Is this Teekah Lewis? Tacoma police, family release age-progressed photo of missing girl
The 1999 disappearance of Teekah Lewis in Tacoma is among the city’s most well-known missing persons cases. Leads have surfaced and sunk, but the family of the girl, who would now be 26 years old, has never stopped searching.
“We’ll never give up,” Teekah’s mother, Theresa Czapiewski, said Thursday. “That’s one thing I won’t do. Because I know she’s out there. Unless there’s evidence that she’s not here no more.”
Teekah was 2½ when her family went to the New Frontier Bowling alley the night of Jan. 23, 1999. Last seen near the arcade at about 10 p.m., Teekah was reported missing 20 minutes later to a police officer who was working there off duty. Police believe she was kidnapped, but no primary suspects have ever been identified, and none of the girl’s clothing or her body have been found.
Three sisters of the girl, her mother and two young nieces and nephews stood in front of news cameras Thursday morning at Tacoma Police Department headquarters to call attention to Teekah’s story and present new age-progressed photos of Teekah produced by Louisiana State University’s Faces Laboratory.
Assistant chief Tamara Floyd said detectives would want to talk with anyone who graduated high school around 2013-2015 and believes they knew someone who looks like the woman in the photo. Floyd said it’s possible Teekah graduated college in 2020-2022 or is in college now.
During the news conference, Floyd and others made reference to a recent story from Texas of a woman kidnapped as a baby who was found and reunited with her family 51 years later through an at-home DNA test and other evidence.
“If it takes us 51 years, we will keep searching,” Floyd said. “This department will never stop looking.”
Teekah’s mother said she did a DNA test of her own several years ago. It would take Teekah also completing a test for a match to be found that way.
Detectives aren’t giving up, but they have little to work with. According to previous reporting from The News Tribune, more than 700 tips have been followed up on. Detective Julie Dier said Thursday that none led to viable suspects. She said the main challenges are a lack of evidence and no clear eyewitnesses.
Detectives mentioned a vehicle seen fleeing at the time of the disappearance and a middle-aged man with a pockmarked face who was seen near the girl or following her around that night. The car was described as a late ‘80s or early ‘90s maroon-colored Pontiac. Info about the man was presented as a new lead in 2020 after a review of the case, but nothing has come of it.
Over the years, police have used a wide variety of methods to look for Teekah, including employing cadaver dogs to search the homes of sex offenders and digging up a small area of Point Defiance Park in 2010 after a man reported having a vision of where Teekah was buried.
Through it all, Czapiewski, 51, has held candlelight vigils for her daughter each year. She has also gotten Teekah’s missing person’s poster displayed on the side of semi-trucks used for shipping and transportation. The girl’s mother has moved to Virginia, but she said she flew back to Tacoma earlier this year to meet with police Chief Avery Moore to discuss the new age-progressed photos. She said the new photo brought her to tears.
“We want it nationwide,” Czapiewski said. “We want everybody across the United States, not even just the states, you know different countries to see this because you never know, she could be anywhere. It’s time to bring her home.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
This story was originally published December 1, 2022 at 2:03 PM.
