Dive team ends search for missing Buckhead woman
Dive teams concluded their search of Lakewood Fairgrounds Lake on Tuesday with no sign of a Buckhead woman missing since the holidays.
Stacey Nicole English's Volvo was found, with the engine running, roughly one mile away from the 15-acre lake on Dec. 27, the same day family members reported her missing.
Authorities on Tuesday had moved their search from the shores of the lake to its murky bottom, with up to 20 Georgia State Patrol divers joining the hunt.
Meanwhile, Atlanta police said they have conducted follow-up interviews with a St. Louis man they had initially termed as a "person of interest" in the investigation into English's disappearance.
Robert Kirk, who was visiting English during the holidays, told detectives his friend began "acting peculiar" the night of Dec. 26, asking him if he was Satan. She asked Kirk to leave and he did, hailing a cab outside the Lenox Road condo, according to the incident report.
"At this time, there is no evidence linking Mr. Kirk to the disappearance of Ms. English or reason to believe he was involved in any foul play related to her disappearance," APD spokesman Carlos Campos said Tuesday.
English, 36, remains classified as a missing person, though police have noted "suspicious circumstances" in her case.
"There's still a lot of unknowns," said Paul Guerrucci, Atlanta police's adult missing persons commander. "We're exploring every possibility."
Private investigator TJ Ward has been hired by English's parents to assist in the investigation.
-- Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.
About the Author
A native Atlantan, Boone joined the AJC staff in 2007. He quickly carved out a niche covering crime stories, assuming the public safety beat in 2014. He's covered some of the biggest trials this decade, from Hemy Neuman to Ross Harris to Chip Olsen, the latter of which was featured on Season 7 of the AJC's award-winning "Breakdown" podcast.
