Pregnant Mom Akia Eggleston Missed Her Own Baby Shower; Hasn't Been Seen Since 2017

BALTIMORE, MD — On May 3, 2017, Akia Shawtan Eggleston, a single mother of a three-year-old daughter, was eight months pregnant when she was last spotted in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore City.

Four days later, when Eggleston, 22, failed to show up to her own baby shower, loved ones reported her missing. Unfortunately, she has remained missing ever since.

On the new ID special, The Missing: Has Akia Eggleston Vanished?, Eggleston’s stepfather, Shawn Wilkinson, recalled how she lived with another single mom in Cherry Hill, a suburb outside Baltimore that he said “was known for crime and drugs.”

Still, Wilkinson said that Eggleston had “a very good support system” and resided in a situation where “everybody chipped in” to help one another.

When Eggleston discovered she was expecting her second child, she was reportedly excited, even after her pregnancy started proving to be complicated. According to Wilkinson, “She could barely move. She was on bed rest from her doctors, she wasn’t working, and she was in a lot of pain because her baby was breached.”

Nonetheless, Wilkinson said Eggleston was thrilled about the new baby, and she planned a lavish shower for herself at a venue in Baltimore City on May 7.

When the date arrived and she didn’t show up for the event, friends and family went to her home. Once there, they reportedly realized that no one had seen or heard from Eggleston for the past four days. Her family then reported her missing.

Several weeks later, police say they determined that, on May 3, a friend drove Eggleston to a bank in the Inner Harbor district. Once there, Eggleston reportedly withdrew several hundred dollars, after which the same friend gave her a ride home.

Lt. Terrence McLarney, an investigator from the Baltimore Police Department’s Cold Case Unit, said police interviewed witnesses and checked security video at the bank, and concluded, “There was nothing to suggest that she was in any imminent danger or a stress situation.”

The mystery deepened, though, when the friend reportedly claimed that Eggleston had been planning to buy a house with her unborn baby’s father — the identity of whom Eggleston had allegedly not shared with her stepdad.

Wilkinson said he was “shocked” to learn that the alleged father-to-be was a friend of his who was “ten-plus or more years” older than Eggleston.

Lt. McLarney confirmed that investigators interviewed the unborn infant’s alleged father, but because the case is ongoing, they have not gone public with what they may have gathered from him.

After running down many leads, McLarney said police are turning to the public. He stated, “We need help .… We don’t have any secret information .… She could have had an accident, she could have been abducted. We’ve been surprised at how little information has come in, and there is a $25,000 reward that the FBI put out."

Wilkinson has further reiterated, “I beg and plead to anybody who knows something to come forward. Help our family start the healing process, because every day she’s not here is an open wound…. I will never give up looking for my daughter.”

Akia Eggleston is described as standing 4-foot-11 and weighing 100 pounds. She is African American, has black hair, and a tattoo of cherries on her left shoulder blade.

If you have any information regarding Akia Eggleston, please contact the Baltimore City Homicide Field Office at (410) 265-8080.

Watch Investigation Discovery's The Missing: Has Akia Eggleston Vanished? on ID GO now!