The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia says slain mother Debbie Collier did not take her own life and there is no evidence to suggest she was kidnapped.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, 59-year-old Collier was found dead on September 10 after she allegedly sent her daughter, Amanda Bearden, $2,385 using Venmo. Collier reportedly included a message that read, “They are not going to let me go love you there is a key to the house in the blue flower pot by the door.”
After receiving the message, Collier’s daughter tried to call her mom but could not get through. Worried, the daughter said, she contacted the police to report her mother missing.
Investigators determined that Collier left her house with only her driver’s license and a debit card. Last Sunday, police tracked a rental vehicle Collier was using to a wooded area 60 miles away from the family’s Athens home.
Police scoured the vicinity of the vehicle and found her body in a nearby ravine. She was naked, charred, and deceased, police said. Although the case is being treated as a homicide, it’s unclear how Collier died.
“At this time, there is no evidence to suggest or support that this incident was related to a kidnapping,” the Habersham County police said in a statement, according to People.
Police wrote in an incident report that Collier was lying on her back while her right hand was “grasping a small tree.” She was nude and charred on her abdomen.
The sheriff’s office said Wednesday that they’ve investigated “at locations tied to the victim,” and interviewed those closest to her.
Bearden told CBS 46 that her mother was her “everything” and she couldn’t imagine who would have killed her.
“Somebody took my whole world from me,” she said. “She was a beautiful, kind, giving woman — and she didn’t deserve any of this…I want justice for my mom.”
To report information about the case, call the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office at 706-839-0500.
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[Featured image: Debbie Collier/Facebook]
