Wooded area where missing Georgia mom Debbie Collier was found murdered pictured for the first time

The gruesome spot where murdered Georgia mom Debbie Collier was discovered naked and burned can now be revealed in exclusive DailyMail.com pictures.

Two harrowing burn sites just feet apart and a newly sawn-off tree clearly show where police discovered the missing woman in a densely-wooded ravine near scenic Tallulah Falls.

The real estate office manager, 59, was found clinging to a tree by sheriff’s deputies a day after vanishing from the modest home she shared with husband Steven, 67, in Athens, Georgia, 60 miles away. Parts of her body were charred.

Eerily, just hours before her death, she had sent her daughter Amanda Bearden $2,385 via payment app Venmo along with a chilling last message.

It read: ‘They are not going to let me go, love you there is a key to the house in the blue flower pot by the door.’

DailyMail.com tracked down the murder site after obtaining the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office incident report of the September 11 discovery.

This detailed the rough route to the horrific scene by Deputy Blake Forrester and his human odor-detecting K9 Zane.

We started at a pull-off to an old logging road near Victory Home Lane, Clarksville, where Collier’s rented black 2022 Chrysler Pacifica was found through the Sirius XM service in the vehicle being ‘pinged’ to locate it via GPS.

A poignant teddy bear shrine guarded the spot where officers discovered the Pacifica – but no sign of the missing mom. 

We headed into the dense woodland along the former logging road and within roughly six feet the roadway disappeared and turned into a rough track. 

After 25 feet we saw the first signs of the search that would ultimately lead us to the horror site: a discarded pair of blue plastic forensic gloves.

Then, to the right, strips and small fragments of sheriff’s office yellow crime scene tape were scattered every three to five feet, heading south in a line and parallel to busy GA 15.

Under a dense canopy of trees and with fallen limbs littering the undergrowth, we followed the trail of plastic scraps.

After roughly 15 minutes of hiking through piles of dead leaves and timber, we began to descend downhill sharply until we came across three sets of blue forensic gloves that had been ditched.

Then we were confronted by a macabre spectacle – that tied in with our knowledge of Collier’s death.

Part of a tree had been sawn off, leaving a jagged portion jutting up and the toppled portion lying close by. The mom was found clinging to a tree – and within feet was a compact burnt area of leaves and timber.

A few feet from that lay a larger uprooted tree. Parts of the roots were scorched. Forensic gloves lay nearby along with pieces of paper and what appears to be a strip of a book cover. 

And that is where the trail of tape fragments ended.

The site was only roughly 25 feet from the roadway and vehicles could be heard clearly passing by after we followed the path of the killer or killers.

Collier’s cause of death has not been revealed. Nor is it publicly known if she died in the ravine or was taken there after being killed.

Debbie showed no hint of any personal problems or worries while at work, stunned staff at her real estate office told DailyMail.com. 

‘We are all in a state of complete shock at what has happened,’ said one employee at Carriage House Realty in Athens, where she was the front office manager. 

‘Debbie had been here for seven or eight years. We are still taking this in,’ added the staff member, who did not want to be named. ‘She never mentioned any personal issues in her life.’ 

In another twist, DailyMail.com can reveal that police had spotted the Pacifica – rented from Enterprise by the mom because her own vehicle was being repaired – unlocked and unoccupied beside the old logging road at 5pm the previous day.

But unoccupied cars were routinely spotted at that location, according to the report.

That was an hour before Collier’s husband reported her missing in a call to Athens-Clarke County Police, according to the case report obtained by DailyMail.com.

The following day, the car was located in connection with the missing person inquiry at 12:28pm.

After various officers had arrived on the scene, the sheriff’s office incident report reads: ‘Deputy Forrester deployed his nationally certified tracking (human odor) K9 Zane.

‘He casted around the driver side door of the vehicle and pushed into the wood line on what appear to be a logging road.

‘They pushed in casting for odor approximately 50 yards Northeast, could not establish any track, then casted South-Southeast. Zane was able to establish a track working South to Southeast away from Tallulah Gorge and away from GA 15.’ 

The officers and the K9 continued tracking in that direction for about a quarter of a mile where they soon spotted ‘a red tote bag’ near an uprooted tree and ‘what appeared to be the remains of a fire.’

Further down the embankment they also spotted a ‘blue object that appeared to be a tarp.’ 

As they got closer, Deputy Forrester noticed about 10 to 15 feet down a hill, a tan object, ‘that as he approached he could tell was a human body,’ the report states. 

The officers described seeing ‘a nude female laying on her back, grasping a small tree with her right hand’ and immediately observed her ‘to be obviously deceased, and identifying her as Collier.’

The remains were ‘apparently burned with what appeared to be charring to her abdomen,’ the report states. 

The report also reveals daughter Amanda arrived at the scene and joined officers beside the Pacifica ‘in a hysterical state.’

‘Bearden began screaming that the vehicle belonged to her mother,’ it states. Athens cops had notified her of the location after the Sirius XM ping.

Sergeant Neal and Officer Dakota Foster spoke to the distraught daughter ‘in reference to Collier’s mental health state, and briefly about her medical history’.

Bearden said ‘her mother did not have any history of any mental health issues, and denied suicidal tendencies. She also stated that her mother had a bad back, and couldn’t have walked far’.

Steven Collier told police in the missing persons report that he had not seen Debbie since 9pm on September 9 and that they slept in separate bedrooms ‘due to his snoring’.

He said the Pacifica was still in the driveway of their home when he left for work the following morning.

Collier sent the money via Venmo to her daughter at 3:17pm, according to the report. And of the chilling accompanying message, it stated: ‘Amanda said the message scared her and got her worried for her mom, so she tried calling her but she did not pick up.

‘Amanda also informed that her mother did not take anything with her but her drivers license and debit card.’

Police have declared Collier’s death a homicide but have not revealed any further details, including the names of possible suspects.  

Cops hunting the killer or killers say there is no evidence to suggest Collier was kidnapped despite the cryptic text received by her daughter Amanda. They also say there is no evidence that Collier committed suicide.

Habersham County Sheriff’s Office add that officers have ‘executed several search warrants at locations tied to the victim and have conducted preliminary interviews of those closest to the victim’.

A statement said Debbie Collier’s body was taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab for an autopsy. But no report of the results have been released, it adds.

The GBI told DailyMail.com is not involved in the investigation.