TACOMA, Wash. — Tacoma Police have finished a dig in a backyard regarding a “cold case,” and confirmed to KIRO 7 they were out there in connection to Teekah Lewis’ disappearance.
Police were initially tight-lipped about the investigation and have been digging up a backyard on S Gunnison Street since Monday morning.
Teekah disappeared from a then-bowling alley in Tacoma in 1999 when she was just two years old.
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Police confirmed to KIRO 7 they did not find anything.
Neighbors told KIRO 7 on Monday that they awoke to excavation equipment and a staging scene in someone’s backyard.
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“Looked like they might have been trying to do some pipe work or something like that,” said Jared Tarabochia, a neighbor. “Got started on that. And then shortly after they started kind of going in the ground. They kind of all stopped and left and all of this started showing up.”
A swarm of police officers, including a mobile command center, showed up. All this, Tacoma police say, after getting a tip.
“And so, what we are doing out here today is we are investigating one of those tips related to a Tacoma cold case,” said Officer Shelbie Boyd.
Teekah’s mother, Theresa Czpiewski, says her gut was telling her the search was for her daughter from the get-go.
She says there are mixed emotions about detectives not finding anything in that backyard off of South Gunnison Street.
“So it was a sigh of relief but we are back at square one again. Where’s Teekah?” Czpiewski said.
Czpiewski is still holding onto the hope that she and her family will get closure on the case soon.
“My daughter deserves to be found, regardless if she is coming home or if she is not coming home,” Czpiewski said.
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