EXCLUSIVE: Steven Collier, the husband of slain Athens office manager Debbie Collier, appears on video parking cars for the Sept. 10 Georgia Bulldogs game between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. the day his wife went missing, a law enforcement source tells Fox News Digital.
Police records show he called 911 to report his wife missing at 6 p.m. that day.
She was last seen alive around 3:20 p.m. in Clayton, making it unlikely that he made the 120-odd-mile round trip with time to commit the crime and return home to Athens, the source said.
“Came home, my wife wasn’t home, her driver’s license still in there, the rental car is gone, and her daughter’s here,” he told police at 6:01 p.m. on Sept. 10, making the initial missing person report. “We’re kind of worried about what’s happening and where she’s at. I was wondering if you could send somebody over here.”
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He added that his wife has no medical issues and that he had been out all day “parking cars for the football game.” The University of Georgia Bulldogs had a home game that afternoon at 4 p.m., and his alibi checked out, according to the source.
A K-9 unit from the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office found Debbie Collier dead in the woods off Route 15 the next day around noon, a quarter-mile off the road, down an embankment with burns on her belly and disrobed, according to police documents.
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Her last known whereabouts were at a Family Dollar store in Clayton, a 90-minute drive north of her home on Rocky Drive in Athens. She appeared on surveillance video there wearing a No. 34 Bulldogs jersey, red visor, shorts or skirt and dark sneakers. She bought several items – tarp, poncho, lighter, paper towels and red tote bag.
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Those same items were discovered with burns on them near her remains the next day about 13 miles south. However, police found her rented Chrysler Pacifica abandoned on the northbound shoulder, meaning she turned around again at some point before the attack that killed her.
A few minutes after leaving, she sent her daughter a $2,385 Venmo payment along with the message, “They are not going to let me go love you there is a key to the house in the blue flowerpot by the door.”
The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office said last week there were no signs of suicide or a kidnapping. Investigators are expected to hold a news briefing at 9 a.m. Friday with an update on the case.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Habersham Sheriff’s Investigators Cale Garrison or George Cason at 706-839-0559 or 706-839-0560, respectively.
