Kidnapped: Teekah Lewis would be 18 years old today; have you seen her?
Teekah Lewis -- what the missing Tacoma child might look like at 18 years of age today. (Photo: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
TACOMA -- Teekah Lewis should have just graduated from high school. Her family should be celebrating the milestone with her and preparing for her 18th birthday today.
Instead, her mother, Theresa Lewis, will set up a booth on Ruston Way at the Freedom Fair, talking to any parent who will listen about protecting their children from being kidnapped.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created a new age progression photo of what Teekah might look like now.
She disappeared from a Tacoma bowling alley in 1999. She was just 2-years-old.
“Actually, this year, especially this month, is very upsetting to me because I'm hearing about all these graduation parties, these kids graduating, and my daughter should be walking down that aisle this year, but she's not,” said Teekah’s mom this week.
Theresa Lewis contacts me every year to make sure I haven’t forgotten about her daughter, to make sure that again this year, I will try to help bring her home. I haven’t forgotten -- and I will try to help to bring her home.
Theresa has never given up home that her little girl is alive and will return. She knows her daughter’s kidnappers are out there and has a message for them, “Let our family start over, you know. Let her come home to her mom and her sisters and her aunts and uncle and her grandma, you know. We want her home, and that's all we've been trying for the past 15 years is get Teekah out there and say, Look, it's time for her to come home. These people just need to let her go. You don't have to be caught. Just let her go. Walk away."
If you have any information about Teekah’s kidnapping or think you know a girl who looks like the one in the age progression photo, call Tacoma Police or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-tips.