Risha Aleena Lewis was 26 years old when she disappeared in January 2006. She was a Black woman from New Castle, Delaware, with black hair and brown eyes, listed at about 5 feet 3 inches tall and approximately 130 to 135 pounds. She was also known by the nicknames Colleen, Melanie, and Rish. Online missing-person records describe her as a mother, and The Charley Project reports that she has not been in contact with either of her two children since she vanished.
Risha was living in the Moorehouse Drive area of New Castle at the time. According to online case summaries, she left New Castle to visit a friend in the 200 block of West Pulaski Highway in Elkton, Maryland. At about 1:30 a.m. on January 21, 2006, she called home and said she was on her way back, but she never arrived. She has not been seen or heard from since.
The New Castle County Police Department published a long-term missing person cold case review in January 2026 stating that Risha was reported missing on January 23, 2006, from her home at 467 Morehouse Drive in New Castle, and that she went missing sometime between January 20 and January 23, 2006. That review confirms that she remains missing and asks anyone with information to contact the New Castle County Division of Police Criminal Investigations Unit.
A major development came months after Risha disappeared. Her vehicle, described as a white four-door 1997 Ford Crown Victoria with Delaware license plate 304653, was found abandoned in Newark, Delaware, on October 17, 2006. The Charley Project notes that this was nearly nine months after she was last seen. One online case summary reports that no clues to her whereabouts were found in the car, and that Newark is roughly between the Elkton area where she had been visiting and her home in New Castle.
Risha had several identifying features that may help distinguish her. Online sources list a linear abdominal scar, pierced ears, a right eyebrow piercing, and multiple tattoos, including red flames with the name Kev on an upper arm, her name Risha on her wrist, the name Jamie on her calf, and vines or barbed wire on the small of her back. Additional descriptions also mention a butterfly tattoo between her breasts. She wore contact lenses and was reported to have been wearing a gold rope necklace with a Mommy and Me pendant and a gold rope bracelet.
Risha’s case remains unresolved in the public sources reviewed. The Charley Project states that her cellular phone remained activated but had not been used, and that the circumstances surrounding her disappearance are unclear. The 2026 police cold case review likewise states that she has not been seen or heard from since. Anyone with information is asked to contact the New Castle County Division of Police Criminal Investigations Unit at 302-395-8110 or ; anonymous tips may also be submitted through Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333.Last Seen: Jan 21, 2006
