UPDATE, Nov. 18, 2022: A medical examiner has ruled that Debbie Collier’s death was a suicide.
WSB Radio reports that “The Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner’s Office has determined that Collier’s cause of death was inhalation of superheated gases, thermal injuries, and Hydrocodone intoxication.”
“The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office would also like to extend our deepest sympathies to Mrs. Collier’s family and friends,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a statement. “It is our hope and prayer that the findings of this investigation provide some form of closure and allow for the healing process to begin.”
Original article:
The gruesome death of a Georgia mom could be the work of something more sinister than a one-off killing, says one expert. Debbie Collier was missing for less than 24 hours when authorities found her body in a wooded area in Habersham County, Ga., on Sept. 11.
Collier’s husband and daughter reported her missing one day earlier after she had sent her daughter $2,385 through the Venmo app, accompanied by a disturbing text message, which read, “They are not going to let me go love you.”
Authorities were able to trace a SiriusXM signal from the vehicle she had rented while her own car was in the shop. The car was parked on the side of the highway, and a K-9 unit found a red tote bag and a partially burned blue tarp, according to Now Habersham.
A death investigation is underway after a woman’s body was discovered in the woods off GA 15/US 441 in northern Habersham County. https://t.co/IIQyem6vrr via @nowhabersham pic.twitter.com/pDtW1Jy9o4
— Now Habersham (@nowhabersham) September 12, 2022
“Further search resulted in locating the body of a female subject down an embankment close to where the bag and tarp were located,” said Col. Murray Kogod of the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office.
The body was 59-year-old Collier, who lived in Athens, about an hour away from where authorities found her body. Fox News reports that Collier was nude and partially burned, and she was clutching a tree branch.
Collier’s husband Steve said that he had last seen his wife the night before and that when he left for work the next morning, her rental car was in the driveway. He told 11 Alive News that “she should have been home.”
Authorities have served out several search warrants, and so far they have ruled out kidnapping or suicide.
It’s a gruesome murder, to be sure, but criminal profiler and psychotherapist John Kelly says this could be the sign of something worse. Kelly has a history of interviewing sex offenders and serial killers, and he told Fox News that this case has the telltale signs of a serial killer in the making.
“This has all the signs of a sexual attack with volcanic rage,” Kelly said. “I have to think he was trying to cover his DNA.”
Kelly believes that how and where investigators found Collier’s body suggests that she may have still been alive when her killer dumped her.
“I think she still had life in her, if she tried to reach out and pull herself up by a branch,” Kelly said. “Even if it’s her last ounce of strength.”
He also suggests that Collier’s killer (or killers) was attempting to hide evidence, particularly DNA.
“Do we have a budding serial killer on our hands?” he continued. “I have to believe this is somebody who has prior sexual offenses, because I believe they’re trying to cover up their DNA.”
Kelly also said that robbery was likely not a motive since Collier’s body was naked, and he thinks that the killer was most likely a man who may have had accomplices in a getaway vehicle.
“This type of work is usually not done by a woman — I’m not saying this couldn’t be done by a man and a woman, a team, but unless there was a hefty insurance policy or something, why not just kill her?” Kelly said. “Why you gotta burn her? The burning is important to us. Is it a signature? Are we gonna see more of that?”
Since authorities don’t yet know where the attack on Collier began — whether at home or somewhere else — other motives could be involved. But if Kelly’s suspicions are correct, solving Collier’s murder could do more than provide closure and justice to her family and friends. It could also prevent further violence and save lives.
Anyone who has information on Collier’s case should contact Habersham Sheriff’s Investigators Cale Garrison at 706-839-0559 or George Cason at 706-839-0560, respectively.
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