Debbie Collier’s son says family still desperate for answers as FBI joins her murder investigation
Debbie Collier’s son is still desperate for answers about his mom’s murder after almost two months — as the FBI has joined the hunt to find her killer.
“We’re not doing great by any means,” Jeffrey Bearden told CourtTV on Friday. “Even after two months, I’m still sitting there questioning.”
Collier, 59, was reported missing on Sept. 10 by her daughter Amanda Bearden, who said Collier sent her a cryptic Venmo payment of more than $2,300 with an ominous note.
She was found dead the next day in a wooded ravine with charring on her abdomen about 60 miles north of her Athens, Georgia, home.
Jeffrey Bearden, who lives in Baltimore, says he wants to know why his mom sent his sister Amanda “such a large amount” — $2,385 — with the note, “They are not going to let me go.”
“I want to know who ‘they’ are,” her grief-stricken son said.
“I’m left still feeling this is a homicide, based on discussions I’ve had with law enforcement, but then again, with how long everything has gone on, some of the decisions that have been made and some of the lack of communication, it is hard to even know what could have happened,” he continued.
Law enforcement declared Collier’s death a homicide early in the investigation but seemed to backtrack on the claim a few weeks later with no explanation. The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office has not replied to repeated requests for comment by The Post.
No arrests have been made, and the sheriff’s office has not listed any official suspects or revealed any breakthroughs in its investigation, which was being conducted jointly with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The FBI also joined the case last week after it appears to have stalled, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.
Bearden said that from “what I know of my mother, it doesn’t make any sense for her to be out there, and as a concerned son, I’m scared she entered into something she didn’t know she was entering into and something bad happened.”
Collier’s brutal murder sent shockwaves through her sleepy Athens neighborhood, where residents told The Post in September that she and her husband, Steve, mostly kept to themselves.
Amanda and her boyfriend, Andrew Giegerich, only arrived back in town from Maryland two days before Collier disappeared. Giegerich told The Post two months ago that police had interviewed the couple and confiscated their phones, adding he felt the family was being treated as suspects.
On the day of Debbie’s death, husband Steve was seen on security camera parking cars at a local sports game. Amanda and Giegerich denied any involvement in her disappearance, saying the last time they had seen her was the day before.
Jeffrey previously told 11Alive: “I do not think my sister has the capacity to hurt my mom. She was my mom’s lifeline.
“But, I don’t trust the people that my sister hangs out with, and that’s my concern.”
Collier’s autopsy has yet to be released.
“I think my family is really just here wanting to, you know, try to get the answers for my mom and seek some kind of justice,” Jeffrey Bearden said.
