Continued from “One Year Since Pieper Lewis Went Missing”

Lewis’ new location was kept highly confidential to protect her after her story gained national attention. But a probation violation report filed in May 2024 said that in November 2023, she was sent to the House of Cherith in Atlanta, which treats women who have been sexually exploited.

The report said that while there, Lewis repeatedly broke house rules, including using a contraband phone to communicate with a man, taking unauthorized photos, receiving unauthorized phone calls, conducting prohibited financial transactions and threatening to harm herself and others.

Her behavior there turned more erratic. In March 2024, the report said, Lewis absconded from a medical appointment “and spent an extended period of time” with a man she later admitted to “engaging in intimate relations with,” according to the report.
After her return on March 21, 2024, the report said, she was dismissed from the House of Cherith. The following day, she was taken to the Fulton County, Georgia, probation office and said she was homeless, according to the report.

She was fitted with a GPS monitoring device and told to report to the probation office weekly until she found stable housing. But she failed to keep appointments or charge the device, according to the report.

After April 6, 2024, Lewis’ probation officer lost touch with Lewis, who apparently vanished into the city of 6 million.

Is anybody actually looking for Lewis? Authorities sought a nationwide warrant for her arrest, but it is a sealed document until she is apprehended.
Though Des Moines police initially arrested and charged Lewis, they apparently are not involved in any search — if there is one.

“Monitoring of probation/parole is not one of our functions, so she wouldn’t be required to check in with us,” Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek, a police spokesman, said in an email.

Steve Davis, a spokesperson for the Iowa Judicial Branch, also could offer no update.

“Nothing has been filed in the Pieper Lewis criminal case since July 2024,” Davis said. “The report of her probation revocation was filed in May 2024. If she was found or apprehended, there would be a filing that would show up on the Iowa Courts Online docket.”

Has anyone heard from her?

Des Moines Black Liberation Movement community organizer Jaylen Cavil, became a confidant of Lewis during her time in the Iowa court system — part of the “support system” she referred to. But Cavil, now attending law school in Boston, declined to comment.

If she is found, or turns herself in, what will happen? No longer under a deferred judgement, she would face not only a prison sentence for her manslaughter and willful injury convictions, but whatever penalty the court imposes for again violating her probation.

In a June 2024 letter to the Iowa Department of Corrections, Shared Hope International and the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking asked that the arrest warrant be replaced with an “Endangered Persons alert.”

“Pieper is a highly vulnerable youth who went missing in an unfamiliar city. In addition to the inherent risk factors that any homeless 19 year old would face, Pieper is living with the effects and consequences of a lifetime of trauma,” they wrote. The letter added that with her history of being “relentlessly preyed on by adults, particularly older men, who have taken advantage of her vulnerability and subjected her to unspeakable acts of sexual violence, exploitation, and trafficking… we can only fathom what she has experienced during the last two months of being unsheltered and on her own.

“For those who have experienced sexual violence or who support individuals living with its resulting trauma, Pieper’s choices and behaviors are not only unsurprising, they are expected. Instead, what has been surprising are the expectations placed upon her and the consequences that follow when she falls short.”