Police have found the missing SUV belonging to a man fatally stabbed in Piedmont Park early Thursday morning, but still haven't determined a motive.
Patrick Boland, 43, was stabbed in the chest near the park's lake, Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows said.
Police said early Friday that they Boland's white Toyota Sequoia was missing from his home, and thought locating it might lead to suspects.
The vehicle was recovered Friday night, police spokesman Eric Schwartz said Saturday just after Midnight.
While the murder was originally attributed to a robbery, investigators are now looking into the possibility that the victim was killed while cruising for sex.
The lake is a "widely known cruising area," according to Atlanta Police spokesman Otis Redmond.
No suspects have been named, and police haven't linked the stabbing to another that occurred 15 minutes later at Juniper and 6th streets, a few blocks south of Piedmont Park.
"We haven't ruled out that they could have been the victims of the same person," Meadows said. That man was hospitalized with wounds not believed to be life-threatening.
According to an e-mail sent by an Atlanta police major to a Midtown community activist, homicide detectives interviewed a a person found with "blood stains and injuries [Thursday] morning in Midtown."
"This morning's homicide, at Piedmont Park, is 'likely' to be 'male-hustling' related," Maj. Khirus Williams wrote in the e-mail, obtained by Southern Voice. Police say they will be stepped up patrols within the park, which is closed after 11 p.m.
Park visitors said they were disturbed by news of the stabbing.
"I wouldn't walk through here at dark by myself," said longtime Midtown resident Ken Bieber, who was sitting lake side with a friend Thursday evening.
Andrew Manley, who also lives close to the park, said he rarely sees cops in the area, though the park is patrolled by security officers.
"To our knowledge, in the last 20 years the [Piedmont Park] Conservancy has operated, no one has ever been murdered inside the park," Conservancy president and CEO Yvette Bowden said in a statement.
Although Atlanta police records indicate a decrease in crime in the city, Midtown residents have mixed feelings.
"We're feeling very comfortable with public safety issues in Midtown," said Midtown Alliance CEO Susan Mendheim.
She credited partnerships with police and private security firm Midtown Blue.
But Randall Cobb, chair of the Midtown Neighbors Association's safety committee, challenged the city's assertion that crime is down.
"Crime has not gone down in the city, no matter what the city says they're doing," noting a spike in Midtown break-ins and armed robberies since 2007.
"It's organized crime," he said. "These are not crackheads looking for a quick turnaround. These guys are moving into a neighborhood and hitting it with everything they have."
— Reporters Mike Morris and Katie Leslie contributed to this story.
