Toddler Vanishes From Bowling Alley

Teekah Latres Lewis was a two-year-old African and Native American girl from Washington. Her eyes were brown and she had brown hair with natural red highlights and some grey streaks. Teekah suffered from asthma and bad allergies. As a result of eczema, she had patches of light discoloration on her face and left side of her buttocks.

She lived with her mother Theresa English while her father, Robert Lewis, was imprisoned at McNeil Island Corrections Center. Theresa had five children; two of them with Robert.

On the evening of January 23, 1999, Teekah and nearly a dozen of her family members went to the New Frontier Lanes bowling alley in Tacoma. It was a popular place and was quite busy that night.

While the family was bowling, Teekah played in the arcade section. At around 10:30 PM, she was sitting at a car racing game a few feet away from her mother and her boyfriend Fred Biggs, and six feet away from the bowling alley’s exit. Theresa turned her back from her daughter for a moment as it was her turn to bowl. When she looked back towards Teekah, she was gone.

The family searched for Teekah in the establishment and then asked the security guard for help. The rest of the customers were alerted through a loudspeaker but no one knew where she was.

Around the same time Teekah went missing, an employee saw a car speeding out of the bowling alley’s parking lot. It was a maroon Pontiac Grand Am, possibly late 80s or 90s, with dark windows and a rear spoiler.

Another witness saw a white male possibly following a child to one of the alley’s exits. The man was in his 30s, had shoulder-length hair, a mustache, a large nose, and facial pockmarks.

Authorities conducted searches in and around the bowling alley. Along with dozens of searchers, several dogs were used and a helicopter with infrared technology scanned the surrounding area. It was concluded that Teekah had been abducted and not simply wandered off.

Notably, Teekah’s vanishing was not the only alarming incident to happen to a child in the area during that time.

A couple of months before Teekah was abducted, a four-year-old boy was sexually abused in the bathroom of the bowling alley. The suspect was a male with brown curly hair and a beard.

A few weeks after that incident, a man attempted to lure a six-year-old boy from the bowling alley. The white male had brown curly hair and had claimed to be the boy’s father.

Earlier on the day of Teekah’s disappearance, a man with curly brown hair tried to kidnap two children from a park less than a mile away from the bowling alley. The children’s father chased the man who then fled in a blue 1995 Pontiac Grand Am.

None of these perpetrators have been caught and it is unknown if all these cases, including Teekah’s, are related.

Theresa is certain her daughter is still alive. Before her mother Mary died in 2018, she had asked her to send her a sign if Teekah was in heaven. According to Theresa, her mother has visited her and told her to keep looking for Teekah.

She is hoping that the recent genealogical advances could finally bring her answers. Theresa believes her daughter was raised by another family and hopes Teekah will realize she was adopted and try to find her biological parents.

Teekah’s family has celebrated all of her birthdays and hold a yearly vigil on the anniversary of her disappearance at the location of the bowling alley — it is now a Home Depot parking lot. Earlier this year, the Washington State Patrol put Teekah’s picture and age-progression images on the side of two semi-trailers which traveled throughout the western US.

Teekah Lewis has been missing for 20 years. If alive, she is now 23-years-old.

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Check out Cat Leigh's Medium publication for more true crime stories: True Crime by Cat Leigh.