Akia Eggleston’s friends and family looked forward to celebrating her pregnancy at a baby shower, but the mother-to-be never showed up. Eggleston unexpectedly disappeared in May 2017 before the planned celebration, sparking a years-long search for justice, as shown in a new Dateline program premiering Friday, September 13 at 10/9 p.m. on NBC.
“The arrival of a new baby can offer promise, possibility, and happiness,” Dateline journalist Josh Mankiewicz stated in an episode preview. “Akia Eggleston was ready to start the party. The tables were prepared, the balloons were filled, and the guests started to come. “There was only one thing missing.”
Akia Eggleston’s loved ones recognize something is awry:
Those who knew Eggleston, who was eight months pregnant at the time of her disappearance, stated in the episode “The Day Akia Disappeared” that she was looking forward to the baby’s arrival. “She couldn’t wait for the baby shower,” Stephen Foster, named by Baltimore TV station WBFF as Eggleston’s close friend, told Dateline. “She was ecstatic.”
It didn’t make sense that the guest of honor didn’t show up for the shower. “I started getting phone calls,” Foster explained. “‘Where is Akia? “Where is Akia?” Eggleston’s face was quickly plastered on missing people posters, and she appeared on local newscasts as her family launched a “desperate search” for the 22-year-old.
“She was eight months pregnant, so disappearing on her own was highly unlikely,” Baltimore Police Department Detective Jill Beauregard told Dateline. The episode’s summary reads: “As detectives struggle to unravel the chilling mystery, they wonder: is it a missing persons case, or something far more sinister?”
Investigators rapidly began piecing together a timeline of Eggleston’s final moments before her disappearance and, according to Dateline, discovered facts of the case that “Akia’s family knew nothing about.” Mankiewicz told NBC Insider that the case reminds of the value of transparency with those you care about. “Don’t be afraid to tell your family what’s going on in your life,” he told the audience. “That proved critical in this story.” Foster stated that at the time, he simply had “hope that if she’s out there still, she’s just waiting for somebody to come save her.”
According to Mankiewicz, the most unexpected aspect of the case was how long it took for the inquiry to conclude. “It’s always surprising when justice takes this long to arrive,” he joked. “Akia Eggleston disappeared in 2017.” We eventually received an answer in 2023.” In addition to Beauregard and the co-founders of the Black and Missing Foundation, the episode included interviews with Detective Terry McLarney and FBI Agents Summer Baugh and Patrick Dugan.
