Monica Sykes Went Out One Morning For Candy For Her Nephews And Never Came Back.

👩🏾‍🏫Monica Elaine Sykes👩🏾‍🏫

She was a family minded person.

Monica was born on April 16th, 1996 to Leonard and Regina Sykes. She was the third youngest of six siblings. She was extremely close with her family. Her oldest sister and she were best friends. She was a graduate of Hazelwood West High School.  Monica studied early childhood education at Harris-Stowe State University and had hoped to take over her grandmother’s home day care. She was also working as a server at Ol’ Henry Restaurant in Berkeley.

On October 28th, 2016, Monica was 25 years old and living with her sister and three nephews in the 6300 block of Fay Drive in Berkeley, Missouri. At 6:48 a.m., officer Robert Howard dropped Monica off at home presumably after spending the night together. 

She changed her clothes and then left 13 minutes later with her boyfriend, Ray Ellis in his white 2003 Cadillac DeVille. Before Monica left, she had told her nephews that she'd be back with candy. 

When she didn't return later that day, her family knew immediately that something was wrong. Monica hadn't even taken her wallet. Her phone went straight to voice mail. 

Officer Howard was married, although an application his wife made for an order of protection in September 2016 stated that they separated that May. Howard's wife wrote that she was afraid of her husband. She alleged that he showed up to her parents' home at all hours, hacked into her phone and harassed her friends and family. "I fear for my life and my children's," she wrote.

Howard was never served with the order and it had expired two weeks before Monica went missing. 

Howard claimed that he was not romantically involved with Monica and that the two weren't even close. He said that frequented the restaurant where Monica worked and that was how he met her.

Phone records showed that Monica and Howard were in constant contact in the month before Monica's disappearance. Monica told her sister everything, but oddly she never mentioned Howard.

Ellis denied picking up Monica the morning she disappeared. He said they'd discussed meeting up, and that he tried to call her that morning, but her phone went straight to voice mail.

Ellis’ Cadillac was found burning a week after Monica disappeared. A glove was found nearby. 

When the police tested the glove, DNA matching Ellis’ brother, Jermaine Benjamin, was found.

Monica's family frantically pleaded for clues and spent their weekends canvassing nearby neighborhoods, giving out fliers with her photo on them.

On February 4th, 2017, after months of organized searches by police, trained dogs, relatives and residents, volunteers found Monica's body parts scattered about by animals in a desolate area of Kinloch.

It took two weeks for officials to positively identify Monica's remains. Medical examiners concluded that she had been shot in the back of the head and the bullet went through her brain.

Police learned through investigation that Ellis asked a friend how to burn up a car. Ellis later told his friend, Mark Bracken, that he had killed Monica in his car. He said that his brother, Jermaine Alexander Benjamin, helped burned his car in order to get rid of Monica's blood and a bullet that was wedged in passenger door. 

Ellis had been staying in Bracken’s basement for days after the shooting. Police could not link a gun found in Bracken’s basement to a bullet found in the burned car.

On April 3rd, 2017, Ellis who has been in police custody for several weeks on a probation violation, was charged with second degree murder, armed criminal action and two counts of tampering with physical evidence in Monica's death.

On September of 2018, Ellis was found guilty of all charges.

On November 8th, he was sentenced to life in prison. 11 additional years were added for armed criminal action and two counts of tampering with physical evidence. Ellis will be eligible for parole after serving 85 years of his sentence.

Benjamin received a four-year prison term after pleading guilty to evidence tampering for helping burn the Cadillac.