The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages and is intended for a mature audience. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome back. Welcome back everyone. I am your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I am your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases.
And missing person cases. Okay, Eli's back this week. Yes I am, grateful to be here. Okay, so this week we are focusing on a missing persons case, correct? Mm-hmm. Alright, let's get started. Okay, great. So today I have a missing person case, but just as a content warning at the top, this case does involve children and there is a brief mention of sexual assault. Today I have for you the unresolved missing person case of Teekah Lewis, which takes place in January of 1999 in Tacoma, Washington.
But first a little bit about Teekah. Teekah was two years old in 1999. She was born July 4th, 1996. She would be 26 years old today. Teekah is part Chippewa and part Black. She was three feet tall and weighed 35 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She loves Starbursts, French fries, and Winnie the Pooh. Her family called her My Little Old Lady. Teekah was shy and everyone knew her as a mommy's girl. And now a timeline of events.
On Saturday, January 23rd, 1999, Teekah and around 16 family members went to go Moonlight Bowling at the New Frontier Lanes located at 4702 Center Street in Tacoma, Washington. Today a jack-in-the-box and a Home Depot sit where the bowling alley once stood. The family arrives at 830 and the bowling alley is packed with families. Witnesses remarked that there were no more parking spaces in the parking lot. Teekah's family was bowling in lanes 7 and 8 at the 32-lane bowling alley.
Tika was playing in the arcade. She was carrying her new purse she had gotten for Christmas. It was filled with Starbursts and change that an uncle had given her. With the help of an uncle, she was able to win a teddy bear from a claw machine which she promptly gave to her 10-month-old baby sister. Between 1015 and 1030 PM, Teekah was playing on the racing arcade game Cruisin' World, which was about six feet from the exit.
Teresa Czapieswki, Teekah's mother, was standing with her and watching her. When it was Teresa's turn to bowl, her then-boyfriend Fred Biggs stood by and watched Teekah. When it was Fred's turn to bowl, Teekah's uncle, Tim Czapiewski, stood near Teekah. Tim turned around to watch Fred throw his ball, and when he turned back around, Teekah was gone. Family immediately begin to look for her. They check the bathrooms, they check behind the arcade games.
Teresa even steps outside in the parking lot and calls for Teekah. When they don't find any sign of the girl, they immediately alert the bowling alley security guard who is an off-duty police officer. The bowling alley makes an announcement, and the bowling alley is thoroughly checked. They check behind the bowling lanes, they check in the bathrooms, behind the machines. Again, everyone is looking for Teekah. Within 15 minutes, police begin to arrive.
Police block the parking lot and search every car that leaves the parking lot that evening. Teekah's mother, Teresa, is in a panic. She says, quote, someone had to pick her up and run out the door. She's a mommy's girl. She wouldn't wander off, end quote. Police and volunteers, including eight dog handlers, begin searching for Teekah through the night. They cover 1.5 miles around the bowling alley and also launch a helicopter with heat-seeking capabilities, and there is no trace of Teekah found.
Pierce County Sheriff Sergeant Cindy Fajardo says, quote, there's no concrete evidence about what happened. She vanished into thin air, end quote. So police are working through the night searching for Teekah. So into Sunday, January 24th, police are quickly able to rule out a parental kidnapping, as Teekah's father, Robert Lewis, was serving time at the McNeil Island Correctional Center. He is woken up at around 4 a.m.
Robert says, quote, the detective said my daughter was missing from the bowling alley. Then he asked if I knew anything about it. I said, how could I know anything? I've been up here ever since 1997, end quote. The FBI and the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children joined the search for Teekah. Searchers begin to go door to door to homes and businesses. Police also set up a tip line for Teekah, and they receive about 75 tips within the first 24 hours.
Police finish their searching around 5 p.m. Sunday evening and announce that Teekah had been abducted. They are sure she just didn't wander off. Teresa says, quote, just bring my daughter back. I want my daughter back. I will do anything to get my daughter back, end quote. On Monday, January 25th, more FBI agents join the case and police start to focus on Teresa.
They give her a polygraph test and according to Teresa, quote, they ask stupid questions like what's your name and were you involved with her taking? I've got other kids. Why would I just take one of them, end quote. Police tell media that they're not focusing on the family, but, quote, we want to rule them out, end quote. Teresa believes that Teekah was kidnapped by someone who wanted a mixed race baby.
Teresa tells police that a woman had asked another member of their family if she could hold her baby, but police say they have accounted for this woman's whereabouts for Saturday night. Teresa says, quote, all I want is my daughter back. Someone in that bowling alley saw something. I just want them to call Tacoma police and don't be scared, end quote.
On Tuesday, January 26th, police still have no strong leads and they ask that anyone at the bowling alley Saturday night that took any photos or video to bring it to police. Police also drag a pond that is nearby the bowling alley, but don't find anything. Police will also search an area across the street from the bowling alley. During the initial search, two dogs had hit on this area. As police comb the area, they find under a bush a bundle of men's clothes.
Police are unsure if it's related to Teekah's disappearance, but they collect it as evidence. Police don't believe the clothes have been there for long as there's no mold or mildew on them. In the bundle, they find three items. A Boat Works brand, hip length, navy blue wool coat with green lining. The coat is a size large and has markers on the label from a local thrift shop called Value Village. A pair of off-white jeans. The waist was 34 inches and the length was 32.
The jeans were stained with blue or purple ink and were Lee jeans. And the third item was a new Columbia button down flannel shirt. The shirt had blue and green plaid on a white background with yellow highlights. On Wednesday, January 27th, police give Teresa a second polygraph test to wrap up loose ends, according to them. Police also give another family member a polygraph, but decline to say who it is.
Police also pull the phone records for the payphone at the bowling alley for Saturday evening. On Thursday, January 28th, police announced that Teresa has been cleared. Tacoma police spokesperson Jim Mathis says, quote, she is not a suspect. At this point, nobody else has been cleared, end quote. Police also asked the public's help to find the owner of the clothes they found on Tuesday.
On Saturday, January 30th, so this is one week that Teekah has been missing, a candlelight vigil is held for Tika at the bowling alley. Teekah's grandmother, Mary Czapiewski, says, quote, this is to tell you, sweetheart, we want to tell you that we all love you and miss you very, very much. And for the persons who took her, how do you live with yourself knowing you have taken Teekah away from people who love her dearly, end quote.
Police say that they have received 500 tips in Teekah's case, but none have led to the toddler. On Monday, February 1st, police, desperate for a break, ask a psychic for help. Now, this psychic had helped police find the body of Cindy Allinger. The psychic points police to an area near the East Gate of Fort Lewis McCord, but nothing related to Teekah is found there.
On Saturday, February 6th, so this is two weeks now Teekah has been missing, Teekah's case appears on America's Most Wanted and dozens of tips are called in after the program airs. But again, nothing leads to Teekah. On Tuesday, February 23rd, so this is one month now that Teekah has been missing. Teekah's family hold a Chippewa prayer service to mark the one month of her being gone. Tacoma police still have 10 detectives assigned to the case full time with help from the FBI.
Police are working on IDing and interviewing everyone who is at the bowling alley that night. Police say they only have a handful more to find of around the 300 people there. Detective Lindbergh says, quote, usually in an investigation this size, we have the name of the suspect. We just don't know what it is yet, end quote. The next day on February 24th, police ask that anyone that was at the bowling alley on January 23rd, who has not been interviewed by police to please come forward.
Specifically, police are interested in talking to other kids that were at the bowling alley that evening. And then over the next few months, police will continue to work the case, but it will be scaled back. There'll be less detectives assigned to it. The family will continue to hold vigils and fundraisers for reward money, but there are no leads and there's no signs of Teekah over the months.
In July of 1999, New Frontier Bowling closes and the property is developed and the property next door is developed. When construction is happening, police actually inform the construction crews to be on a lookout for anything that could be related to Teekah's disappearance. And police were hopeful that something would turn up in that construction, but nothing ever does. On January 23rd of 2000, so this is one year, police say that over the last year, they have received over 700 tips.
They are most interested in one that came from a 17-year-old boy who was at New Frontier Bowling. The teen saw two men standing near Teekah. The first guy is described as 30s or 40s, 5'11", around 200 pounds, brown hair, thick mustache, a large nose, and a pock-marked face. The second man is described as in his 30s or 40s, 5'9", around 200 pounds, has long black hair, and he was wearing dirty jeans and a gray jacket with a sports logo.
Detective Larry Lindberg, the head of Tacoma's missing person unit, says, quote, they looked like they were following her as she walked toward the front desk area, end quote. And this would be Teekah he was referencing here. Police also received a tip from a woman who was pulling into the bowling alley parking lot around 1030, around the time Teekah disappeared. She says a 1980s or 90s model Grand Am was speeding out of the parking lot as she was coming in.
The car almost hit her and it fishtailed as it sped off. That's how fast it was moving. She didn't get a license plate, but said it was possibly maroon, had four doors, tinted windows, and a spoiler on the back. Police want to ID the two men the teen saw and the driver of the vehicle. At this point, police do not believe that Teekah's family was involved in her disappearance at all.
Family will hold a candlelight vigil for Teekah on the one year anniversary, and this is something that will happen every year continuing into 2022. Teekah's younger sister looks so much like her that a neighbor had recently called police to say that Teekah wasn't missing, but she was home playing in the front yard with her mother. And then the next kind of significant update comes in May of 2001. So this is over two years that Teekah has been missing.
The body of a decapitated four year old was found in Kansas City, Missouri. She's known as Precious Doe and police will send in Teekah's DNA. Because the artist's composition of Precious Doe looked so much like Teekah's age enhanced photo. Ultimately, Teekah will be ruled out by DNA and Precious Doe is ultimately IDed as Erica Green on May 5th, 2005.
In April of 2006, so this is seven years, the family's private investigator that they had hired to look for Teekah found a girl living in Texas that looks like Teekah and her sisters. When the PI shows Teresa a photo of the woman the girl was living with, Teresa said she recognized her from the bowling alley. The FBI is unconvinced that this girl is Teekah, but they still test her DNA. And in June of 2006, the results come back that it is not Teekah.
In January of 2008, so this is nine years, Teekah's family released more photos and videos of her hoping to jog someone's memory on the case. Police hope that the passage of time would make someone more likely to talk. Detective Brad Graham says, quote, we want to reach out to people here who knew somebody who changed their demeanor or attitude level or suspicion level that night or the days following. We want people to reexamine their conscious and revisit that night, end quote.
In January of 2010, at the 11 year candlelight vigil, a man approaches Teresa and tells her he had a vision of where Teekah was buried. Teresa turns this information over to police and it's so detailed that police end up digging an eight by 12 foot hole in the native plant garden in Point Defiance Park. Nothing is found there.
On July 4th, 2011, on Teekah's 15th birthday, police asked the public for help IDing the driver of the Grand Am and police believe that the vehicle was involved in Teekah's disappearance. In January of 2012, so 13 years now that Teekah has disappeared, Detective Lindsay Wade went back through all 700 tips received in the case. She finds three tips of other children being approached by a stranger. The first tip happens on November 29th, 1998. So this would be two months before Teekah disappeared.
A father is bowling at New Frontier Lanes in a league and his son is playing in the arcade. The boy goes to the bathroom and is sexually assaulted. The suspect was a white guy with brown curly hair and a beard. He wore a hat with the word husky on it. The second tip is a few weeks before Teekah's disappearance, a family was bowling at New Frontier Lanes and their six-year-old son was playing in the arcade, but his mom could watch him from her lane.
The mom looked up to see a white man with brown hair holding her son's wrist and talking to him. As the mom goes to confront the man, he was telling people that he was the boy's father. And the third tip comes hours before Teekah disappeared. A father and his two kids were at the Oakland Madrona Park, which is about a half a mile away from the bowling alley. The dad notices a white guy with brown hair motioning for his children to come inside the bathroom.
The dad chases this guy and he speeds off in a blue 1995 Grand Am. Detective Lindsay Wade says, quote, I can't say for certain if all these incidents are related or if they are related to Teekah's disappearance. There's a possibility that they are given the Pontiac Grand Am, end quote. In July of 2012, so this is 13 and a half years since Teekah has been missing, police searched the home of John William Black. He had pleaded guilty to child luring at another Tacoma bowling alley in 2010.
Police say that John William Black had made comments that led police to become suspicious of him and search his home. But police failed to find anything related to Teekah and police ultimately rule him out as a suspect. And then in January of 2020, so this is 21 years now that Teekah has been missing, police have a new push to ID the brown haired man with a pockmarked face that the teenager had seen the night that Teekah disappeared.
Detective Steve Riopel was reviewing the case and realized the man has never been ID'd. The teen who originally saw it spoke to local news but stayed anonymous. He says, quote, we'd gone to that bowling alley plenty of times. It's the kind of place where people can go with their families and kids just roam. I had to use the restroom, so I went towards where the restrooms were. This rude guy bumped into me with this little girl and he was white. The little girl was mixed.
I just thought it was a father rushing his daughter to the restroom, end quote. And this guy, then a teen, says that he remembers this interaction because the guy had hit his shoulder with so much force but didn't even apologize. He was in such a rush to move. The man was wearing blue jeans and a blue checker flannel shirt. Detective Riopel says, quote, about a week after Teekah's disappearance, they were filming a reenactment down at the bowling alley.
And someone who was standing there watching noticed a person with a pockmarked face was also watching the reenactment. And the witness who called it in thought he was acting strange, end quote. And that's really all that we know about the disappearance of Teekah Lewis.
So if you know anything about what happened to Teekah Lewis in January of 1999, or if you know the identity of this man with brown hair and a pockedmarked face that was living in Tacoma, Washington in 1999 or around that area, you are encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-8477. And the sources from today's podcast come from the News Tribune. And I personally read over 50 articles from the News Tribune on this case. So they really covered this case from the beginning.
The Olympian, the Lewis River News and Kalama Bulletin, Longview Daily News, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Springfield News Sun, Tri-City Herald, the Kansas City Star, the Columbian, Fox 13 Seattle and the Charlie Project. So that is the case of Teekah Lewis. Yeah, I mean, you kind of spelled it out for everyone. I just want to know who the person in the Grand Am is. Yeah. I feel like that's the major key here, right? Yeah, definitely.
I think whoever is driving the Grand Am holds something in this case, for sure. This man with brown hair. I have some questions because originally when they talked about this teen, what he saw, he said there were two men. And when the detective goes back in 2020 to kind of review these things, he says that this brown haired man hadn't been ID'd. So I wonder if the other man had been ID'd and ruled out.
I question that if they were together because originally when they presented this tip, it sounded like these men were standing together and were kind of moving in tandem around Teekah's movements. And it sounded like this case had a lot of attention at the time. Or is that not true? No, this case, I think was really popular in Washington. I think it got a lot of local coverage. I did see some articles, you know, all the way to Chicago and in Ohio. So like it did get some national coverage.
But a lot of people in the city of Tacoma remember this case pretty clearly. Yeah I imagine that if you were near it, it would be hard to forget. Yeah. I saw the pictures of her already. Very sweet. Definitely. We say it every recording session, every episode, just like what happened here? How? I don't know. I guess this is a more of just a bigger statement on life, but the fragility of existence from moment to moment because he turned or she who was with her again? Her uncle?
Yeah, it was her uncle. Yeah, he turned and then turned back. I don't know. I think doing this podcast with you has made me realize the fragility of moment to moment and how quickly your life can change when something like this happens to it. And like change you forever. Forever. It's like the moment something like that happens, you are forever changed. In doing the podcast, you know, we're just around the stories more. So I don't know.
It's clear to me the impact that things like this have on people. Absolutely. I have a lot of friends and you included who would be called a little old lady. I loved that. Yeah, this story really resonated with me because I was a kid who grew up in bowling alleys. Yeah, I know everything about her. Honestly, I got a little teary eyed because I've, you know, heard stories about you as a kid down to the way that she eats. Like Ali still loves candy and french fries and stuff. Yeah, I do.
If you opened up my purse right now, there would be Starburst in there. Yeah, that was probably why I had the reaction of like, she sounds awesome. I want to hang. Your characteristics. But yeah, it's like a kid who, you know, my mom was in a bowling league and I was in bowling leagues. I was in the bowling alley a lot.
So this case really struck me because it was a place where kids were allowed to roam, you know, like we were allowed to play at the arcade and they know that and that's what's that's one of the things that makes me really upset like it like people who like abusers. But in this case, like Teekah was always with somebody in her family, you know, she was young. She was two. She couldn't be by herself yet.
But yeah, in just that moment of turning around to watch somebody throw a bowling ball, which is so natural. It like that's what makes me think that for that for it to happen that quickly, multiple eyes need to be on that child and that adult and a plan needs to be in place. So it can like happen like that. Another kind of question that I have that I just wonder if they are related or not in this case, just because I have been spending so much time with it recently.
The clothes that were found shortly after Teekah disappeared, one of the items was a blue flannel button down. And the teen says that the guy that he saw, you know, rushing past him was wearing like a blue checkered shirt. So I wonder, like, are those things related? What happened with those clothes? Were there was there any fibers found evidence found? Are they related to the case? Are they not? I, you know, you can go back and test them again. Like, I don't know.
I don't know, but I, I do know that this is a nightmare. So like, it's a nightmare scenario. Complete nightmare. Yeah. And, you know, detectives kind of remarked again and again that this is, you know, this is not typical of a child abduction. You know, it's normally family related. Like a stranger isn't going to take your child nine times out of 10.
Yeah. And for this circumstance, like for parents to be so close in a packed place, nobody to see anything, it's just like this shouldn't have happened. This doesn't happen, but it did. And what a nightmare. What a complete nightmare. Again, if you know anything about Teekah Lewis's disappearance, her whereabouts today, or the identity of the man with brown hair and the pocked marked face, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-8477.
And while you're getting ready to go to your next show, if you could just give us a little review, five stars. If you're in Apple reviews, leaving us a worded review is the quickest way to my heart to becoming a celebrity in our household. So it also makes us more like visible. It totally does. It helps other people find us. And as I've mentioned before a thousand times, the goal of this podcast is just to get these names into as many ears as possible.
So just by reviewing, you're doing a small part in helping with that mission. So thank you so much. We're going to be posting pictures of Teekah on our Instagram. If you're not following us there, you can find us on Instagram at Cold and Missing. But that's all I have. Have a good week and stay safe, y'all. Stay safe, y'all.