No Evidence Missing Georgia Mom Found Dead Was Kidnapped, Authorities Say

Deborrah Collier Georgia mom missing mom Missing Georgia mom Habersham County Sheriff's Office

By Joel Brussels , Parent Herald Sep 23, 08:34 pm

Photo: (Photo : Davis Turner/Getty Images)

Authorities in the state of Georgia announced on Wednesday, September 21, that there is no evidence suggesting a missing mom who was found dead this month had been kidnapped.

They arrived at those findings despite Deborrah Collier sending a chilling text message to her daughter, indicating that the 59-year-old was possibly being held against her will, according to 11Alive.

In a news release, the Habersham County Sheriff's Office said that investigators have also found no evidence linking her death to suicide.

Collier found naked and partly burned in the woods

An incident report showed that Collier's partly burned naked body was found in the woods off the side of a road in north Georgia on September 11. The place where she was found is roughly an hour away from her home in the city of Athens, according to NBC News.

Per the report, her last known communication was a text message to her daughter. She said they wouldn't let her go, and there was a key to the house underneath a flower pot.

The release said that apart from the text message, the victim had also sent $2,385 to her daughter through Venmo. Neither Collier's daughter nor the sheriff's office immediately responded to media outlets' requests for comment.

The report stated that authorities in Habersham County were alerted on September 11 that Collier's vehicle, a late model van, was linked to a missing person report filed in Clarke County.

The report said that deputies found the van a short time later on the side of a state road in Clarkesville. A cop from a nearby department told a deputy that he had seen Collier's van in the same spot the day before. The police officer described the area as a place where vehicles often pull over.

SiriusXM helped track Collier's rented van

Her rented SUV was equipped with SiriusXM satellite radio, and the company tracked the SUV on Sunday to U.S. 441 near Victory Home Lane, located 60 miles north of Collier's home in Athens. They contacted the Habersham County Sheriff's Office to share the van's location, according to People Magazine.

The van was empty and unlocked when found by police. After the police conducted a K-9 search in nearby woods, the officers found a red tote bag on its side that was near an uprooted tree.

The police officers saw what appeared to be the remains of a fire as well as a partly burned blue tarp, according to the report. They then found a naked woman on her back nearby. She was grasping a small tree with her right hand, and her abdomen appeared to have been burned.

According to the sheriff's office, an autopsy was being conducted on Collier by a state crime lab. The news release said that the investigation is ongoing and that authorities have executed search warrants at locations directly tied to the victim. Investigators have also talked with people close to Collier.