Autopsy matches description of missing Buckhead woman

The Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office says the body of a black female found wedged under a tree Monday afternoon is "consistent in age" with missing 36-year-old Stacey English.

But after finishing the autopsy, Fulton County Chief Medical Examiner Randy Hanzlick has more questions than answers. In a statement released yesterday afternoon, Dr. Hanzlick said:

The decedent is an adult  black female, consistent in age with reported missing person Stacey English. We have identified possible sources of dental and fingerprint records from Ms. English but have not yet been able to obtain them for comparison to the decedent.  Thus, we have not identified the decedent as of this time. Further, the autopsy has not disclosed an apparent cause of death. Further studies will need to be performed.

Hanzlick is seeking the medical and dental records of English, to compare with the remains discovered off St. John's Avenue.  No cause of death has been determined and it could be awhile before we know how she died.

The woman’s badly decomposed body was found near the intersection of St. John Ave. and Pryor Rd. SW by metal scavengers at around 3:30pm on Monday. The two men said they were look for rims when they found the body.  Witnesses said the body appeared to have been stuffed underneath the tree.

“I saw some feet sticking out from under like a stump,” one of them said.

“It looks like she was placed there,” offered a woman who lived in the neighborhood.

Atlanta homicide detectives continue to try and unravel the mystery surrounding English's disappearance. She went missing after Christmas, last seen in her Buckhead condominium December 26, 2011.

The body was found by two men who said they were looking for tire rims in a wooded area near the 300 block of St. John Ave. SW, at around 3:30 pm on Monday. But witnesses say they don’t think the victim was killed by the fallen tree.

It was just a few blocks away that the car belonging to English was found shortly after she vanished. The car was found running, but there was no sign of English or any clue as to her fate. Authorities have searched her Buckhead apartment, her neighborhood, her car and a nearby lake with no signs of her.

Even though the body had not been identified, detectives called members of English’s family, who arrived at the scene just after the body had been taken to the medical examiner’s office Monday.

Bernice Hursk, English’s aunt, said she was sad at the discovery, even if it isn’t Stacey’s body.

“If it isn’t her,” Hursk said, “then I still have to be sad because it’s somebody else’s child.”

For English’s family, the wait continues.