Purported father of unborn baby charged in 2017 disappearance of Baltimore woman

Police have charged a Michigan man with murder in the 2017 disappearance of Akia Eggleston, the 22-year-old Baltimore woman who was eight months pregnant when she went missing days before her baby shower.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby on Thursday announced charges against the man believed to have been the baby’s father, 41-year-old Michael Robertson, who previously lived in Baltimore and in 2017 moved to Michigan, where he was arrested.

Robertson is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one for Eggleston and one for her unborn baby.

Eggleston’s body has not been found. At a news conference, Mosby said police found records of 18 Google searches Robertson made around the time of Eggleston’s disappearance related to trash pickups, landfills and where garbage from Baltimore is deposited.

The motive is believed to have been related to Eggleston’s pregnancy, Mosby said. Investigators found that there had been a “volatile argument” between Robertson and the mother of his other children after Eggleston posted about her pregnancy on Facebook.

Eggleston was last seen alive on May 3, 2017. Her family reported her missing on May 7, when she didn’t show up to her baby shower.

Mosby laid out an exhaustive timeline of Eggleston’s and Robertson’s movements on May 3 that investigators pieced together.

“This case has been open for almost five years,” Mosby said. “In the past six months, we have used additional investigative techniques and given the case a committed set of fresh eyes.”

The evidence suggested that Robertson had led Eggleston to believe they would be moving into an apartment together and that Eggleston was gathering money for a down payment. The day before her disappearance, Eggleston purchased two money orders and attempted to withdraw cash from an ATM in downtown Baltimore.

She deposited the money order and a paycheck at her bank the next day and withdrew $450, Mosby said.

Police believe that Eggleston and Robertson were apart for much of the day on May 3, but that they both went to Eggleston’s residence in Cherry Hill by the late afternoon. The last communication from Eggleston was an invitation to her baby shower that she sent to a friend through Facebook Messenger at about 5:30 p.m.

Using cellphone records, investigators determined that Robertson left the residence at about 6:30 p.m. and that Eggleston’s phone was with him.

Her phone received one final call, believed to be from a telemarketer, at around that time, Mosby said. After that point, all activity on the phone ended, meaning that it was turned off or disabled.

Mosby declined to discuss details of the investigation beyond what is available in the statement of probable cause.

Robertson was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Muskegon, Michigan, where he is awaiting an extradition hearing. He and the mother of his other children moved there in the fall of 2017, according to the statement of probable cause.

Robertson changed his phone number a day before Eggleston’s baby shower, which he was supposed to attend with her, police wrote in the statement. He also made inconsistent statements to investigators and avoided speaking with police.

He also repeatedly searched online for information about dumpster pickups and where Baltimore’s garbage goes, according to police. The dumpsters at Eggleston’s residence were about 30 feet away from her front door, police wrote.

The dumpsters were emptied several times a week and their contents taken to a landfill in Northern Virginia. Investigators spoke with engineers and determined the area of the landfill where the trash was deposited, but those sections were filled with up to 40 feet of compacted solid waste within a few weeks of Eggleston’s disappearance, according to the statement of probable cause.

No heavy equipment currently available can excavate further than 20 feet deep at a landfill, the police wrote.

Eggleston’s disappearance was featured on the HBO documentary series “Black and Missing,” which highlighted an organization of the same name that seeks to raise awareness of cases involving missing people of color.

Members of Eggleston’s family thanked the investigators who brought charges against Robertson.

“Domestic violence is real,” said Shawn Wilkinson, Eggleston’s stepfather. “And when it happens, we need to address it. It is not the answer. There is always an alternative.”