CASE OF: AKIA EGGLESTON: PREGNANT AND MISSING, ENDANGERED, FOUL PLAY? FINAL THOUGHTS.
Hi, guys I’m back, and unfortunately, this is my last blog. Today, I want to cover the case of Akia Eggleston. Akia, who was 22 at the time of her disappearance, and 8 months pregnant, and has still yet to be found. At the time of her disappearance, Eggleston lived in Cherry Hill, Baltimore and was already a mother to a 2-year-old little girl. The last time Akia was seen was on May 3rd, 2017, and reported missing when she did not show up to her baby shower on May 7th. Friends and family knew Akia had been planning this shower for months, she wouldn’t miss it for the world. One thing I would like to note was that Akia was put on bed rest for her pregnancy, all those close to her knew she couldn’t move around well or participate in anything too physically asserting. Initially when she was reported missing, police searched her apartment and it seemed as if she had moved out, but those around her knew this wasn’t possible given her current health condition. Akia’s friends and family not only knew this was physically impossible, but knew she wouldn’t just leave her 2-year-old daughter abandoned. The father of Akia’s unborn child never showed up to the baby shower, placing him under suspicion of the family, yet he was never labeled as a person of interested or investigated to this day. The exact date of Akia’s disappearance is unknown, but it is believed to be May 3rd, 2017. The suspicious circumstances can’t help but have me wonder if Akia was yet another young black individual labeled as a “runaway”, or “leaving on her own” by police and her community, but we may never know, despite us knowing her physical condition. I hope and pray this wasn’t a label this missing young woman was given. What I do know is that in the first few months of Akia missing, there was only 3 articles about her disappearance, and nonewere national news articles, making it difficult to expand the search for the young mother.
Within a year of Akia’s disappearance, she had only been mentioned in national new articles twice, and one of those articles being grouped together with others. It is sad to know that if this was a young, missing, pregnant white woman, it would be worldwide news. There is little to no information out there about her disappearance, which is also true to her family. In fact, on July 31st, 2019, Akia’s family was invited onto “The View” to talk about Akia’s case. This appearance has Akia’s step father on the record stating, “Yes, we have spoken, and yes, we have met. But when the time that you speak with the individual in such a matter as this is... maybe once, every three, four, five months, you call them to speak to them and you have no response, and you have to go to the level of contacting your congressman, who contacts the mayor, who contacts the assistant, who contacts the chief of police, who then contacts the head of the FBI from the Baltimore division- it’s a crazy process” (Shawn Wilkinson, The View). This is the sad reality of black families and their missing loved ones, hard to read about this knowing Akia’s stepfather has to go to these lengths to simply get a reply or information about his still missing daughter, and grandchild. It is stated while on the show by cohost Sunny Hostin that their (police department’s) “level of communication is not to the expectations of the family” (The View). Akia’s stepfather goes on the record saying, “her story never got outside Baltimore” in 2019, previous to his interview on “The View”. This is the reality that I have seen across a few of my cases, that in this nature the police departments give the bare minimum communication, not the effective communication that these families and friends deserve. And, the obvious commonality across all of my cases, there has been very little news coverage, and we know if the roles were reversed in terms of race, the picture would be very different. We can however, see hope at the end, because coverage on Akia’s case gained more media traction after her stepfather’s appearance on “The View”. I hope to be able to have this post shared so that Akia and her child may have a voice, the potential to be found. This coming May will be 3 years since Akia Eggleston’s disappearance, and I hope that there is active effort being taken. I will attach images and demographics for Eggleston below.
Throughout the course of this semester I’ve had the opportunity to write about missing persons of all ages, specifically African American women and children. I’ve covered cases that depict unequal media coverage, police mishandling, unsolved mysteries, and exactly how African American individuals are mislabeled and openly disrespected whether that be by their community, or local and state law enforcement. It has been extremely eye opening, while also extremely saddening to tell these stories of individuals who seemed to never have a chance of being found. While I was happy to try to bring unheard voices into the light, it has been emotionally difficult to research and write about these cases when I know why it is the way that it is in our country.
I want to talk about how over the course of the semester, it has not only been emotionally difficult to research, but logically as well. It has been extremely difficult to find news stories, coverage and content on these cases, and not only these cases, but missing African American cases in general. It is not me thinking that there aren’t many more African Americans missing in this country, it’s the fact that I know there are so many more missing individuals and I couldn’t find news or coverage to be able to write the blogs. I mean, some of these cases have 5 or less stories on them. It has been challenging to find the content to be able to bring voices to these people simply because the information and news is notout there for people to see, it’s not out there for people to be aware. Which brings me to my reason for writing the blogs, to be able to bring voices to those unheard.
I knew going into this blog that minorities were not equally represented and covered within the media, and I obviously knew police bias towards certain groups of people. But, I had no idea the extent of the little media coverage that there was, I mean many of these cases I really had to dig for information. I really, really had to dig to find the proper information to represent these individuals respectfully and accurately. I also learned police bias doesn’t manifest in only violence towards these groups of people, it manifests in the lack of care and empathy for these missing persons, and the blatant labeling of African Americans as “runaways” and “leaving on their own”, in contrast to their white counterparts. I have noticed the lack of communication between police and the grieving families, something that we all know simply does not happen with non-minority families. It’s difficult to watch these cases come and go with no answers, continuously under the same circumstances. I hope I have been part of the solution to be able to bring voices and coverage in the best way I know how, and call out the inequality themes I have seen. Thank you for following my blogs for the semester, and I hope this becomes one little step in a long process of work that needs to be done.
Here are Akia Eggleston’s demographics and pictures:
