Georgia investigators released surveillance video showing what may have been office manager Debbie Collier’s last appearance in public alive before her brutal killing earlier this month – immediately raising questions about the missing person report.
The video shows Collier entered a Family Dollar store in Clayton around 2:55 p.m. September 10, wearing a University of Georgia football jersey, shorts and a red visor while carrying a large black purse and her car keys. It was game day in Athens, and the Bulldogs were scheduled to kick off at 4 p.m., hosting Samford, who they eventually routed 33-0. However, Collier may not have been alive by the end of the game.
In the missing person report filed several hours later, Collier’s 36-year-old daughter Amanda Bearden told police that she received a suspicious Venmo payment and that her mother had left everything but her ID and debit cart behind.
Eight minutes after Collier left the store, at 3:17 p.m., the Venmo account Collier shares with her husband, Steve, sent Bearden a $2,385 payment, according to police reports.
“Amanda also informed that her mother did not take anything with her but her driver’s license and debit card,” reads a missing person report filed on September 10 with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.
At the Family Dollar store, more than 70 miles north of her home in Athens, Collier bought a poncho, a torch lighter, a pack of paper towels and a blue tarp, then paid with a card, leaving behind her receipt, the video shows.
READ THE MISSING PERSON REPORT:
The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office on Monday revealed an updated timeline, based on her visit to the store and the discovery of her vehicle the following afternoon.
“This information allows investigators to narrow the time of death to a window beginning at 3:09 p.m. on Saturday, September 10 to the discovery of the body on Sunday, September 11 at 12:44 p.m.,” said Col. Mark Kogod, the department’s public information officer.
The Venmo payment was Collier’s last known communication, according to authorities, and included a cryptic message reading, “They are not going to let me go love you there is a key to the house in the blue flowerpot by the door.”
Crime scene evidence and other items of forensic value were sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for further testing; however, investigators have not yet revealed what they found.
Bearden has not responded to multiple attempts to reach her from Fox News Digital.
DEBBIE COLLIER MURDER: DAUGHTER WHO RECEIVED $2.3K VENMO BEFORE MOM’S MURDER HAS CRIMINAL HISTORY
The Family Dollar store is about a 15-minute drive north from where deputies found Collier’s abandoned Chrysler Pacifica rental vehicle on September 11 off Georgia Route 15.
A Habersham County K-9 unit found her about a quarter-mile off the road, down an embankment, where she had been stripped nude and partially burned.
The incident report reveals she had been found on her back, clutching at a small tree with one hand, and that investigators recovered some of the items that she had purchased at Family Dollar nearby. Those include the tarp, which also had burn marks on it, and the red tote bag.
Investigators quickly deemed the manner of her death a homicide but have not yet revealed what caused it. They said last week that they had ruled out a potential kidnapping.
They have not publicly named a suspect or person of interest.
Anyone with information on Collier’s case is asked to contact Habersham County Sheriff’s investigators Cale Garrison or George Cason at 706-839-0559 or 706-839-0560, respectively.
