They are both young, attractive, African-American women who disappeared around the holidays and whose cars were found abandoned with the engine running.
Otherwise, there is nothing to connect the cases of Buckhead resident Stacey Nicole English, missing since Dec. 26, and 23-year-old Phoenix Coldon of St. Louis County, Mo., who vanished eight days earlier.
"Investigators are looking at every possibility," said Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos, adding that APD detectives have been in contact with St. Louis County police about the two cases.
Investigators here have been talking to a St. Louis man -- Robert Kirk -- who was visiting Atlanta for the holidays and who was the last person believed to have seen English.
"I don't know what's going on," Kirk told the AJC Friday. "All I know is, I've been speaking with [authorities] for a week."
His attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said his client has "nothing to hide."
St. Louis County police have yet to return a call seeking comment.
English, 36, was reported missing by family members two weeks ago.
Kirk told detectives that English began "acting peculiar" the night of Dec. 26, asking him if he was Satan. Kirk said she told him to leave her condo and he did, hailing a cab outside the woman's Lenox Road residence, according to an incident report released last Friday.
The next day, English's Volvo S260 was found in a library parking lot near Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood. A massive police search of that area last Friday turned up no new clues.
Campos said there is no evidence English met with foul play but he acknowledged "suspicious circumstances."
According to the incident report, English's mother, Cindy Jamison, told police her daughter had attempted suicide nearly three years ago and said she was taking an undisclosed medication.
"It's totally not mentally related," Charlie Garnett-Benson, a longtime friend of the missing woman, said of the medication. "We don't know if she may have taken something else that caused bad reaction, but the prescription was for something that has nothing to do with any mental illness."
Garnett-Benson said English's friends and family are still confounded by the circumstances of the case.
"I just don't believe she ran away," she said. "It's totally out of character for her."
Similarly, Golida Coldon, mother of the missing St. Louis woman, told the Huffington Post her daughter is not the type to just run away.
"She is very responsible, very sweet, very athletic and very intelligent," she said. "Phoenix is a regional fencing champion. She plays the piano and plays in the hand bell choir at church. Phoenix is loved. Her name stands for a beautiful, unique person of distinction -- that's Phoenix."
Coldon was last seen by her mother on Dec. 18, and her Chevrolet Blazer was discovered roughly 30 minutes away from the family's St. Louis home with the engine running and the driver's door open.
Meanwhile, English's family has hired private investigator T.J. Ward to conduct a parallel investigation into their daughter's disappearance. Ward told the AJC he hopes to meet with APD detectives this week.
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