She's been found ya'll.
Mother of missing student tells of her ordeal
By MAE GENTRY, RHONDA COOK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/07/05
Theresa Lewis had not seen her 22-year-old daughter, Chasity, since Christmas. She expected the Clark Atlanta University student to come home July 28 during the school's summer break, but Chasity went missing two days before her scheduled flight.
Lewis, who was on jury duty in a California murder trial, launched a desperate long-distance search for her only child, asking relatives in Georgia to scour the young woman's apartment and then traveling across the country to investigate the disappearance herself.
She filed a missing person's report and repeatedly called police and jailers over the holiday weekend, providing them with pictures and a tip that her daughter had been spotted on Hopkins Street in southwest Atlanta being picked up by police. Told there was no one in the jail matching Chasity's description, Lewis returned home.
Ten days after Lewis began her search, she got a phone call that her daughter had been found in the city jail. Chasity was arrested June 26 after complaints she was screaming as she walked down Hopkins Street. She would not give police her name and was booked into the jail as a Jane Doe.
Theresa Lewis will be in Atlanta for her daughter's arraignment Friday. Lewis said Chasity has undergone a medical evaluation and that "they diagnosed her as psychotic." She said her daughter is on medication.
"I don't know what to expect," Lewis said Thursday night in a phone interview from California. "The last time I saw her, she was in good health."
Lewis, a project manager for Wells Fargo, said her daughter is usually "very active, very social" and "perky" but when she spoke to Chasity earlier this week, she wasn't herself.
"She was real mellow. She kept saying, 'Where are you?' Her voice sounded kind of weak," Lewis said. "This is mind-blowing to me."
Chasity Lewis is accused of disturbing the peace, a violation of a city ordinance, which could mean a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 60 days in jail for chronic offenders. Jail records show that Chasity Lewis' only other offense was misdemeanor possession of marijuana in February 2004, for which she paid a $200 fine.
Police say they did nothing wrong in the case and took Lewis' concerns seriously. But Lewis, who said she knew about her daughter's previous offense, plans to file a complaint.
"If you already have her in the system, if you already have her fingerprints, why do you have her as a Jane Doe," Lewis said. "This should have been handled differently. I had too much information for me to call all those places not once but twice, and then I'm forced to come home in distress. It's been a real hardship."
Lewis, who lives near San Francisco, had been trying to find her daughter since the evening of June 26, when she asked a family friend in Atlanta to go to the young woman's apartment to look for her.
The apartment was locked, and the landlord was out of town. The police said there was nothing to suggest they should break down a door to get inside.
Lewis' fear increased late Tuesday, June 28, when her daughter did not get off a flight from Atlanta for a two-week visit home. The mother then called an Atlanta relative to go back to her daughter's duplex. He climbed through a bedroom window and saw the young woman's personal items — cellphone, wallet, keys and passport — but not Chasity Lewis. The lights and air conditioner were on in the apartment.
He returned to the duplex the next day to find that nothing had changed, so Theresa Lewis flew to Atlanta Friday night, arriving about 3 a.m. Saturday. She had filed a missing persons report by daybreak and began calling every number in her daughter's cellphone. One of Chasity's acquaintances called an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter. The story, which appeared in the newspaper Tuesday, was picked up by local TV and radio stations.
Police finally found Chasity Lewis after employees at the city jail recognized her from photographs shown on television and in the newspaper.
Atlanta Corrections Chief Thomas Pocock said a jail nurse who had given the woman medication and a guard who had helped her change into a uniform for an earlier court appearance recognized her picture.
Pocock said the jail routinely gets calls from law enforcement agencies and individuals about missing people. Typically, he said, the name is checked against the jail's roster. They compare photographs of missing people with those of people brought into the jail. The jail never received a picture of Chasity Lewis, he said.
The chief jailer said internal affairs investigators would review what happened in Chasity Lewis' case. Theresa Lewis said police had called her and said they want to see her Friday, after her daughter's arraignment.
Lewis said a counselor at Clark Atlanta University told her Chasity is "in good standing and doing well." But Lewis doesn't know whether her daughter will return in the fall for her senior year.
"Right now, my main thing is to get her health in order, get her stable," she said.
