Police in Tacoma, Washington, are currently investigating a cold case in the city’s Oakland neighborhood, with a significant police presence observed near the intersection of South Gunnison Street and South Wright Avenue. Officers have been seen conducting excavations in the backyard of a private home, though authorities have not disclosed which specific cold case is being investigated. As of now, there is no official indication that this investigation is connected to the 1999 disappearance of Teekah Lewis, a two-year-old girl who was abducted from a nearby bowling alley, despite the proximity of the investigation site to that case.
Tacoma has recently seen increased attention on its unsolved cold cases, especially following notable breakthroughs using genetic genealogy. In 2018, police arrested Gary C. Hartman for the 1986 rape and murder of 12-year-old Michella Welch, thanks to advances in DNA analysis that helped crack the decades-old case. More recently, in 2024, Kenneth Kundert was apprehended for the 1980 murder of Dorothy Silzel, a Boeing instructor. DNA evidence linked Kundert to Silzel’s murder, offering yet another example of how law enforcement is leveraging cutting-edge forensic technology to solve previously unsolvable cases. These high-profile arrests have brought increased attention to Tacoma’s ongoing cold case investigations, sparking public speculation about the ongoing case in the Oakland neighborhood.