Account
Apr 15, 2010
Mar 19, 2024
Teekah
Lewis
28
2
36 inches
35 lbs
Black / African American
Female
On the evening of January 23, 1999, two-year-old Teekah Lewis was with around a dozen family members at the New Frontier Lanes bowling alley in Tacoma, Washington. It was a typical family outing filled with the sounds of bowling balls and arcade games. Teekah was last seen engrossed in a racing game in the arcade area, just a few feet away from her mother and other relatives. Her mother, Theresa, turned away for a moment to bowl, and when she looked back, her daughter was gone. In the seconds that it took for a bowling ball to travel down the lane, Teekah had vanished. She was wearing a green Tweety Bird sweatshirt, white sweatpants, and black and white Air Jordan sneakers. An immediate, frantic search by her family and others at the bowling alley proved fruitless. The moments following Teekah's disappearance were filled with confusion and growing dread. An off-duty police officer at the location was alerted, and the bowling alley was quickly locked down, with police checking vehicles as they left the parking lot. Despite these initial efforts, the little girl was nowhere to be found. The investigation that followed uncovered a few unsettling leads. One witness reported seeing a maroon or dark-colored Pontiac Grand Am from the late 1980s or early 1990s speeding away from the parking lot shortly after Teekah was last seen. Another witness recalled seeing a Caucasian man with shoulder-length brown hair and a pockmarked face following a child toward one of the exits. This man was also described as having a mustache and a "husky" build. The investigation was challenging from the start due to a lack of physical evidence and the absence of surveillance cameras at the bowling alley at the time. Over the many years that have passed, the search for answers has never ceased. The Tacoma Police Department has investigated more than 700 tips and continues to treat Teekah's disappearance as an active case. Detectives have looked into possible connections with other incidents at the same bowling alley, including prior attempted abductions. In May 2025, a tip led investigators to excavate the yard of a Tacoma home, but the three-day search concluded with no evidence being found. Teekah's family has endured numerous false claims from individuals professing to be the missing girl, particularly around the anniversary of her disappearance. Despite the passage of time and the immense pain of not knowing, her mother and family remain steadfast in their commitment to finding answers. The case is an overview of a family's enduring hope in the face of a decades-long mystery, a community's lingering questions, and a police department's ongoing effort to solve one of its most heart-wrenching cold cases.
Jan 23, 1999
Tacoma
Washington
Pierce County
98409
No
26710
Tacoma Police Department
Tacoma
Washington
Pierce County
98409
3701 South Pine Street, Washington
2535915950
Local
Law Enforcement
990231121
1999-01-25
Tacoma Police Department
Black
Brown
Brown
06/19/2026
