TACOMA — Twenty-five years after 2-year-old Teekah Lewis vanished from a Tacoma bowling alley, her mother promises she will bring her home, someway, somehow.
“I didn’t think I’d have to do this another year,” Teekah’s mother, Theresa Czapiewski, said during a panel at the Tacoma Police Department on Tuesday. “I don’t want to go another holiday without Teekah. … I know someone out there knows what happened to Teekah or knows where Teekah is.”
Teekah vanished from a Tacoma bowling alley during a family outing in 1999. Her mother, then 27, turned her head away for a moment and then discovered her daughter was gone.
“I just want to know who she is. It’s time to bring Teekah home,” Czapiewski said.
Police went door to door and searched through databases of known predators. Volunteers and tracking dogs swarmed the area surrounding the bowling alley. FBI agents searched with helicopters and infrared and bloodhounds.
Someone at the bowling alley told officers they had seen a maroon, late 1980s or 1990s Pontiac Grand Am speeding away from the bowling alley parking lot shortly after she disappeared. Bogus leads — a stranger with a “vision” at Point Defiance Park, a Dallas child with a resemblance to Teekah — sent investigators to dead ends.
In the 25 years since, Teekah has remained frozen in time at 2 years old, last seen wearing a green sweatshirt with a Tweety Bird design, her curly black hair in ponytails.
But her family hasn’t given up hope of finding her.
Family members and members of the public gathered at the Tacoma Police Department on Tuesday evening, wearing white sweatshirts that read “MISSING” with a photo of Teekah as a child and the age-progressed image. On the back: “We will never give up hope!” A slideshow displayed photographs of Teekah as a toddler. In one, she sucks on a bottle, arm clutching a plush Winnie-the-Pooh.
In 2022, Tacoma police released a new face progression portrait of Teekah, who would now be 27 years old. The image, along with a photo of Teekah before she disappeared, was distributed to local businesses this week. The family hopes drawing renewed attention to the case will lead to a tip about her disappearance.
“I have memories of Teekah, but not a lifetime like I have with my babies here,” Czapiewski said, gesturing toward her two daughters.
Authorities said that the resources investigators currently have in place — like sophisticated DNA testing and the Amber Alert system — may make it less difficult to solve the case than it was in 1999.
“There’s someone out there who has been carrying this burden for 25 years, and it’s time to let it go and unburden yourself,” Tacoma Detective Julie Dier said.
Dier said investigators have re-interviewed and have been attempting to relocate people who were contacted at the time of Teekah’s disappearance.
“Whoever holds the key to this, you’ve held it long enough,” Tacoma police Assistant Chief Tamara Floyd said.
After the panel, attendees gathered outside the police department for a vigil, lighting candles and releasing 25 red heart-shaped balloons into the sky.
Anyone with information about Teekah’s disappearance is asked to visit the Crime Stoppers of Pierce County at tpcrimestoppers.com or call 800-222-TIPS.
