The attention to Deborrah Collier’s murder has spread nationally – and even internationally – because of its bizarre nature, but Habersham County Sheriff’s Investigatrors said Friday that they do not expect a quick answer to the puzzle.
“It will take significantly longer than the 19 days that have passed so far to solve this crime,” Col. Murray Kogod said.
“We’ve lost a lot of sleep in this investigation, as it should be,” Lead Investigator George Cason said. “This investigation is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Collier was found dead on U.S. Forest Service land Sept. 11, partially burned and half naked after driving from Athens to Clayton and then back into Habersham County, just south of Tallulah Falls Middle School on Victory Home Lane.
There are still more questions than answers about how the pieces fit together.
“As far as this investigation goes, when we think we are track with something, another curveball comes out of nowhere,” Cason said.
Tallulah Falls’ school zone cameras captured an image of Collier’s Chrysler Pacifica heading northbound on Georgia Highway 15 toward Rabun County at 2:17 p.m.
She arrived at the Family Dollar in Clayton at 2:55 p.m. – purchasing several items that were found burned at the scene of her death – and left the store at 3:09 p.m. Her now-infamous Venmo message containing $2,385 was sent to her daughter Amanda Bearden at 3:17 p.m., and additional footage from the parking lot shows that she left in her van at 3:19 p.m. She headed south on Highway 15, back toward where she was found about 13 miles away.
Cason said officers still have not found footage of her coming back south, but that was the direction her car went according to addition footage obtained in the parking lot from other businesses.
The investigators said Friday that they were awaiting information about what device the Venmo message was sent from. Collier’s cell phone was found at the scene of the murder, investigators confirmed Friday, and they are awaiting information from subpoenas to multiple cell phone carriers.
Cason said they also found her purse at the crime scene.
The van was seen by a Tallulah Falls Police officer around 5 p.m. that day, and the van was what led investigators to the scene on Sunday afternoon. Cason could not confirm whether the van was at that location overnight.
Seeking suspects
The first look in many of these kinds of cases are at immediate family. Investigators have spoken with Bearden, her boyfriend Andrew Giergerich and her husband, Steven Collier.
Cason said Friday that Steven Collier’s whereabouts were established in Athens between 9 a.m. and 4:06 p.m. Saturday.
Steven works at Synovus Bank, where he was supervising the parking of cars for the Georgia Bulldog game that day against Samford.
There was initial confusion about Bearden possibly being present with Collier at the Family Dollar, but Investigator Cale Garrison said Bearden had mentioned going to a different Family Dollar at an earlier time with her mother to get supplies for her apartment, which she just moved into on Sept. 8 after living in Maryland. Garrison said there was no evidence or interview that indicated that Bearden was present at the Clayton store with her mother.
“We have not ruled anyone out at this point,” Cason said. “We are still in the process of trying to find a person or persons of interest.”
One thing that has attracted a lot of attention in this case was the cryptic note that accompanied the Venmo message saying “They won’t let me go.”
“There is really no insight yet as to who ‘they’ are,” Cason said.
But the officers on the case have not wavered on their thoughts that there is a killer to find.
“We have never changed our thoughts about this being a homicide,” Cason said. “We will work diligently day and night to solve this case and try to bring justice to Ms. Collier and her family.”
Whoever they are looking for, they believe it is someone Collier knew.
“There is no evidence to this point that this was something random,” Kogod said. “This was someone she either knew or had some association with. This was not a random act of violence. This was not the work of a serial killer. This was deliberate and personal.”
Bearden and Giergerich have been questioned in the case. It has been reported that both have had domestic violence run-ins with each other, and Bearden served 30 days in jail for providing a false drug test sample while on probation.
After The New York Post reported that Giergerich left a chilling note threatening Bearden’s family, he spoke to Fox News and said he and Bearden have barricaded their doors at night.
“We didn’t have anything to do with this, so we’re a little scared too,” Giergerich told Fox News Tuesday.
No persons of interest have been identified in the case as yet.
Remnants still there
The crime scene – some 200 yards off the road near the intersection of Victory Home Lane and Georgia Highway 15 – is still littered with remnants of whatever happened that fateful weekend of Sept. 10-11.
On Wednesday afternoon, there were burned pieces of the blue tarp Collier purchased at the Family Dollar in Clayton around 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10. There were burnt red strands of the Georgia Bulldogs jersey she was wearing that day along with scorched paper towels. There are burnt leaves some 10 feet off the ground near the site where a fire was set – but by whom and for what specific purpose are still unknown.
Sheriff Joey Terrell said the discovery that Collier purchased the items found burned at the scene was a surprise to investigators.
Habersham County Coroner Kasey McEntire said this week that the autopsy results were still pending on the actual cause of death.