Federal agents have joined the investigation into Debbie Collier’s death. The body of the 59-year-old missing Athens woman was found partially naked and burned in the woods of northern Habersham County on September 11. Since then, the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office has overseen the investigation. Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering its resources to help.
Atlanta FBI Bureau spokesperson Tony Thomas confirmed the FBI’s involvement to Now Habersham, stating, “The FBI is assisting our law enforcement partners.” He would not comment further and deferred all other questions to the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office.
Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell says the FBI joined the investigation on Thursday.
“They reached out to us and asked if they could assist and we [said] ‘Yes, absolutely,'” says Terrell. “They were filled in on everything that we have so far, and that was just yesterday.”
Asked what potential federal crime in the Collier case the FBI is looking into, Sheriff Terrell says the federal agency is “just another set of eyes looking at it.”
Outside assistance
In an unusual move, the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office chose not to turn over the Collier death investigation to the GBI at the outset. The local agency, instead, opted to work it in-house. Although the FBI is now involved, Terrell says his office’s criminal investigations division is still overseeing the probe. He says the GBI and Athens-Clarke County Police Department have been assisting with the investigation since the beginning. “We are not alone in trying to solve it,” Terrell says.
The GBI Crime Lab is analyzing evidence in the case and the state medical examiner’s office conducted the autopsy. Officials have not revealed the exact cause of Collier’s death, but have said they believe she was murdered.
Chief Deputy Murray Kogod called Collier’s death “deliberate and personal.”
On the day Collier disappeared, her daughter received a cryptic message from her mother’s cell phone along with a $2385 Venmo payment. The message read, “They are not going to let me go love you there is a key to the house in the blue flowerpot by the door.”
While the message indicated a possible kidnapping, Habersham County investigators dismissed that, saying there is no evidence Collier was abducted. They also say there is no evidence that she killed herself.
Interest and intrigue
The case has raised a lot of questions and gained international attention, but so far, authorities have not had a lot of answers as to what happened. They have been able to narrow the time of Collier’s death to a 22-hour window – from 3:19 p.m. on Saturday, September 10, when she was last known to be alive, to 12:44 p.m. on Sunday, September 11, when she was found dead. They narrowed the timeframe using school speed zone photos and store surveillance footage showing Collier in Habersham and Rabun counties.
At 2:17 p.m. on September 10, a Tallulah Falls School speed zone camera captured a photo of Collier’s rented black Chrysler Pacifica van driving northbound on US 441/GA 15 toward Clayton, Georgia. Thirty-eight minutes later, surveillance footage shows Collier entering the Family Dollar Store in Clayton. She shopped for 14 minutes and did not appear worried or upset. Collier bought a red reusable tote bag, a 2-roll pack of paper towels, a blue tarp, rain poncho, and a reusable lighter.
Collier left the Family Dollar at 3:09 p.m. on September 10. She sat in her van in the parking lot for 10 minutes before driving southbound on US 441/GA 15.
During the time Collier was in the parking lot, at 3:17 p.m., her daughter, Amanda Bearden, received a $2,385 payment over the Venmo app and a cryptic message. The message read, “They are not going to let me go love you there is a key to the house in the blue flowerpot by the door.”
Bearden told Athens-Clarke County police the message “scared her” and that it was “unusual” for her mother to leave without telling anyone. She and her stepfather, Steve Collier, alerted police and filed a missing person report at 6:01 on the evening of September 10.
Investigators traced Collier to the Family Dollar Store through evidence found at the crime scene. They say the items she bought were found near her body, about two-tenths of a mile into the woods off US Highway 441/GA 15 just south of Victory Home Lane in Tallulah Falls. Three weeks after her death, there were still pieces of charred paper towels and burned remnants of the blue tarp at the scene. There also were what appeared to be burned remnants of the red UGA football jersey Collier was wearing the last time she was seen alive.
Investigators say they found Collier’s cell phone at the scene. Sources close to the investigation tell Now Habersham the phone was damaged and inoperable. Investigators filed subpoenas to obtain Collier’s phone records.
While the school zone cameras captured Collier’s van heading north into Clayton, as of last week, investigators had still not located footage of her return south, adding even more intrigue to an already mysterious case.
Volatile relationship
Much of the media attention surrounding Collier’s death has been focused on that cryptic and chilling message that was sent to her daughter.
Bearden and her stepfather were both at the scene the day Debbie Collier’s body was found. Athens-Clarke police notified them of the location when SiriusXM Radio tracked Collier’s rented van to the area near where her body was found. At the scene, Steve Collier was calm and collected. Bearden grew irate when she learned the media was there. She tried to get authorities to remove Now Habersham from the scene, hurling repeated obscenities.
Since that angry encounter, numerous news outlets have focused on Bearden’s alleged drug use and her boyfriend’s alleged beatings. Andrew Tyler Giegerich, a former MMA fighter, has had at least six cases filed against him in Athens-Clarke County State Court since June 2020. He’s been arrested for misdemeanor drug, traffic, and probation violations, as well as misdemeanor battery against Bearden, court records show.
In response to open records requests, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department has released video and photos from investigations involving the couple.
On May 12, 2021, police took photos showing Bearden with a bruised shoulder and arms and damage to the walls and mirrors inside the residence police say she and Giegerich shared. There is also a photo of a handwritten note Bearden told police Giegerich wrote telling her, “If you or your family ever come near me again I will hurt them.”
Later, in another apparent domestic dispute reported on September 4, 2021, police body camera footage shows Giegerich accusing Bearden of stealing money from him to buy drugs.
Search for suspects
Habersham County investigators have interviewed those closest to Collier and have executed search warrants in Athens-Clarke County. Still, for all of the media scrutiny focused on Bearden and Giegerich, investigators have not identified any suspects or persons of interest in the Debbie Collier murder investigation.
Collier’s husband has an alibi for the afternoon of September 10. Investigators say security camera footage shows he was parking cars in Athens until 4 p.m. for the Optimist Club for the Georgia-Samford football game.
During the sheriff’s office’s first press conference on the Collier case on September 30, Kogod said the case remains “complex in nature and has a lot of questions and unknowns.” He cautioned the public against expecting a quick resolution.
Now, investigators are hoping the additional resources provided by the FBI can help shed more light on this case. They’re also asking for the public’s continued help. Anyone with information about Debbie Collier’s case is asked to contact Habersham Sheriff’s Investigators Cale Garrison or George Cason at 706-839-0559 or 706-839-0560.
