Debbie Collier murder: Unfired round recovered from where body was found in major breakthrough
ATHENS, GEORGIA: Investigators in Georgia retrieved an unfired ammunition round from a wooded area close to the location where Debbie Collier's charred and partially nude body was discovered earlier this month.
The projectile was discovered by Fox News Digital on Tuesday, September 27, 20 to 30 yards from the crime site near Athens, Georgia, in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. The bullet was recovered by detectives from the Habersham County Sheriff's Office who arrived on the scene. They informed the news outlet that even if the round had nothing to do with Collier's murder, it may still contain a hint. After sending her daughter $2,385 and the ominous message, "they are not going to let me go, love you" via Venmo, Collier, 59, was discovered dead in a gully on September 11. Her death was not a suicide, according to investigators, and there is no evidence to imply that she was abducted. Cops said the newly found unused cartridge can turn out to be a major breakthrough in the stagnant investigation so far as questions around the mysterious death of Collier loom large.
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Surveillance footage from a Family Dollar store in Clayton from earlier this week showed Collier appearing composed while making purchases there a day before she was discovered dead. She was seen buying a blue tarp, a lighter, a tote bag and a rain poncho. Police have not yet identified a suspect or person of interest two weeks after Collier's abdomen was found burned in Georgia.
Amanda Bearden, the woman's daughter and Andrew Giergerich, the daughter's live-in boyfriend and a subject of prior complaints of domestic abuse, both told the New York Post that they had been questioned by authorities and had their phones taken. In a statement to Fox News Digital on September 27, Giergerich claimed that he and Bearden had been living in dread and that they were not responsible for Collier's death. “We sleep with stuff in front of our front door and our back door because we didn’t have anything to do with this,” he told the outlet. “We’re a little scared ourselves.”
There are still no possible suspects in the case but the newly found footage will assist the police to narrow down their search. The exact cause of her death remains unconfirmed.