4.5 • 15K Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2025
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
On January 23, 1999, 2-year-old Teekah Lewis vanished from New Frontier Lanes bowling alley in Tacoma, Washington. That night, Teekah was there with her mother, Theresa, and several other relatives. She was playing in the arcade when her mother briefly looked away to bowl. When Theresa turned back, Teekah was gone. Panic set in as family members searched every corner of the building, hoping she had simply wandered out of sight, but Teekah was nowhere to be found. Police were called, and despite extensive searches, no trace of Teekah surfaced.
Witnesses offered only fragments of clues. One recalled a maroon Pontiac speeding out of the parking lot around the time Teekah disappeared. Another described a suspicious man inside the bowling alley who had followed a child toward an exit that evening. He was able to give a detailed description of the man, including that he had a pockmarked face. Then, more accounts emerged of unsettling incidents involving children at or around New Frontier Lanes, raising the possibility that the bowling alley and the surrounding neighborhood may have been used as a hunting ground by a predator or predators. For decades, those scraps of information were all investigators and Teekah’s family had to go on, but in 2025, Teekah's case finally began to gain momentum.
Through it all, Teekah’s mother has never stopped searching for answers. Theresa has worked tirelessly to keep her daughter’s story alive for nearly 27 years, clinging to the hope that someone may have taken Teekah to raise as their own, a far easier thought than the darker alternatives. Today, she wants what any mother in her position would: the truth about what happened to her little girl, and the chance to bring her home.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Teekah Lewis, please contact the Tacoma Police Department at 253-287-4455 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.
If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.
Follow The Vanished on social media at:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's like Keekha vanished in the thin air and nobody's seeing anything, which I know people seeing what happened. |
| 0:19.6 | They just don't want to come forward. |
| 0:21.7 | I know somebody out there holds the piece to the puzzle that can solve everything. |
| 0:26.1 | This is a missing child. |
| 0:27.5 | She's been gone 25 years. |
| 0:29.5 | Tika's out there somewhere until they tell me she's not. |
| 0:32.9 | They never found anything of Tika. |
| 0:35.4 | They tell me that she was young enough not to be harmed unless it was somebody sick, |
| 0:40.9 | trying to take kids for a reason. |
| 0:43.1 | All we want to do is spread the word. |
| 0:45.2 | We don't want people to forget about her. |
| 0:47.7 | I'll do whatever I can to find her. |
| 0:50.6 | I'm not giving up. |
| 0:52.9 | On January 23, 1999, two-year-old Tika Lewis vanished from the New |
| 0:58.7 | Frontier Lane's bowling alley in Tacoma, Washington. That night, Tika was there with her mother, |
| 1:04.4 | Teresa, along with several other relatives. She was playing in the arcade when her mother |
| 1:09.7 | briefly looked away to bowl. When Teresa turned back, |
| 1:13.4 | Tika was gone. Panic set in as family members searched every corner of the building, hoping that |
| 1:19.2 | Tika had simply wandered out of sight, but she was nowhere to be found. Police were called, |
| 1:25.1 | and despite extensive searches, no trace of Tika Lewis surfaced. |
| 1:29.8 | Witnesses offered only fragments of clues. One recalled a maroon Pontiac speeding out of the parking |
| 1:35.3 | lot around the time Tika disappeared. Another described a suspicious man inside the bowling alley, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.