A body, wedged beneath a fallen tree, was discovered in an ?advanced state of decomposition? by two men Monday afternoon (January 23, 2012).
Sadly, authorities have suggested that it may be that of of a missing Atlanta woman.
Stacey Nicole English, the 36-year-old Buckhead woman who was reported missing by family members on Dec. 31. has not been seen since the day after Christmas.
English’s Volvo S260 was discovered, with the engine running, on Dec. 27 in a library parking lot, which is less than a mile away from the discovery of the unidentified body.
[READ: Family of Stacey Nicole English Asks Public For Help…]
Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos said authorities received a 911 call about the body shortly before 3 p.m.
Details below…
According to the WXIA-TV, the unidentified female body was found in a heavily wooded area of St. Johns Avenue, just off of Pryor Road near the Aaron?s Amphitheater at Lakewood.The body was ?in an advanced state of decomposition,? Campos said. ?We have not identified the body or the cause of death.? It appeared as the tree had fallen on the woman, Campos said, though he wasn’t certain.
“Because that tree has been down for some months,” Blackmon said.
“If you look at the base of the tree, the roots, you could tell it’s been uprooted for a while.”
English’s family has been notified of the discovery, and are still hopeful that their daughter is found alive.
?If this is not her, I have to still be sad because it?s someone else?s child,” said Bernice English Hurks, who identified herself as English’s aunt. She spoke with police and then talked to reporters not far from where the woman’s body was discovered.
She would not speculate on the identity of the body.
?I can?t base my emotions on what I think,” English Hurks said. The hardest thing now, she said, ?is not knowing.?
English?s stepfather, Keith Jamison, declined comment.
The body was transported to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, where a spokeswoman said Monday night that an autopsy would be conducted first thing Tuesday morning. They have asked Stacey English’s family for her dental records.
[READ: Could St. Louis Man Be Link Between Two Missing African-American Women? PHOTOS]
According to Kirk, Ms. English had been ?acting peculiar? on the night of December 26, and allegedly asked him if he were ?Satan,”. Kirk claims in an incident report that he checked into a hotel after she asked him to leave her apartment.
At the time that she was reported missing, Jamison said that his daughter and Kirk had been arguing; he also was extremely adament that she would not just vanish.
Kirk has been called a “person of interest,” however, there is no evidence linking him to English?s disappearance.
Until the identity of the deceased woman can be confirmed, the search for Stacey Nicole English continues and her family is in my prayers.
** Update**? The family awaits the autopsy reports, which WXIA says should be complete between 9am-12pm today (Jan. 24, 2012).
**Update #2 1:45pm? 1/24/12 -? Fulton County’s chief medical examiner said Tuesday his office is trying to track down fingerprints and dental records of Stacey Nicole English to compare them with those of a dead woman found Monday in southeast Atlanta.
“The decedent is an adult black female, consistent in age with reported missing person Stacey English,” said chief medical examiner Randy Hanzlick, though it still remains unclear whether the body is that of the missing Buckhead woman.