Murder With My Husband - 283. Pregnant and Vanished - The Disappearance of Akia Eggleston

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

On this episode, Payton and Garrett uncover the chilling disappearance of Akia Eggleston, a young pregnant mother who vanished without a trace. As police dismiss the case, her desperate family and friends take matters into their own hands, launching a relentless fight for answers and justice. Links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/arrest-made-in-disappearance-of-akia-eggleston-pregnant-woman-missing-since-2017/ MEAWW.com - https://meaww.com/who-killed-akia-eggleston-baltimore-pregnant-mom-went-missing-before-mysterious-death BlackAndMissingInc.com - https://blackandmissinginc.com/the-day-akia-disappeared/ WMAR2News.com - https://www.wmar2news.com/infocus/akia-egglestons-aunt-working-to-secure-nieces-legacy Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/searching-for/akia-eggleston-missing-mother-baltimore-debit-card-apartment NBC.com - https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/pregnant-woman-akia-eggleston-vanishes-before-baby-shower NBCNews.com - https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/in-the-news/dateline-episode-the-day-akia-disappeared-rcna171620 Facebook.com - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1661944483845934/ WBALTV.com - https://www.wbaltv.com/article/akia-eggleston-murder-trial-verdict/44661782 Stattorney.org - https://www.stattorney.org/media-center/press-releases/2766-man-convicted-of-all-charges-for-the-murder-of-akia-eggleston-and-her-unborn-child TheHueAndCry.com - https://thehueandcry.com/akia-eggleston CharleyProject.com - https://charleyproject.org/case/akia-shawnta-eggleston MissinPersonsCenter.org - https://missingpersonscenter.org/missing-persons-directory/missing-adults/akia-shawnta-eggleston/ Dateline NBC - https://open.spotify.com/episode/22KxFxhH6J05IFjeAoFJGg?si=318496bdfe5645cc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Conjuring Last Rites. On September 5th. I come down here, I need you. Array! Array! Array! Array! Array!

The Conjuring, last rights. Only in theater, September 5th. Miller Light, the light beer brewed for people who love the taste of beer and the perfect pairing for your game time. When Miller Light set out to brew a light beer, they had to choose great taste or 90 calories per can. They chose both because they knew the best part of beer is the beer. Your game time tastes like Miller Time. Learn more at millerlight.ca. Must be legal drinking age. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast.

This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. We did not win the lottery. Yeah. Sorry.

I guess the sarcasm didn't come through on the audio. I guess we can take blame for that. We didn't win the lottery. If we won the lottery, our social medias would be deleted. You would probably never get another episode from us. That's not true. For me. No, I don't know about that.

But, yeah, no social medias. I'm sorry. We did not win the lottery. I wish. I wish I could give all of you $10,000. I would if I could. Listen, Garrett and I always just manifest winning the lottery. So I think we're really used to just saying that we won the lottery.

Also, for those who don't know, we live in Utah, you can't play the lottery. in Utah, so we can't even play the lottery here. Yeah, we don't got a chance. They, they, it's illegal. Like, it doesn't exist here. You know what, but that one's on us. I'm really, really sorry that we got your hopes up. For those who did the Emmy, sorry.

Didn't win. Yeah, I felt bad. I felt bad, but we caused quite the havoc. Yeah, a lot of you thought we were serious and apologize for that. So next time we win the lottery, we'll make sure to let you know that we actually did win. Yeah, but if we say it before then, we didn't win. Yeah. Besides us not winning the lottery update on my bagels. Not a huge update on my bagels, so nothing there.

My update is that there's not really an update. But I am working towards it. I'm still figuring it out. I promise you my goal for 2026 is I opening a bagel shop. It's going to happen. I'm going to make it happen. And Payton's going to have to be head baker at my bagel shop. Maybe I'm not bacon. Payton's not baking

Payton will not bake I'll go to the grand opening I'll throw the grand opening Thanks baby But I can't bake That's okay I don't expect you to bake Peyton and I both aren't very big bakers

or cook I cook Just not in the kitchen Everything else in my life Exactly That's funny That's what I got for my 10 seconds So let's hop into

today's episode Our sources for this episode are CBSNews.com, M-E-A-W-W.com, Black and Missing, Inc.com, WM-A-R-2 News.com, Oxygen.com, NBC.com, M-B-A-L-T-V-N-T-V-E-L-T-V-E-L-T-V-E-T-O-T-E-T-O-T-E-T-L-E-T-LORG. Getting Pregnant is supposed to be one of the most magical times in a woman's life. For many, it's a pivotal chapter. A time when you know everything is about to change and, hopefully for the better. It's a time to be showered with love, to be pampered, to rest and take care of yourself. But it's also a time where a woman is at her most vulnerable. And I'm not just talking about the flood of hormones and emotions and changes to your body. I'm actually talking about in

society too. According to a 2020 article in the American Journal of Public Health, pregnant and postpartum women had a 35% higher risk of being murdered than a non-pregnant woman. Wait, what? Yep. You're more at risk to be murdered while pregnant than not pregnant. And I would assume that the statistic is based off of... All murders, but yes, domestic. Yeah, I was going to say, I bet you majority of it is...

So I bet off that statistic, 90% of those are husbands or... significant others. The fact you just throw out percentages when you have no idea. No, what you're talking about? You can say I feel like. No, no, no. What I said, I bet you is very close to accurate. It was okay with 90.78. Sure. Garrett thinks the majority are domestic. Oh, 90% 90.78% correct. But that's your opinion. Correct. Okay. And you keep going. And the rates for this. are even higher than that amongst black women, which is why today I want to cover a really important case.

This is the true crime story of Akiah Eggleston. So let's dial back the clock, not too far, honestly, but to May of 2017 when good old young and Peyton and Garrett were getting married. This is true. But as we are getting married in California, over in the city of Baltimore, Maryland is 22-year-old Akea Eggleston. Now, everyone who knew Akea said she was a fun, loving, warm-hearted person. The kind of woman who would do anything for the people that she cared about, she loved to dance, she was very into the arts, and she was very close with her family, particularly her stepfather, her aunt, and her grandparents. grandmother. She actually found herself leaning on them a lot that May of 2017 because Akiah at this

point in her life was eight months pregnant. And she was raising her other child, a two-year-old daughter named Emery on her own. Now, not to mention, Akia was still recovering from the loss of her mother who had died two years earlier to breast cancer. It was something that seemed to weigh heavy on Akea, especially as she was about to have her second child. So at the end of April 2017, Akia even posted about it on her Facebook page, writing, quote, I really wish my mother was here. Now, according to Akea's stepdad, Akea had never really been the same since the passing of her mother. Things had gotten a lot tougher on her ever since as she had to become more independent. She had to take on. a lot of responsibility for the family.

It kind of seems that after her mother passed, Akea became more introverted, a bit more private. The one thing, though, that did bring her some peace was volunteering and staying close with her community. But even that got a lot harder to do towards the end of Akeia's second pregnancy. Now, Akeia's pregnancy was considered high risk, so her doctor recommended she get as much rest as she could. That meant no driving, no long walks, nothing strenuous.

But Akea seemed to have a solution for that. At the time, she and her current boyfriend, this is the father of her unborn baby, 35-year-old Michael Robertson, were planning on moving into a new place together before the baby arrived. This is a boy, by the way, who they had already picked out the name Anubis. So Akiah and Michael had known each other for years before getting pregnant. In fact, Michael's grandmother used to be Akea's babysitter when she was younger. So the families were presumably really close. But the two reconnected in the middle of 2016 when they saw each other at a mutual friend's birthday party.

Shortly after that, they began dating, Akea got pregnant, and now they were planning a future together. This was something that Akea was really excited about. On May 3rd, 2017, Akiah even took out money from the bank to pay for a deposit on their new place. And four days after that, on May 7th, Akea had arranged a beautiful baby shower for herself. Kea had organized it all on her own. She had spent close to a grand on the location and decorations. And that afternoon, everything was set up by the party planner and ready to go, So the guests started trickling in one by one to her baby shower, placing their gifts for baby Anubis down on a designated table.

But as the clock ticked on and the appetizers were served, one thing was missing from the baby shower. And that was Akea, the pregnant mother. That's horrible. Okay. Now everyone knows that Akea was eight months pregnant. And those closest to her news, she was deemed a high risk pregnancy. So, of course, everyone's first thought is maybe she's at the hospital with a complication. Maybe she's already in labor.

Problem is, Akiah's not answering her phone as everyone is showing up to her party. So the next person, her family calls, is actually a guy named Stefan. Now, this is one of Akea's best friends in the entire world. He was the one who was supposed to pick Akea up that day and drive her to her own shower since she wasn't supposed to be driving herself. And since Akea's family knew that plan, they contacted Stefan to ask if the two of them were together. And he says, no. Akea told him she would call him when she was ready, but he hadn't heard from her that day.

So he just figured she was running late. And that's when Stefan and a few other party guests decide to rush over to Akea's apartment to check on her. Only when they get there, there's no sign of Akea there either. Even weirder, a lot of her stuff is missing, and not just money and jewelry. Heavy pieces of furniture have been removed from the house. Her dresser was gone, and most of her closet had been emptied. This is obviously something Akea definitely didn't do on her own at eight months pregnant. Now, remember how I said after her mother's death,

Akea had gotten a lot more private about her life? Apparently, that included the details of her relationship with Michael. because a lot of people didn't even know the two were planning to move in together. In fact, it seems like most people thought that they were on the outs by the time the baby shower rolled around. And I don't know if anyone called Michael that day to ask if he knew where Akea was. I'm sure they did, but Michael said he hadn't seen Akea in almost a week. He says, I haven't seen her since May 1st. So at this point, the family calls 911 and they,

follow it up with a trip to the police station to file a missing person's report. That day, police pay a visit to Akees apartment, but they don't walk away with any evidence of note. To them, it just looks like someone was starting their move out of the apartment. And meanwhile, the family begins scouring the park near Akea's place, hoping to maybe find her or a sign of her. They find nothing. And once it's confirmed that Akea isn't at any local hospitals, the police start working to put together a timeline of what may have happened because this means there is an eight-month pregnant mother who is currently missing. That's so horrible. She plants this whole baby shower and I'm already mad.

So police realize Akea, who was an avid social media user, hadn't actually posted anything online since May 3rd. And to do the time for you, this is four days before she didn't show up to her baby shower, which her family found strange considering that she was constantly updating her followers about her pregnancy journey online. And the last known post was that afternoon on May 3rd when Akea uploaded a picture of her sonogram. And then at 5.22 p.m. she sent a. Facebook message to a friend inviting them to come to the future baby shower that she was going

to not appear to. And then after that, it seems like Akea goes silent. And police also realize May 3rd was the last time anyone saw Akea alive. So as soon as she's reported and they start talking everyone, they realize that they are already four days behind from the last time that anyone knew or heard from IKEA. Four days is so long. It's interesting because before the podcast, I don't think I would ever realize how long four days is. I'm like, oh, like, that's fine.

Like, that's not a big deal. But honestly, anything longer than 12 hours now is like, yeah. Like, it's just not looking good, sadly. Yeah. I can't imagine, you know, you have this family member who's super private and has kind, and, you know, chooses to be private,

but you're still supporting her in the ways that she would like. so you show up to the shower only to discover once police begin looking into her disappearance that it's been four days. That has to be so devastating. So May 3rd, she was caught on security footage at a local bank with drawing money for her new apartment. The 4 foot 11, Akea, was spotted wearing a green t-shirt and black joggers. A friend had actually driven her that day to the bank and they said they dropped her back off at her place around two or three p.m. Now, this coincided with the fact that one of the last cell phone pings from Akea's phone outside of her apartment was at a tower right near that bank. But after that,

it was like Akea had vanished into thin air. So after May 3rd, there were no more social media posts, no more Facebook messages, no more bank withdrawals or cell phone activity. And what's even scary is that this investigation goes on. They keep searching. They keep looking. And eventually, Akiah's due date comes and goes. Oh, my gosh. They have no idea.

And there is still no sign of her or even any evidence pointing to where she might have gone or what might have happened to her and her son. And you also have to remember, there is a two-year-old little girl wondering what has happened to her mother. because she did have another baby. But it seems like it takes the police some time to bring in the one person they probably should have spoken to immediately. And that was Akia's current boyfriend, 35-year-old Michael Robertson. Now, to be fair, it seems like Michael was being pretty cagey with police throughout the investigation. According to one statement police released, Michael, quote, notably has displayed a consistent pattern of hiding or avoiding police contact for weeks or months

at a time between interviews. And because they can't arrest him, you kind of have to have someone who's willing to cooperate with you in order to like continue these interrogations. So I do know that when they get him to sit down on June 15th, a month after Akea's disappearance, he tells them this, that the last time he saw Akeh's. was two days before she was last seen or heard from on May 1st. This is obviously a little different than what he had originally told her family back on the day she disappeared. But he continues to police that he stopped by her place that day, left, and then went to work.

And when he went back, he said all of his stuff was packed in a box. And he said he took that not as a sign that they were moving in together like they planned. but as a sign that she was over him and they were breaking up. Now, besides that, he really doesn't give the police much to work with. Though by the following month, July 2017, police feel pretty confident that foul play was involved in Akea's disappearance, and they're pretty sure Michael Robertson might have had something to do with it, especially when they learn a few other shady things about Michael,

Like the fact that he got a new phone and phone number a day before the baby shower. And they learned that Michael had an entire other family on the side. Like with kids and everything? Besides IKEA. Holy crap. So it turns out that 35-year-old Michael was also in a relationship with another 22-year-old woman named Haley. and the two of them had their own children together. Holy how.

How do you hide that? Like, how do you, how is that possible? In fact, Haley gave birth to her second child with Michael in August of 2016. And then Akea got pregnant the following month. So he had a child with Haley and the following month, him and Akea were pregnant. I just have so much going through my mind because I'm trying to figure out how did he see his other kids? How did he see his other girlfriend? Like, how, how is he doing all this?

Also, like, the mom's just at home with a newborn and you're getting another girl pregnant. Yeah, this is crazy. Disrespectful. Oh, my gosh. Now, to be honest, I'm not sure if Haley knew about Akea at first, but it seemed Akea did know about Haley and Michael's two other children. I'm not saying that she knew that they were currently in contact or Haley was under the assumption that they were together. He might have just said, this is my ex and I have two children

with her. We don't actually know what he told Akea, but we do know that she was aware that he had other kids with Haley. Okay. And I can also say that around April 2017, a few months before Akea disappeared, Michael and Haley were actually evicted from the apartment that they shared, which was when Michael began staying at Akea's place regularly. Michael told detectives he wasn't even sure at first if the baby was his because he was under the impression that he and Akea were open and not exclusive at the time. That's such a cowardly thing to say. But he said he was willing to take a paternity test once the baby arrived.

And he said if the baby was his, then he would happily take on the role of Father. So gracious of him. But he also says, Akia was insistent he was the father. So when she began asking him to come to doctor's appointments and sonograms, and he said no, because he wanted the paternity test, that's when they began to fight. And that's why he said on the 1st of May, Akea had packed up his stuff and left it at her apartment. And he said he went there and when he saw it all packed, he waited for her to come home so they could talk, but she never showed. so he figured things were really done between the two of them and didn't show up to the baby shower

and hadn't heard from her after that. I don't believe any of this at all. He tells the police he is genuinely worried. He insists he's not involved at all. But he does point to one person that he is suspicious of. So police are like, hey, if not you, then who? And he says, oh, Akia's best friend, Stefan. now remember stephen was the one who was supposed to pick akea up on the day of her baby shower and drive her there but michael tells police that stephen's feelings for akia went well beyond friendship

according to him he was supposedly obsessed with her if she needed a ride he dropped everything if she needed rent he offered her up money no questions asked and when investigators start looking into stephen they do learn the two were really close to the point where akia even trusted him enough to give him her passwords to Gmail and Facebook along with a key to her apartment. And so they're looking into him because of what Michael said. And they learn he also owns a gun. So they realize maybe let's bring him in for questioning. And so they do. And Stefan tells them something that makes him look even more suspicious. He says that a day or so before the baby shower, he was supposed to meet up with Akea because he was going to loan her $200. And when he didn't hear from her about it, he got a bit worried and went over to the house

to check on her. Remember, he has a key. And that's when he noticed a lot of her stuff was gone, her clothes, her baby's new crib. He also said he noticed holes in the wall of the apartment. Remember, this is days before the baby shower when the rest of her family discovered the apartment and the state of it and that Akea wasn't there. and yet stephen her supposed best friend didn't report her missing she wasn't answering him didn't report any of this to police he also didn't seem to mention it when everyone realized akia was missing so when they call him and they're like hey have you picked her up he's like no i've just been waiting to hear from her he doesn't say actually i haven't heard from her sOS this is what i saw when i went to her house so police think okay this is not adding up when asked if he and akia ever dated Stefan says, well, sort of, but it didn't really last long.

But when they look over their Facebook messages to one another, they find really intimate conversations that indicate they were sleeping together, maybe on and off for what seemed to be a while. And while Stefan was head over heels for Akea, she just wasn't really feeling the same. She saw it more as like friends with benefits type thing, a situation ship, if you will. Okay.

Now, police think this could definitely, this is motive. Yeah, definitely. to lead to a crime of passion. And it does make a little bit more sense why Michael was insisting on a paternity test. I said I didn't believe him, but now I think I might. So police are like, we've got a sticky situation here. So they ask him, Stefan,

why did you not call the police the first day that you couldn't get a hold of A Kea and you went to her house and noticed that her stuff was missing? And he said, well, I just didn't find it all that alarming yet that he would just give it until. tell Akia's baby shower to see if he heard from her. And when he didn't, that was when he worried like everyone else because he knew she wouldn't miss that. Yeah. He also had been super cooperative with the investigation and was posting online about trying to find Akia. He wrote

things that felt serious like, quote, if I have to move effing mountains or take a life, I will find you. Okay. And when he's asked where he was on the night that Akia was last seen, May 3rd, the time they think she went missing, he says he was at work. And once police confirm his alibi, they realized Stefan is likely not their guy. Yeah, I was going to say he sounds like he's telling the truth. So they decide to turn to a new person of interest. Someone who likely did not like Akea if she knew about her. And that was Michael's other girlfriend, Haley Pomeroy.

Okay. Now, as I mentioned, Haley and Michael had two children. together already. And while it seems Akia knew about Haley, I'm not sure how much Haley knew about Akiah, at least at first, because police have to investigate. And they look into it and discover that when Haley did find out that Michael had been seeing Akea, she supposedly lost it. Which said a lot because Haley was described by everyone as very volatile. And she was clearly mad, like really mad about the affair because she had been posting on Facebook all about how Akea was a homewrecker. But then when Akea posted a 3D sonogram of her baby just three weeks before she disappeared and Haley saw that, she kind of.

Oh, no, no. She's like, no, no, for sure. Michael is the father of Akea's baby. And Michael's like, I don't know. We haven't taken a paternity test. And she's like, no, no, no. My Michael is the father of that baby on the sonogram. So Haley was outraged by the whole thing and police wondered if this, if this could, this is also

motive. So Haley comes in for questioning and she does not deny hating Akiah for coming between her and Michael. She says, yeah, my feelings are hurt. But she says she would never do anything to her. And she also says she doesn't have a car. So it's not like she can just get up and drive anywhere. It's kind of difficult.

Haley gets so emotional during this interview that they let her keep to. talking, thinking if she's just emotional and talking, it might lead to something, yeah, but she denies any involvement the entire time. So they subpoena her phone records and see if they find anything. But from what I can tell, everything kind of lines up with what Haley was saying. She has nothing to do with the key is disappearance, which means we're kind of now back to square one. Yeah, it's got to be Michael. Like, it has to be. I mean, we'll see, but I'm at this point, leaning towards Michael. Okay, so year 2017, months pass, and there is no new developments in Akea's case.

So her family starts taking matters into their own hands. They reach out to the press, hoping that they can make Akea's story more public, maybe apply some pressure to local law enforcement to really try and prioritize her case. This is really at the beginning that we see this strategy kind of start being used in social media. But despite reaching out to several different outlets, no one wants to share Akiah's story. Her family even says one outlet told them that her case wasn't, quote, newsworthy enough. So this is when... Yeah. That's pretty messed up.

So this is when they feel that they have to reach out to the Black and Missing Foundation. It is a nonprofit dedicated to bringing more awareness to missing persons of color. So they help the family with spreading the word about Akea. And four months after her disappearance, it kind of starts to catch on. By September of 2017, Akeia's story was finally being told all over Baltimore and then nationally and then dateline. Suddenly people were talking about Akea. Okay, good. And they were demanding answers for her and her family.

Good. Which is why in November of that year, after Dateline having to cover the case, the FBI finally joins the investigation. The Baltimore field office even offered at this point a reward of $25,000 to anyone who had valuable information about Akiah's whereabouts. I'm just really surprised that there's been nothing about her just because it's pretty dang difficult to discard of a. body and nobody see nobody know nobody find out um especially in today's age like it's not something that's just they're also heavy like there's so there's so much to it so like can we just remember in our minds right now she's eight months pregnant yeah i can i don't i hate thinking about it because this is heartbreaking you would think it would be the opposite statistic from what

i shared true yeah because how can you do that you would hope so so around this same time an interesting clue emerged. That fall, a bunch of Akea's family and friends had gathered in front of her apartment to hold a vigil and prayer circle for her and her baby. And as they were cleaning up and getting ready to leave, one of Akea's friends spotted something in the shrubs near her front door at Akees' apartment. Okay. It is Akea's debit card.

It's been sitting there the whole time? Yep. And the strangest part about it is it appeared to look brand new, even though if this happened the day she went missing or the last time she was even known to be at this apartment, it should have been sitting there for months and months like here it just said. How is this sitting here for months and months and no one finds it. And then they do find it this night and it looks brand new. And police also said they had searched every square inch in. and around Akea's apartment initially, and they didn't notice the debit card, which made them think, someone had recently placed this here. Now, I do want to say, this debit card thing doesn't lead to any groundbreaking discoveries,

but it is a weird detail that only solidifies the theory further that foul play was involved. And chances are it was someone Akea knew. So the police circle back to the best evidence they have right now, that is her cell phone data. So based on her cell phone data and at this point in the investigation, police feel confident that something happened to Akea around 522 p.m. on the afternoon of May 3rd, which is very specific.

And they think this because she was mid-conversation on social media and then everything stops. Now, Stefan's alibi at this time clears him as a person of. interest. And they find that at this specific time, Haley was with her mother who was helping take care of her two kids, which leaves them with one more person whose location they can't confirm at this exact time. The father of Akia's unborn child, their very first suspect, Michael Robertson. Yeah. And the more they zone in on Michael at this time, the less things add up. Now, remember, they did have him months ago. I just want to mention. So, As I mentioned, he changed his cell phone number just three days after Akea vanished.

He didn't join in on the search for her, even though she was pregnant with his child. And while he claimed Akea broke up with him days before the baby shower and he hadn't seen her since, everyone who knew Akea said this didn't seem to be the case. In fact, just days before the baby shower, she told some friends about how excited she was to be moving in with Michael. Plus, on the third, she was clearly taking money out of the bank for the deposit on their new place together. And once they get Michael's phone records, it tells a completely different story than the one Michael was offering because it shows that on May 2nd, Michael sent Akea pictures of the inside of an apartment, which means clearly that they were still looking and still talking about moving in the day she van. And then on the third, this is our last day, the last outgoing call from Akea's phone was at 344 p.m. and it was made to Michael Robertson. They also learned that at 4 p.m., 20 minutes later,

shortly after that call, Michael took a lift and it was one that was ordered by Akea's phone and the lift was from his place to her current location at her apartment. Okay. And Michael's cell data showed he was in the area near her apartment from at least 535 to 6.18 p.m. that day. But later, around 6.57 p.m., a telemarketer tried calling Akia's phone, which at the time, both her and Michael's phone were actually in downtown Baltimore. Though right after that call came through, Achaia's phone was either shut off or disabled. Meaning possibly that call triggered whoever had the phone downtown to realize that it was still on. And so they shut it off or disabled it.

And it was never turned back on after that, which made the whole thing even sketchier for the police. But what made this entire thing even sketchier, if possible, was the fact that after that each, Michael had done several Google searches on his home computer. Can you guess what these Google searches? Yes, I can. How to dispose of a body. How to get away with murder. How any of the above.

D, all of the above. How to dispose and hide of a body along with 18 different searches on trash pickup, where the dumpster trash goes, and where landfills are all around Baltimore. It blows my mind that people still search this stuff. So, yeah, because this is like 2017. Oh, the other day when we were talking about the insurance stuff, remember last case? I did search.

What's the average time people call insurance after? Which does like. Which makes me, which would make me look guilty. But also, I'm alive. You're alive. So, you know. So, yeah, this is just, I mean. It's horrible.

Yeah. So at this point, the investigation is at a crossroads. They have plenty of digital data that suggests Michael Robertson did something to Akea Eggleston and her unborn son. But they want to find the body. They don't have any DNA. They don't have a confession. They don't have a body. They do have a theory, though.

They think that on the afternoon of the third, Michael took that lift to Akea's house that maybe he went there to plan to break up with her or tell her he was just going to stay with Haley. Whatever the catalyst was, something sparked a fight between the two of them. According to police. Police think it got physical. Michael ended up killing Akia, whether intentional or by accident, and then wrapped her in a blanket that was missing from her bed. Then they think he placed her in the dresser that was in her room. Oh my gosh. Because remember that was also missing and moved her out of the apartment in it, which would explain the many holes in the wall both Stefan and the family saw. He then placed the dresser, or just Akea in a nearby dumpster, likely one that was only 30 feet from Akea's apartment. But let me tell you the most frustrating part of this. It takes years for the Baltimore police and the FBI to move on this theory. And I have no idea why. I know that a case without a body is always hard to prosecute.

And oftentimes prosecutors will wait in hopes of. finding a body. Yeah, because I think the biggest thing nowadays is, you know, double jeopardy because if they're just hopeful and they think that more information will come out, but once you prosecute and if the jury decides not guilty, I mean, you're done. Right. The case is over with. So I get, I guess I get both sides because I feel like this happens in a lot of cases we cover where all of a sudden it's like they wait 10 years to. Yeah, I mean, you have your suspect you have all kinds of evidence pointing to them just no body or DNA and they're just like oh what do we do i mean that's josh pal and susan powell yeah yep i will say it's not until

february of 2002 that they finally bring michael robertson back in for questioning hoping to just get a confession out of him at this point by 2022 michael has ironed things out with haley they've both moved to michigan they have had two more children together but they still kind of confront him with the evidence they have. They say, hey, we know that you saw Akea two days after you told us you last saw her. And they have the lift driver who they've talked to and confirm that he did bring Michael over to Akea's house that night. So you lied. And it's during this interrogation that Michael says, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did lie. We did see each other the night she went missing. And we did get in a fight. He says Akea had gotten out of the shower and caught him texting

Haley. And that's when Akea told Michael that he had to choose. It was either Haley or her. And when he told her Haley, Akiah told him it was over between the two of them. He said that's when the fight got even more heated. He claims nothing physical happened. He keeps saying this over and over. Nothing happened.

So any hope of getting a confession out of Michael at this point to the murder seems to be lost. And I'm surprised he still goes in for questioning at this point. Right. But now that they had him admitting that he had seen her that night and, is probably the last person to have seen her and that the last person that saw her also had a huge blowout fight with her, they actually finally feel that that might be enough

to sway a jury because it's from his own mouth. Yeah. So they place the now 41-year-old Michael Robertson under arrest. Michael was finally charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Okay. Now, there were several searches for Akea and her unborn sun over the years, including in a landfill in northern Virginia, where police believed the contents of the dumpster, they believe, was used, ended up. But the bodies were never found.

This is something prosecutors know will make their case harder in court because there's no fingerprints, no DNA, no eyewitnesses, which meant the only real evidence they had was digital phone records, Google searches, and one admission that Michael fought with her in the last moments Akea was heard from. I feel like I don't do this very often, but I don't think they have a good enough case. Really? I really like, yeah, because even the digital evidence is like, well, you lied about not seeing her. Like there's nothing that's like, you threatened her over tech.

Like, you know, there's no security cameras of him dragging anything weird. I mean, literally, it's as easy as his defense saying he left and someone came in and killed her. Yeah, like they could just say he lied. Like he was scared or... Why would you admit to seeing her? He was obviously already cheating on both parties. Like, he's just a liar. But it doesn't mean he's a murderer.

I'm not saying he's innocent because I think he's guilty. And I guess we'll find out at the end of this case. But just considering a lot of the cases we cover, it surprises me. It also first surprises me if a jury says yes. And second, surprises me that they took at the court because there's not much. But I also wanted to get caught. You know what I'm saying? I'm just thinking out.

here. So there's actually, it's interesting, one of the most compelling pieces for the jurors according to them was the way that Akea and Michael's phone both left the apartment together and moved downtown that night and then was turned off downtown. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's pretty incriminating. Because that definitely would make it so he can't say, well, I just left and someone else killed her because their phones were together after he left the apartment. You know what I mean? This is the one piece of evidence that Michael also doesn't give an excuse for. He doesn't try to like come up with a reason why this would happen at court. And so after three and a half weeks of testimony and two days of deliberations, the jury was back with a verdict and Michael Robertson

was guilty of two counts of first degree murder. He was given two consecutive life sentences for his crimes. Now, unfortunately, this doesn't bring Akea's family any sense of relief, really, because Akea and Anubis's bodies are still out there. They weren't given a proper burial, and their family wasn't able to say goodbye. And putting Michael Robertson behind bars wasn't going to change that. Since then, Akea's family has been fighting to make something of this tragedy. They have been pushing for a measure they created, called the Akea alert. Basically an amber alert for missing pregnant women. Now, that's smart. Akea's aunt, Sinobia Wilson, has been spearheading this effort. And while

she's been brushed off by many lawmakers, she is not giving up. She said in an interview, quote, I am asking for safety for a vulnerable population, which should not be a problem. And it's just not being taken serious at all. I guess it doesn't matter. Maybe I'm the wrong color, but I'm not going to stop until it actually goes into law. So for Akea's family, her case is no longer about justice. It's about making sure that no other woman disappears without a trace and no other family is left to fight it alone. And that is the case of Akea Egleston. It's heartbreaking. I was thinking about it.

The fact, I mean, all these cases are bad, but I don't know what's, not that one is worse than the other, but I guess, I guess one that sticks with me more than others is like children cases and then pregnant women. I guess wild. I think considering that the statistics factually back up that pregnant women are in danger. It shocks me even more that. that their suggestion to make a specific alert for pregnant women because it's obviously

even more dangerous hasn't been passed because it does make sense that there would be protocols of like a pregnant woman is missing immediately need to like be allowed into houses like just certain things you know what I mean yeah it really shocks me you would think that pregnant woman like you said would be on the other end of the statistic yeah you would but here we are but you know what? There are just people out there still killing, still killing the elderly, pregnant women, children. Honestly, it's disgusting. All right, you guys, that is our case and we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.