Mother of missing girl pushing Tacoma police to investigate possible sighting 25 years later
Aug 29, 2024, 8:53 AM | Updated: 5:06 pm
Teekah Lewis seen as a toddler (left) before facial recognition software created models of what she could look like at diferent stages in her life, including a present day image (right) of Teekah as an approximate 28-year-old. (Photos courtesy of Lewis' family, photo renderings created by Louisiana State University Faces Laboratory)
(Photos courtesy of Lewis' family, photo renderings created by Louisiana State University Faces Laboratory)
On Jan. 23, 1999, a 2-year-old toddler named Teekah Lewis was abducted from the New Frontier Bowling Alley. Twenty-five years later, her family, still searching for answers, wants to take the cold-case investigation into their own hands after a possible sighting of the now 28-year-old happened at a local Home Depot.
Theresa Czapiewski, Teekah’s mom, told FOX 13 that her brother, Teekah’s uncle, made contact with the woman they believe could be Teekah while working a shift at Home Depot. The woman in question was seen at the store Monday night asking to use the bathroom. According to the family, the description matched her daughter and what she could potentially look like at age 28.
Now, Theresa Czapiewski wants to see the Home Depot surveillance video to confirm for herself.
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“All I want to do is see her. I want to see the picture. I would know if that’s my daughter,” Theresa Czapiewski said.
Teekah is half Black and half Native American. She was wearing a Tweety Bird T-shirt, white sweatpants and Air Jordan sneakers when she was abducted in 1999. Her hair had a silver streak on the front right side when she was last seen.
A candlelight vigil was held for Teekah at the Tacoma Police Department on Jan. 23, the day she was taken.
Theresa has been in close contact with Tacoma Police throughout the time of her daughter’s disappearance, but she’s grown impatient at the speed of the investigation.
“It might not be Teekah, but it could be her and we can’t just wait,” Theresa Czapiewski said. “I need them to look into it.”
The Tacoma Police Department hasn’t given up on the case either, despite the lack of leads over the years. With no evidence, the department can’t do much.
Former Tacoma Police spokesperson Loretta Cool told MyNorthwest the only possible clue is a report of a maroon Pontiac Grand Am fleeing the New Frontier bowling alley in January of 1999.
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“It left the bowling alley at a high rate of speed and almost took out another vehicle head-on,” Cool said.
While Theresa Czapiewski remains both devastated and frustrated that police have never uncovered what happened to her child, she has made it her sole goal to keep this case in the public eye decades later.
“We want people to know that Teekah’s still missing and we’re still looking. I don’t care if it’s 30 years from now, I’ll still be out there looking for Teekah. I’ll never give up hope. I won’t give up hope. This could be a huge break in my daughter’s case,” Theresa Czapiewski said.
Contributing: James Lynch, KIRO Newsradio
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.
