Autopsy results for Stacey Nicole English, the Atlanta woman who disappeared December 26th and was subsequently found dead almost a month later, have finally been released.
[READ: Body Found Identified as Stacey Nicole English + Robert Kirk Wants “Fresh Start”]
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office has announced that English, 36, who was missing almost a month before her body was discovered in a wooded area near Lakewood Fairgrounds, most likely died from hypothermia, and her death has been ruled “accidental”.
Details…
According to the AJC,? the medical examiner’s office revealed that was no evidence of bodily harm, and toxicology tests showed no evidence of a drug overdose.
The Medical Examiner’s Office released the following statement yesterday (February 14, 2012):
“Based on a combination of information sources including the autopsy, the sequence of events and circumstances, toxicology results, medical and mental health records, and statements of witnesses and acquaintances, the most likely cause of Stacey English?s death is cold exposure complicating underlying neurological and psychiatric disorders,” the statement reads.
“Because cold exposure is an external, environmental condition, the manner of death has been classified as accident.
Atlanta police also issued a statement, saying that they now consider the case closed “as a result of the findings of the Fulton County Medical Examiner?s Office and the investigation conducted by the Atlanta Police Homicide Unit.”
To refresh your memory, English was a SunTrust Bank employee who resided in Buckhead.? Her Volvo had been discovered abandoned, with the engine running, on Dec. 27 less than a mile away from where she was subsequently found a little less than a month later on January 23rd..
Robert Kirk, a male friend who was visiting from St. Louis, was the last person known to have seen English alive.
Kirk immediately became a “person of interest” in the case and it was reported that English asked him to leave her home after they’d gotten into some sort of argument.? There was also another missing woman in Kirk’s hometown whose case was eerily similar to English’s.
[READ: Could St. Louis Man Be Connection Between Two Missing African-American Females?]
When interviewed, Kirk told detectives English began ?acting peculiar? the night of Dec. 26, asking him if he was Satan. Another friend of English’s shared a similar account with police.
[Click HERE to View FULL Police Report (.pdf file)]
English’s badly decomposed body was found, nestled in a hole created by an uprooted tree, on Jan. 23 by two men searching for scrap metal.
While there are reports that English had tried to kill herself 3 years ago, family members have always maintained that they did not believe she would intentionally harm herself.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that there had to be some foul play,” Jamison said in a Jan. 26 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
English’s mother and stepfather Kevin Jamison have yet to make a comment on the findings and truthfully, it still sounds a bit bizarre.
Hypothermia?? (yeah… I had to look it up)
A condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as 35.0 ?C (95.0 ?F). Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of 36.5?37.5 ?C (98?100 ?F) through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation.
If exposed to cold and the internal mechanisms are unable to replenish the heat that is being lost, a drop in core temperature occurs. As body temperature decreases, characteristic symptoms occur such as shivering and mental confusion.
This is Atlanta…the city where it was near 60 degrees on Christmas. How the hell did someone die of hypothermia? Maybe it’s just me, but something just doesn’t seem right…