On Tuesday, September 24, 1996, a cook at Four Corners Pizza at 628 2nd Ave in the unincorporated town of Crockett, CA became concerned when one of his coworkers did not come back from her break. He went down a staircase in the back of the pizza parlor and to the basement where the bathroom was and found Priscilla Ann Lewis murdered in the restroom.

Priscilla Lewis was 21 years old in 1996 and lived in the town of Vallejo about 10 minutes away and over the Carquinez Strait in Contra Costa County. Lewis was known as friendly and outgoing and according to a friend she worked with she “lit up a room.” She had been working at the Pizza Restaurant to save money to purchase a house.

According to her cousin, Lewis was frightened to use the restroom at the Four Corners Pizza Restaurant because of where it was located. It was part of an old building, called the Valona Square Mall, that housed several other businesses including a candy shop, a video store, a construction office, and a dance studio. All of the businesses in the building shared bathrooms located in the basement of the building. Lewis was known to use the restroom of a bar across the street to avoid the basement area, described as isolated, vacant and dimly lit.

Anyone who entered the building could get to the basement bathrooms. There were three entrances and 3 narrow and long stairwells leading to the basement throughout the basement.

But that September in 1996, Lewis was found in the basement bathroom. She had been severely beaten and her neck broken. Cause of death was strangulation.

Contra Costa Sheriff Detectives interviewed many people at the time but Priscilla Lewis’ case remains unsolved. According to Troy Kinslow “This community was rocked by it (Lewis’ murder). There’s like a black cloud over this town, it was bad.”

If you have any information about this crime please contact Contra Costa Sheriff Homicide Detectives at 925-313-2630 or email them at tips@so.cccounty.us. You can also leave an anonymous tip at 866-846-3592.