Akia Eggleston's Death Formally Ruled A Homicide By Baltimore Police

Baltimore police have formally ruled the 2017 disappearance of Akia Eggleston a homicide, two months after the father of her unborn child was arrested for murder in connection with the case.

The Baltimore Police Department confirmed to Oxygen.com that Eggleston's case had officially been classified a homicide as of Wednesday.

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced in February that Michael Robertson, the now 41-year-old father of the child Eggleston was pregnant with at the time of her disappearance had been charged him with two counts of first-degree murder for both the deaths of Eggleston and their unborn child. Eggleston was eight months pregnant with her second child at the time.

Robertson was in a relationship with another 22-year-old woman — who had just had a baby him — at the time of Eggleston's presumed murder, authorities said.

Mosby noted that Eggleston “was excited” about plans to move in with Robertson. She said that, on May 3, 2017, Eggleston took out money orders to pay for the move; investigators believe that Robertson misled Eggleston with both his promise of cohabitation and an image of their supposed new home.

Later that same day, prosecutors say that Robertson took a Lyft ordered by Eggleston to an area near her apartment. Around the same time, Eggleston sent a friend a Facebook Message to invite to her to her baby shower, which was supposed to take place a few days later.

It was Eggleston's last known communication. 

That evening, police say, Eggleston’s phone and Robertson’s were tracked together downtown, after which her phone activity ended permanently, according to a statement of probable cause.

Eggleston's family reported her missing four days later. While her body was never found, Mosby said that Robertson conducted internet searches about trash pickup, dumpsters and landfills in Baltimore 18 times around the time that Eggleston vanished. Investigators focused on dumpsters located 30 feet from Eggleston’s apartment; they believe she may have ended up in a landfill in Northern Virginia.

Robertson moved to Michigan with the mother of two of his children — including the one born shortly before Eggleston's disappearance — within days of being interviewed by police, according to the probable cause statement.

As for an alleged motive, Mosby said that there was a “volatile argument” between that woman and Robertson the night before Eggleston disappeared, fueled by the Eggleston posting a sonogram image on Facebook. 

The young woman’s friends and family grew concerned after Eggleston failed to show up to her own baby shower days later. 

In 2019, Oxygen spotlighted Eggleston’s disappearance on the special “Searching For.”

She was also featured on the HBO docuseries “Black and Missing,” which spotlighted Eggleston’s case as an example of the lack of attention for missing Black people.