Police in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as investigators from the FBI say they have hit a dead end in the case of missing mom Akia Eggleston, who was eight months pregnant when she vanished before her own baby shower — a shower she paid for herself — more than six months ago, according to a report by WJZ TV News . Eggleston is also the mom of a 3-year-old girl.
Now the FBI is appealing to the public to pass along any clues about the 22-year-old’s baffling disappearance, even offering a $25,000 reward for information that could lead investigators to wherever she is. Eggleston was last seen on May 3, 2017, when she was caught on surveillance video withdrawing money from her bank account, but later failed to show up to her baby shower.
“We have had some information to come in and we’ve checked out those leads. Unfortunately, none of those things have panned out,” Baltimore City Police Chief Stanley Brandford told WBAL TV News last week , when the $25,000 reward was announced.
According to a report in October by WJZ , when police went to search Eggleston’s apartment in Baltimore’s Cherry Hill neighborhood, they found the residence almost entirely cleaned out. As a result, they initially believed that Eggleston had vanished on purpose, of her own accord. But they have since revised their theory.
#WJZ The FBI offers a $25K reward to find Akia Eggleston who was 8 months pregnant when she went missing in May from Baltimore. Details at 11. pic.twitter.com/8g9n2nGLby
— Vic Carter WJZ (@VicWJZ) November 8, 2017
Investigators now say that Eggleston may be the victim of foul play . The baby she was carrying at the time of her disappearance would be at least 5-months-old as of November, but police have combed records of area hospitals and found nothing indicating that Eggleston delivered the baby. Police have issued an appeal to whoever may have helped her deliver the child — if, in fact, the young mom did give birth and had aid from another person — to come forward as well.
Despite the fact that the last known images of Eggeleston showed her taking money out of a bank at a teller window, police say that they have turned up no record of any financial activity on any of her accounts since her disappearance. Eggleston’s social media presence has also gone silent, and there is no record of any calls made on her phone.
The following video includes the final known images of Akia Eggleston, as well as an interview with her family.
“Akia has a young, three-year-old toddler that is asking for her on a daily basis, and we have no real answers to give her,” Eggleston’s stepfather, Shawn Wilkinson, told WBAL. “We are hoping and praying that the community will step up to the plate and help this family bring closure to this horrible incident that is taking place right now.”
Akia Eggleston is described by investigtors as African-American, standing just 4-feet-11 and weighing about 100 pounds. She has black hair, brown eyes, and has a tattoo of cherries on her left shoulder blade, according to the FBI .
Akia Eggleston, then 8 months pregnant, went missing from MD in May 2017. #FBI offers up to $25,000 reward for info: https://t.co/yjpzu4UFgj pic.twitter.com/1akFufat7t
— FBI Most Wanted (@FBIMostWanted) November 7, 2017
Eggleston is one of three women from Baltimore’s Cherry Hill area who have gone missing this year, and have not been found. On February 4, 33-year-old Joanna Clark and her 15-year-old daughter, Shariece Nicole Clark, both vanished, apparently in separate incidents.
Shariece Clark disappeared in the afternoon after babysitting her six siblings, who range in age from 2-years to 10-years-old. Her last known communication came at 2:30 p.m., according to an NBC News report . Her mother, Joanna Clark, was last heard from sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight that evening, but failed to show up for work that Monday at a candy company where her aunt was also employed.
[Featured Image by By Jeramey Lende/Shutterstock]
