When Theresa Czapiewski took two of her daughters to a local Tacoma, Washington bowling alley in January of 1999, it was supposed to be a night of fun — it would turn into a nightmare.

Czapiewski’s 2-year-old daughter Teekah Lewis vanished without a trace, beginning more than two decades of anguish for the heartbroken mother, according to the latest episode of the Dateline: Missing in America podcast, “Taking Teekah.”

Over the years, the devastating case has taken a series of frustrating twists and turns without any clear answers, but the disappointments haven’t dampened Czapiewski’s commitment to uncovering the truth about what happened on that cold January night.

“I’m going to do my part to find what happened to my daughter,” she told Dateline Correspondent Josh Mankiewicz. 

What happened to Teekah Lewis?

In the late 1990s, Czapiewski was a young, single mom to five daughters.

“I could say that, you know, a lot of emotions going on in the house and different attitudes, but they’re my everything,” she said of being a quintessential “girl mom.”

On Saturday January 23, 1999, Czapiewski planned to spend the night with a group of friends and family at the New Frontier Lanes bowling alley in Tacoma, Washington and took her two youngest children, 2-year-old Teekah and 10-month-old Tameeka, with her. 

Teekah was an “energetic little girl” who loved to be with her mom.

“She slept with mama. She went with me everywhere,” Czapiewski remembered. “I couldn’t go nowhere without her.”

Teekah, who was wearing a green Tweety bird shirt, white sweats, and white, red, and black Air Jordans that night, was immediately drawn to the arcade. 

Teekah was playing a driving game when Czapiewski went to take her turn bowling. She asked her boyfriend and brother to keep an eye on the toddler while she went to bowl, estimating that it only took her about 15 seconds.

“And I turned back around, and I looked up and I asked them, ‘Where is Teekah?’ And they were like, ‘She’s up there.’” she recalled.

Czapiewski couldn’t see her daughter, nor could she find her anywhere in the arcade or the nearby bathroom. When Czapiewski raced to the other bathroom in the bowling alley, she ran into her sister-in-law, who told her Teekah wasn’t there either.

Czapiewski rushed to the announcement desk and informed an off-duty officer that she couldn’t find her daughter. He made an announcement on the loudspeaker, but when Teekah still didn’t show up, the officer called the Tacoma Police for backup.

Another eerie kidnapping attempt

Czapiewski was outside talking to police when the night took another harrowing turn. Her sister-in-law came up to her and told her that a woman in the bowling alley had taken her other daughter, 10-month-old Tameeka. “I was like, ‘What do you mean she has my daughter?’” Czapiewski told Dateline.

Czapiewski’s sister-in-law told her the woman had the baby in her car and was “getting ready to leave.” 

She raced to the car and recognized the woman as someone who had been sitting behind them at the bowling alley. The woman, later identified as Rita Miller, who was in her 30s, had repeatedly asked to hold their babies. She did hold Czapiewski’s brother’s baby and then refused to give the child back until he demanded she return the child, according to Czapiewski.

In the confusion during Teekah’s disappearance, Miller had taken Tameeka to her car and refused to give her back, until police intervened and took her into custody.

“They put her in a patrol car and while she was in a patrol car, she had made an attempt on her own life,” Sgt. Julie Dier, who took over the case in 2021, explained. “She had to get involuntarily committed.” 

If Miller knew anything about Teekah’s disappearance, she wasn’t revealing it.

Potential leads in Teekah Lewis’ disappearance

In the weeks that followed, volunteers — with the help of both police and the FBI — searched the surrounding area of the bowling alley to no avail.

Czapiewski learned that months before her daughter disappeared, a man had been caught assaulting a little boy in the bathroom of the same bowling alley. He was never caught, but witnesses described him as a white male with brown curly hair and a beard.

“There were several incidents that happened and everything was investigated,” Dier said.

The same day Teekah disappeared, there were also reports of a man trying to motion kids into a bathroom at a park near the bowling alley. Witnesses described that man as a white male with dark hair driving a blue Pontiac Grand AM. 

According to Dier, another witness reported seeing a “reddish almost purple-ish” Pontiac Grand AM racing out of the bowling alley parking lot shortly after Teekah disappeared. While investigators tried to track the car down at the time, the lead never panned out.

The years went by without any answers. Every year on Teekah’s birthday, July 4th, Czapiewski blew out a candle in her honor and continued to hold candlelight vigils in the hopes of bringing her daughter home.

When Dier took over the case in 2021, she tried to talk with Miller again, the woman who’d tried to take Tameeka, but by then her mental health had deteriorated so much she was unable to provide anything useful.

She also tried to track down another lead that investigators didn’t discover until around 2020. The night Teekah disappeared, a woman called police to say her adult son was acting strangely and asked her if she’d be willing to leave the country with him. 

The man, whom the podcast referred to as John Doe to protect the integrity of the investigation, lived near the bowling alley and once drove a Pontiac. 

“Mr. Doe was about, maybe early 40s at the time that Teekah disappeared,” Dier said, describing him as “independently wealthy.” 

But, Dier said he also had “mental health issues” with some “sexual deviancy” with adults. 

Doe also seemed to match the physical description of a man whom a teenage witness claimed to have seen walking in the bowling alley with a mixed-race little girl. The teen described the man, who he said was lingering near the girl as she played a driving game, as a white male with a pockmarked face, according to police reports. 

Dier paid Doe a visit in November 2023, but he claimed that he had never even been to the bowling alley. When they returned a few months later, they learned that he had died of natural causes. They were able to obtain a sample of the man’s DNA and he’s considered a person of interest, but to date, nothing definitive has tied him to the crime.

The case remains active and ongoing to this day. On May 21, the Tacoma Police Department executed a search of a Tacoma, Washington property, based on a tip they received. Czapiewski said she was informed of the excavation by the Tacoma P.D. Chief of Police, who told her “they were digging for Teekah but they did not find her.”

“I ask myself every day, who would want to harm a baby?” Czapiewski said. “And I hope one day I’ll find out what happened to her.”

On the day she disappeared, Teekah was described as 3-feet tall and weighing 35 pounds with black hair, brown eyes, and pierced ears. She was last seen wearing a green Tweety Bird t-shirt, white sweatpants, and red, white and black Air Jordans. Today, she’d be 28-years-old. Anyone with information about the disappearance is urged to call the Tacoma Police Department at 253-591-5950.