Debbie Collier's death was not suicide or random attack but ‘personal and targeted’, say cops
ATHENS, GEORGIA: The mysterious death of Debbie Collier whose corpse was discovered naked and partially burnt in September looks to be neither accidental nor the result of a suicide, according to investigators. Burn marks were found on her abdomen while details of the autopsy report are yet to be revealed.
Collier, 59, lost her life in an interaction that the authorities described as "personal and targeted” on September 30. The woman from Georgia was found in the woods an hour from her home and the Habersham Sheriff's Office wanted to address claims that she committed suicide or became a victim of a serial murderer. Police said they have discovered no evidence of her being kidnapped despite a text message received from Collier's daughter speculating that she could be unjustly detained. “They won’t let me go,” that cryptic message read. “There is a key to the house underneath a flower pot.” Prior to going missing, Collier allegedly sent her daughter about $2,400 as stated by NY Daily News.
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Police found the victim's unsecured vehicle parked next to a road in northern Georgia in the early afternoon of September 11. When searching for a missing person in a nearby county, police found a reference to that automobile. Collier's corpse was discovered close by after police searched the area with dogs. The inquiry has not yet been made public about the autopsy findings. It is presumed that Collier died between mid-afternoon on Saturday, September 10 and the time she was discovered the next day, as reported by NY Daily News. According to reports, Collier's husband had spent that Saturday afternoon at a stadium parking lot where the Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Samford Bulldogs. That same day, he and his daughter reported Collier missing.
Security footage from a company, according to police, shows the victim leaving a Family Dollar Store, waiting in her vehicle for ten minutes and then driving away, the department claimed during a news conference on September 30. The things bought from the store by Collier included a tarp and a refillable torch lighter. Collier did not appear to be under pressure, the cashier at that business told a local news source, according to NY Daily News. The case is "very complex in nature," said Chief Deputy Murray Kogod of the Habersham County Sheriff's Office and it has "a lot of questions and unknowns that aren't found in a typical death investigation." While the police department waits for the results of the crime lab tests and the search warrant, the detectives caution that a prompt resolution is unlikely.