Debbie Collier murder: Daughter's boyfriend denies couple involved, says 'We're scared'
Andrew Giegerich is the live-in boyfriend of Debbie Collier’s daughter, Amanda Bearden
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}EXCLUSIVE: The daughter of slain Georgia office manager Debbie Collier is sleeping behind barricaded doors two and a half weeks after her mother’s brutal unsolved slaying, as her boyfriend told Fox News Digital the couple has no involvement in the mystery murder.
Andrew Giegerich, the live-in boyfriend of Collier’s daughter, Amanda Bearden, told Fox News Digital that the couple is living in fear as of Tuesday morning.
"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 said. "We're a little scared ourselves."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The remarks, Giegerich’s first to the media since Collier’s unsolved slaying, came as he and Bearden left their home Tuesday morning.
Amanda Bearden and her boyfriend, Andrew Tyler Giegerich, are seen outside their home in Atlanta on Sept. 23, 2022. Bearden's mother, Debbie Collier, was found murdered on Sept. 11, 2022. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
"We had nothing to do with this, so we're just trying to protect ourselves at this point," he added.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On Monday, Giegerich left the home with an older woman and purchased instant noodles and a Mountain Dew energy drink.
Collier, 59, vanished on Saturday, Sept. 10, according to authorities. Minutes after she was last seen alive at a Family Dollar store in Clayton, a one-hour, 30-minute drive from her home in Athens, her daughter received a $2,385 Venmo payment and a cryptic text message stating, "They are not going to let me go love you there is a key to the house in the blue flowerpot by the door."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Amanda Bearden is seen outside her home in Atlanta on Sept. 23, 2022. Bearden's mother, Debbie Collier, was found murdered on Sept. 11, 2022. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
Collier’s partially "charred" remains were discovered on Sunday, Sept. 11, near the burnt remnants of several items she’d bought at the store, including a blue tarp, red tote bag and paper towels. Police quickly deemed it a homicide and ruled out both kidnapping and suicide.
When Fox News Digital visited the scene where police recovered her remains Tuesday, melted pieces of the tarp, bag and Collier’s red Georgia Bulldogs jersey were still visible near the blackened stump of an overturned tree.
According to the police report, her remains were uncovered further downhill, about a quarter-mile into the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Andrew Giegerich, the boyfriend of murdered Georgia office manager Debbie Collier’s daughter, Amanda Bearden, leaves a convenience store on Sept. 26, 2022. (Kat Ramirez / Mega for Fox News Digital)
Her rented Chrysler Pacifica was parked and abandoned alongside Georgia Route 15.
Bearden told investigators that her mother’s car was in the shop at the time and that Collier left home carrying only her license and a debit card, according to the missing-person report.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Surveillance video shows Debbie Collier carrying a large black purse and keys as she enters the Family Dollar store in Clayton, Georgia, on Sept. 10, 2022. (Habersham County Sheriff's Office)
However, Collier was seen on video with her purse at the Family Dollar store, and her last suspected phone activity, the Venmo payment, came nine minutes after she left. Before the remains were discovered, Bearden, who had been given an approximate location of the vehicle by Athens-Clarke County police, arrived at the scene "in a hysterical state," according to police documents. She told investigators that her mother did not suffer from any known mental health issues or "suicidal tendencies."
Missing Georgia mom Debbie Collier was found dead after wiring her daughter money and sending chilling text message. (Debbie Steve Collier/Facebook)
Investigators said Collier's death happened between the time when she left the Family Dollar store at 3:09 p.m. and when investigators found her remains at 12:45 p.m. the next day.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police have not publicly named any suspect or person of interest.
Bearden and Giegerich have a rocky history, police records show, with numerous domestic violence cases stretching back to 2020. Last year, police arrested him on her front lawn after he allegedly showed up and banged on the door in a dispute over cash.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He told investigators that she was looting his paycheck on a weekly basis, taking $500 or $600 at a time, authorities said. They told him the matter should go to civil court and arrested him for violating a no-contact order.
Police served a search warrant at the same residence on Sept. 14, records obtained by Fox News Digital show. The couple appears to be living together once again and has been spotted together numerous times since last Thursday.