Missing Persons 01
(4 Missing Person Cases)

4 Missing Person Cases

Note from the author:

This entire project has turned into something entirely different than what I had in mind when I set out to begin it. Just narrowing it down to only four stories was incredibly difficult; however it has turned into something that is an honor to undertake and tell people’s stories that they can't tell for themselves. Every missing person is important, and every case matters.

Teresa Davidson-Murphy’s Story

In 1999 in Rainier Oregon 34 year old Teresa Davidson was living with her second husband, Richard and her 13 year old daughter Jessica. On October 7th she dropped Jessica off at a friend’s house for a three day sleepover with plans to pick her up on Sunday October 10th. On this same day her husband Richard said he was leaving to go for a solo camping trip for a few days. On Saturday the 9th Teresa’s step-brother Chris and her daughter Jessica both received strange phone calls from Teresa. In an interview Chris said that Teresa was alluding to issues with Richard’s behavior and spoke about relationship issues. He also pointed out that she was speaking in hushed tones as if someone were with her and she did not want them to overhear. Jessica also said that she noticed her mother did not sound like herself.

While she was supposed to pick up Jessica the next day on the 10th of October Teresa never showed up. At her home were most of her belongings including her vehicle, with the keys still in the ignition but no sign of Teresa herself. In the 26 years since no signs of the missing mother nor clues to her whereabouts have ever come to light.

In the days leading up to her disappearance Teresa was living in Rainier Oregon with her second husband; a man by the name of Richard Murphy. She had two children from her previous marriage, a son named Justin who lived with his father several hours away and her daughter Jessica. Prior to moving to Rainier Teresa had been living in Puyallup Washington and was reportedly unhappy with the move; saying she missed her old life in Washington and hated being so far from places and people she knew.

Jessica had a very close relationship with her mother and considered her as a best friend. Even Teresa’s own mother said “Jess” and “Terri” were inseparable most of the time. Teresa was also close to her step-brother Chris and had actually lived with him for a time in northern California before moving to Washington state. While in Washington Teresa began to date a man that worked for Boeing and he helped Teresa to improve her life by getting her GED and even a job at Boeing prior to the couple separating. It was after this that Teresa moved to Puyallup. 

On that fateful day in October of 1999 Jessica says her mother dropped her off at Richard’s cousin’s house as Jessica and the cousin’s daughter played volleyball together and were travelling to Washington together for a game. October 7th was the last time she saw her mother, and October 9th the last time she spoke to her. On the 10th when Teresa was supposed to be picking her up she never showed up. Jessica was left with Richard’s cousin for a week before he returned from his camping trip and came to get her.

According to Jessica when she questioned Richard about her mother’s whereabouts all he would say is that her mother had simply left. Richard told Jessica that he had called the hospitals in the area and the police but had not filed a missing person report. Again at the house remained Teresa’s belongings including her truck with the keys in the ignition. Jessica has said that when Richard finally came to get her that something that struck her as odd was his large white work van that was never clean was spotless with nothing more than a rainjacket inside it. Another thing she quickly caught onto was the way Richard was speaking so derogatorily about Teresa, speculating what she was “out doing” or more accurately accusing her.

Not long after getting her from his cousin’s house Richard  told Jessica that she could stay with him but it was going to cost him a lot of money to take care of her, or he said she could contact her biological father and go stay with him. Jessica chose to contact her father then shortly afterwards she joined her father and older brother in Klameth Falls, Oregon. As Jessica was preparing to leave, if she tried to take something that was her mother’s then Richard acted very strange and made her leave it, saying things like “Oh she is going to need that when she comes back.”

Jessica has also told interviewers that Teresa’s truck was initially found down the road from the house but that by the time Richard came to get her the truck was in the driveway. Furthermore she states that the only significant possession of her mother’s that was unaccounted for was her mother’s gun.

Richard’s alibi for the time Teresa disappeared is that he was on a solo camping trip which he left for on the 7th of October the same day Jessica went to the sleepover. The 9th was the last time Jessica spoke to her mother, by phone. However she has her doubts about Richard ever going camping as when she arrived back home she noticed all the camping gear was completely untouched and in the same spot it had been prior to the alleged camping trip. 

One of the biggest mysteries of this case is whether Richard really did go camping or not. Jessica doubts the validity of his alibi. But Teresa had also mentioned this camping trip to her mother before she went missing. Yyvon says that Teresa wanted to join him on this trip, but Richard refused and said he was going alone. Yyvon also points out that it has yet to be proven to any degree of satisfaction that he went on this trip at all. Marissa Jones of The Vanished podcast reached out to Oregon police to ask if they had ever found any evidence that he had indeed gone camping but they declined to comment and also refused a request for Teresa’s case file. 

When further asked about the time frame when Teresa first went missing Yyvon said that she had received a phone call from Richard saying that “Teresa had taken off with her gun.” But that “He wasn’t worried about it as she can take care of herself.” The couple of times she called Richard after that she said she asked to speak to Jessica but Richard wouldn’t let her. Among her other unanswered questions are why were her keys left in the truck? Also while Teresa’s truck was registered in her name somehow after her disappearance Richard sold the truck. She also reiterates the only belongings of Teresa’s that were never accounted for are the clothes she was wearing when she vanished and her pistol.

Jessica feels that Richard absolutely had something to do with her mother’s disappearance or at least has some kind of knowledge about what happened to her. It was only a month or a month and a half that Teresa had been missing when Richard brought his new girlfriend into the picture. And while he and Teresa had only been married a little over a year this definitely comes off as a huge red flag. Allegedly he put all of Teresa’s belongings in a storage unit and never paid the bill on it, and so since then all of her things have been auctioned off, denying her family of even having little pieces of her, or at least things she held dear.

It wasn’t until October 23rd, 1999 that Teresa’s sister-in-law filed the official Missing Persons report. At the time of writing it has been over 25 years since Teresa was last seen alive by anyone and no definitive clues have ever surfaced as to what happened to her, or where she went. The gun too is to this day unaccounted for. If you have any information on the disappearance of Teresa Davidson-Murphy or the missing gun please contact Crime Stoppers of Oregon:

http://www.crimestoppersoforegon.com/sitemenu.aspx?ID=823&

Matthew Hulse’s Story

Matthew Hulse was 44 years old in 2014 and was dealing with alcoholism and found himself homeless for a time. To sustain himself Matthew worked odd jobs, fixed up things he found in the trash and just about anything he could do in order to make a few dollars here and there. Eventually he found two men who took him in as a roommate, though we only know their first names, Pete and Jason though not much else.

It seems the person who has been trying the hardest to find some clue as to what happened to Matt is his long time friend Eric; who met Matt in 2004 in Columbia Missouri while Eric was traveling with two other friends. The pair hit it off immediately as they shared a kind of street smarts the others didn’t possess. At the Rainbow Gathering in California the pair actually ended up splitting off from Eric’s original group and carried on traveling together, becoming best friends quite quickly.

Eventually Matt and Eric returned to Eric’s home town of Madison Wisconsin where Matt lived sporadically for the next ten years. But Matt also drifted around a lot, spending time away from Madison then coming back for a while before leaving again living a transient life. Matt was from Columbia Missouri and often returned to that general area to find work in the form of mostly odd jobs. Eric says Matt’s issues with alcohol affected his ability to hold down a steady job.

Matt’s struggles often put strain on his relationships, driving wedges between him and his family and sometimes even alienating him from his best friend Eric. Several times Matt was able to sober up for awhile but he always fell back into his alcoholism. There were times he ended up living with his elder sister at her home in Kansas until he was finally asked to leave by her after he fell off the wagon. This was followed by a brief period where his sister had no idea where he was and even once he made contact again she says they were never as close as they had been previously.

At the time, the fall of 2014, he had been living with his eldest sister in Columbia, Missouri when he was asked by her boyfriend to leave. Allegedly he and Matt never got along as the boyfriend didn’t think highly of Matt’s sister taking in a homeless alcoholic. For a while afterward it is believed he couch surfed while he was waiting on a chance to get back to Madison and giving it another try there for at least a little while. It’s during this time frame he came to be staying with Pete and Jason.

Eric says that over the years he had heard Matt talk about these two, heard stories about them. He claims he never heard any stories that made them sound violent or crazy, just the normal stories a friend would tell about other friends. Matt’s sister at some point had also become worried about him and allegedly sent for a wellness check at Pete and Jason’s home. Eric says there is a discrepancy in the actual date of Matthew going missing. He says the date found online says 9/16/14, but claims the actual date he filed it was 12/18/14.

Matt’s sister Sue said when she first heard her brother was missing that maybe he had self-deleted. Feeling that given his lifestyle it was certainly a possibility. At one point the detective in charge of the case contacted her and said he wanted to take a cadaver dog to Jason and Pete’s residence just to see if there was something there, but the detective never got back with her with any further news on this. 

After he filed the missing person report Eric said he tried to get in touch with the Columbia Police Department but never had any real help from them. To them he was just another homeless addict so to them he was a very low priority case. Sadly this is not an uncommon theme in so many Missing Person Cases if they are someone with an addiction or history of being homeless. 

That’s not to say to a degree that the authorities have a point. Due to his transient lifestyle and knack for dropping out of contact for sometimes weeks (Matt’s father at one point has told of a time when Matt dropped out of contact for three months) it is really hard to know a lot of what may have been truly going on with Matt at the time he disappeared, or what factors in his life might have even led to him vanishing without a trace so completely that even going on 11 years after he was last seen no trace of Matthew Hulse has ever been found.

It’s truly a case where there is frustratingly little we can say for certain as to just what might have been going on with Matt that could have possibly led to his sudden disappearance. Even Matt’s parents did not seem overly concerned; they weren’t even the people to file the missing person report. Eric was.

Perhaps one of the more suspicious if not outright disturbing things to occur in the wake of Matt’s disappearance was the discovery of several of his possessions at the home he shared with Jason and Pete. Allegedly Matt’s sister or found many of Matt’s belongings on the front porch of the home, including his bicycle. This struck Eric as an odd thing for Matt to have left behind since it was his primary form of transportation. Other things found were his backpack, ID and cell phone and food stamp card; all things Matt would have taken with him had he left voluntarily.

All these things Matt would need were left behind yet he was nowhere to be found. The best answer Jason or Pete would provide was that they had no idea where Matt had gone or why he would have left such important things behind. Eric says that he knows Matt can become combative when he’s drunk, citing that there were times when even he and Matt had some physical confrontations. His theory is that maybe such a confrontation took place between the roommates and perhaps Matt was hurt and the pair panicked. However no one has seen Jason or Pete either. Not long after Matt’s disappearance they suddenly moved out of that house.

There’s really not much more that is known about the pair of men Matt had been living with. Nor do we have any real solid leads or theories on just why Matt might have vanished. And maybe that’s unsatisfying, but the important thing to remember about Matt, and about the untold numbers of people like him, is that despite their flaws, their problems, their addictions they are still people and their stories should be heard. Their stories should be and deserve to be heard.

Matt Hulse’s sister has said that anytime she sees a homeless person sleeping on a bench that she has to stop her car and approach them, get a good look at their face just on the off chance it’s her little brother. Even people with problems have family and loved ones; people who deserve answers. So please if you have any information about Matthew Hulse please contact:

Columbia Police Department 573-874-7652

Jonathan Estes’ Story

35 year old Jonathan Estes and his estranged wife Cindy had a heated altercation on May 31, 2018. The pair had been separated and after the fight Jonathan had returned to the house he had been staying at during this period. In the wake of this Cindy called the police and reported that Jonathan had assaulted and SA’ed her. She also reported that she had struck him with her vehicle. Just days later on June 2, 2018 police went searching for Jonathan to question him about the allegations. He reportedly told two people he was going down to the sheriff’s office to settle the allegations but Jonathan Estes never made it to his destination, and no one has seen or heard from him since.

Jonathan Estes was a hard working guy from Bogue Chitto in Lincoln County Mississippi. Oftentimes he found himself traveling out of state for work so his life was pretty active. He was struggling to get back on his feet after his wife Cindy had told him she wanted a divorce. This probably would have been very devastating for Jonathan as once he became a father his older sister said his entire life revolved around his kids and making sure they got to do the things they wanted, including lots of travel and adventure seeking.

Jonathan met Cindy through a friend at church. Not long after the pair were married their daughter Amy was born followed a couple of years later by their son Bryce. The children were his entire world according to Jonathan’s sister, though there were certainly challenges and strains at home due to having two young children and a career that often had him traveling. Jonathan was particularly close to his son Bryce, who has often been called his “sidekick”. If Jonathan was home then Bryce was with him. The pair hunted and fished together, they did archery as well as riding ATVs. Any activity the duo could share they seemed to do. But Jon didn’t leave Amy out by any means. Amy too often accompanied Jon on hunting trips, she was also involved in archery and Jon even coached her soccer team for a time.

The source of friction between Jon and Cindy really seemed to come down to the fact that Jon worked in construction and was often out of state working on different projects. Several times they had separated and reconciled over the strain his being away often caused on the marriage. According to what Jon told some of his friends he was completely blindsided in April 2018 when on a morning he was to be leaving on a job Cindy woke him up to tell him she wanted a divorce. The night before everything had been fine so Jon never really saw this coming at all.

Despite any lingering hard feelings over the divorce Jon moved forward in his life, renting his own house and focusing on what had always mattered the most: providing for his kids. During this time Jon was also working on a government project in Texas, so he was making some good money through this emotionally rocky time. Jonathan was also making plans for the future. A future that involved him not being gone on the road so much and having a more local job. He was even talking about Bryce coming to live with him. It seemed that despite the dissolution of his marriage to Cindy that Jon was excited to be starting a new chapter in his life free of what had turned into a toxic relationship. 

It was pretty clear to others that Jon was excited to be starting over as a single dad, and that he was making solid plans that involved him being around more often and not out on the road all the time for work. According to his sister Jon certainly wasn’t depressed or shutting down over the separation and divorce. Talking to any of the people closest to Jonathan a pretty clear picture of him emerges very quickly. Even his boss had a very high opinion of Jon due to his unwavering work ethic. Jonathan had worked for him for nearly 15 years, and had worked with him at other places prior to that. 

When asked about what kind of person Jonathan was, his best friend, Kevin, immediately replied with “He was a very hard worker.” That seems to be one of the most common things associated with Jon, his work ethic. The other one is that Jon was a very compassionate person that would help anyone out without the slightest expectation of anything in return. And the consensus is that no one really had anything bad to say about Jon and had never heard anyone else say anything bad, he was a very loving and lovable guy.

Cindy on the other hand is said to have always seemed like she had some kind of chip on her shoulder. Kevin has said that she always seemed like she might have been ill, or otherwise seemed like she was in some kind of hurry to leave. It seemed like if she wasn’t in control that she would try to either start a fight or otherwise orchestrate it so that she could leave. 

On May the 10th Jon and Cindy had an altercation that started as an argument over who was going to get certain objects around the house. A video exists of part of this argument which Jon began to record after the police had already been called. I’ve heard part of the audio and Jonathan is completely calm from what I have heard. It’s unclear exactly why he started recording, if he was just trying to perhaps document her behavior because she had tried to make false accusations in the past or if maybe he was in fear and using the recording to protect himself if she tried to become violent. In the recording Cindy can be heard in the background in the kitchen. Jonathan states he is waiting for police to arrive and Cindy can be heard telling him to stay standing right in the door where he is until they arrive. As the recording continues as Jon reiterates for the recording what the entire argument was about Cindy can be heard banging around the kitchen as she clearly becomes more angry. At some point the children come in and Jon has an emotional interaction with them. 

After the children leave Cindy brings the conversation straight back to the original argument. While Jonathan remains completely calm Cindy’s tone becomes… vindictive and almost sinister as she declares “It’s on now. I will use everything I have to make sure you never see those kids again.” Just as a side note here I have to say it was one of those tones that kind of made my blood run cold to hear. Whether what she was saying was a physical threat or metaphorical from the divorce stand point the tone itself was very much a threat, and that’s where I’ll leave that.

It’s pretty clear that the pair had quite a tumultuous relationship. It is also apparently known that neither of them had been completely faithful during the marriage and Jon confronts Cindy saying that he knows what she has been getting up to. He confronts her with some pretty scandalous allegations of his own. Cindy denies these of course while Jon tells her he has proof on his phone. There is some back and forth between the pair about the proof and Cindy questioning the authenticity claiming Jon could have manufactured it. 

Now I am unsure of what allegations Cindy might have made when she called the police this particular time, but this was three weeks before their final known altercation on May 31st. I will also say that it’s a fairly safe bet that the accusations she made on the 31st were probably exaggerated if not outright fictitious. Cindy definitely had a vindictive streak to her and she seemed to know the best way she could hurt him would be to do something that meant he would be unable to see his children. Something she certainly made her intent to do clear, so it’s not a stretch to see her using the law to try and justify not letting him have time with his kids.

It’s been 7 years now since anyone has seen or heard from Jonathan Estes, and it really feels like we’re no closer to having satisfactory answers than we were on that day in 2018 when Jon left to go to the sheriff’s department and never arrived. If you have any information about Jonathan Estes please contact:

 Lincoln County Sherrif's Department

Address

215 Justice Street

Post Office Box 587

Brookhaven, Mississippi 39602

Lincoln County

Main Phone

(601) 833-5231

Akia Eggleston’s Story

When I first began writing this, I truly had no idea just how heartbreaking this particular case was going to be. In this story there are long stretches of nothing happening, no new information, no developments, until suddenly there is. Akia Egglestone of Baltimore Maryland was 22, mother of a two year old daughter with a second baby on the way. There were plans in place for her to move in with her boyfriend and the father of her second child, Michael Robertson. The couple had been saving up to make a down payment on a new place together. However, that would sadly never come to pass.

The last time Akia Eggleston was seen was on May 3, 2018 when she was seen on a security camera withdrawing money from her bank account at the ATM in Baltimore Maryland. 22 years old and 8 months pregnant Akia was in no condition to travel far from her bed, much less her home as her pregnancy had been determined to be high risk by her doctor. Akia also had a 2 year old daughter, and was looking forward to her baby shower where she was planning on revealing the gender of her impending baby; as she had just learned she was expecting a baby boy.

What happened to Akia? Why was she suddenly withdrawing money she had been working so hard to save? Are her and her baby okay? All these questions were left to haunt Akia’s family in the days to come in the wake of her tragic disappearance.

No one could ever say Akia’s life had been easy. When she was only 18 her mother passed away. Her biological father was already deceased and had never played an active role in her life. So her support network came down to her grandparents, siblings, her stepfather and his new wife. Despite the hardships that she faced Akia was a resilient young woman who desired to succeed in life. 

At the time she went missing she had a 2 year old daughter and was expecting a boy. Akia had been excitedly planning to have her baby shower on the 7th of May when she planned to announce the gender of her unborn baby. Although the expecting mother had been placed on bed rest due to her pregnancy being high risk nothing could stifle her excitement at becoming a mother a second time.

Sadly she never got to share that moment with her family, nor to celebrate with her friends this wonderful news; because Akia never showed up for her own baby shower. This immediate red flag set her family in motion to begin searching for the 8 month pregnant Akia.

One of the most terrifying aspects of this story was that no one really had any info on the whereabouts of Akia past the security camera footage of her at the ATM withdrawing hundreds of dollars she had been working so hard to save. So the assumed date of her disappearance is May 3rd; that’s when all her social media posts stopped and was the last time she was seen by family or friends. However the Baltimore PD was reluctant to get involved seemingly until June. 

After Akia’s due date came and went and there were no records of her having given birth it was the FBI that stepped in, offering a reward for any information leading to the discovery of Akia or her baby.

According to Akia’s family the Baltimore PD had to be prompted, even outright antagonized in order for them to really do anything, and when the FBI finally stepped in was when they finally truly felt someone was trying to find their loved one.

At the time of her disappearance, due to ultrasounds showing that her baby was breech, possibly due to Akia’s petite stature, the expecting mother had been on bed rest and had been restricted on the things she could do. Unable to drive, and without a vehicle if she could have; it was one of Akia’s friends that had taken her to the ATM then returned her home.

Immediately Robertson was questioned about Akia’s whereabouts. As she had been preparing to move in with him in the days leading up to her disappearance many thought maybe that she had just suddenly done so. But he claimed to have not had contact with her.

No one had seen any signs of her moving things from her apartment, but also when approached for any surveillance footage the complex manager said that the cameras were of course broken; thus no footage of Akia’s building from the time of her disappearance exists. The friend who had given her the ride to the bank later passed away after a battle with chronic illness, leaving so many questions unanswered.

When her family tried to bag some items and turn them into the police as potential evidence they declined accepting the items due to an issue with “the chain of custody” meaning possibly valuable insight and information was completely discounted and never even properly examined. At one point even after Akia had gone missing her friends found out that squatters had taken up residence inside her townhome. This kind of begs the question of how hard had the police even tried to keep it as a secure crime scene in the days after Akia had been reported as missing? 

A truly baffling aspect of the case, exacerbated by the broken security cameras, is the furniture, clothing and other belongings that were removed from Akia’s home in the days after her disappearance. No witness reports have ever emerged saying anyone was seen removing things from the dwelling, none of the Akia’s missing effects have ever turned up in any pawn shops, flea markets or second hand stores. Where did Akia’s things go? How had no one seen them being removed from what should have been treated as a crime scene? It’s certainly not like she was able to move it herself when she could barely walk due to her condition.

When she disappeared Akia did have her wallet, identification and her phone with her. Her family repeatedly asked police if they had been able to ping and locate her phone but the only answer they ever got was that the phone was not found. Akia’s stepfather and his wife attempted to get copies of her phone records from Akia’s wireless carrier, but were denied on the grounds that they did not have Akia’s password. More potential leads to never be looked into.

All of these tragic mishandlings of the case would ultimately come back to haunt authorities and Akia’s family in 2023 when after 5 years the father of Akia’s unborn child, Michael Robertson, was arrested and found guilty on two counts of murder. Although it was late in coming, Akia’s family finally had their closure and had their answers.

After Akia went missing Robertson had left Baltimore and moved to the state of Michigan, where US Marshals found and arrested him in February of 2022. Without Akia or the baby’s remains the case built against Robertson was largely circumstantial, but the prosecution was able to use what they had to build a strong enough of a case against him that Robertson was convicted on two counts of murder in the first degree and is now serving the rest of his days in a prison.

It turns out that Robertson had been carrying out an affair with another 22 year old woman the entire time he had “been with” Akia. And while the arrest and guilty verdict are of some solace to her family, Akia’s family still feel the pain of not being able to lay her and her baby boy, Anubis, to rest properly. Pain that will likely never be resolved.