Questions abound in search for Atlanta woman last seen around Christmas

CNN Wire Service

Authorities expanded their search Friday for a 36-year-old Atlanta woman who was last heard from around Christmas and whose car was later found abandoned and running, according to police.

No arrests have been made in the case of Stacey Nicole English, and there are no named suspects in her disappearance.

Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos told CNN on Friday that authorities want to speak again with Robert Kirk, a St. Louis resident who earlier told police that he had stayed with English between Dec. 24 and 26 in her residence in the Buckhead section of Atlanta.

According to a police report, Kirk previously told investigators that English was “acting peculiar and out of character” during his stay, adding that “she began screaming in the apartment and shouting biblical scriptures and indicating that the world was coming to an end.” He said that he left around 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 26, after English “began asking him if he was Satan” and told him to leave “her residence immediately.”

A friend of the 36-year-old woman, Michelle Strothers, told police that she last saw English on that day or the next one. In an interview with police on New Year’s Eve, Strothers said that her friend “appeared upset” and told her “she felt as if someone was attempting to hurt her.”

“She also stated that Ms. English was acting out of character, and began discussing the end of the world and quoting biblical scriptures,” said the police report.

On Friday, search-and-rescue dogs joined mounted Atlanta police officers to comb part of south Atlanta, near the Aarons Amphitheatre at Lakewood, which sits in a fairground area, according to a police statement. English’s car — a white, 2006 Volvo — had been earlier found in that area with its engine still running.

“We have no new updates to provide other than” the enhanced search effort, Campos said Friday by email. “Investigators continue to pursue leads and work the case.”

Earlier, English’s mother and stepfather told police that they typically talked with her “several times a week” and became worried after she did not answer their calls since they last talked with her on Christmas. They eventually used a spare key to enter her apartment, where they saw “no sign of English,” the police report said.

In the apartment were English’s iPad, cell phone and key fob allowing her entry to her apartment complex, all of which her parents said the woman always took with her.

The mother, Cynthia Jamison, said that English “was currently taking medication” and had attempted suicide by overdose a little more than two years earlier, according to police.

CNN’s Vivian Kuo contributed to this report.