thought it would be appropriate for the police chief to make that call,” Hoskins told The American.
Regina said the family believes their daughter might have been found earlier with better leads had the investigation been taken away from Berkeley Police.
“Somebody discarded her like trash, but the investigation was a political thing and no one wanted to step in because of political reasons,” she told The American.
“So many police departments say a family does not cooperate when someone is missing, but I know what my family went through. With this type of run-around, you do get discouraged and you are left with no faith in law enforcement. For five months we lived this horrific nightmare. Police are supposed to protect and serve, and when they can’t protect, you expect them to serve.”
The family said that anyone wishing to make a contribution in Monica’s name should contribute to Looking for Angel, www.lookingforanangel.org.
