Disappearance of Myra Lewis

Myra Rena Lewis, born November 30, 2011, went missing at age two from the front yard of her family's home on Mount Pilgrim Road in Camden, Mississippi, on March 1, 2014. According to her mother, Ericka Lewis, Myra was last seen playing outside with her sister between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. that day. Ericka Lewis told authorities she instructed the girls to go inside before she left to run errands. Myra's father, Gregory Lewis, was at home caring for a newborn at the time and reportedly did not notice Myra was missing for several hours after she was last seen.

The search for Myra began four to five hours after she was last seen. Gregory Lewis initially attempted to locate her using the family's dogs, which were not trained in search and rescue. Once law enforcement became involved, K-9 units were used to search a four-square-mile area around the home, including a nearby pond. No trace of Myra was found. On March 2, 2014, Madison County officials issued an Amber Alert describing her as African-American, three feet one inch tall, weighing 27 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, and wearing white or khaki pants, a turquoise sweater with a bear design, and pink tennis shoes. On March 3, 2014, authorities classified the case as a child abduction, and multiple agencies conducted a wide search without producing leads.

On March 7, 2014, following a search of the Lewis family home, Ericka Lewis was arrested on a probation violation; the timing of the arrest drew public criticism given her daughter's ongoing disappearance. On March 10, 2014, the FBI added Myra Lewis to its list of most sought missing persons and announced a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to her location. On March 13, 2014, divers searched the pond near the home again but found nothing. Ericka Lewis was released from jail in May 2014 after 79 days, and the family has since publicly maintained that Myra was abducted.

In October 2014, with no leads, the Madison County Sheriff's Department consulted psychics to identify possible search areas, but this produced no new evidence. One year after the disappearance, the family made a public appeal and criticized the delay in issuing the Amber Alert, arguing that an earlier alert might have improved the chances of finding Myra. She is described as the longest unsolved missing-child case involving an Amber Alert in Mississippi history. In 2018, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released an age-progressed image depicting Myra at age six, and continues to release updated images. By 2022, authorities said they were no closer to finding her than on the day she disappeared, and the Lewis family had left Camden and abandoned the home. As of March 2024, no reliable leads had been reported, and the FBI's $20,000 reward remains active.