FIRST ON FOX: Georgia police bodycam video obtained by Fox News Digital shows the on-and-off boyfriend of a murdered woman's daughter, arrested outside her home last September for violating a no-contact order and banging on her door in a dispute over money, which he claimed she was siphoning directly out of his account despite an ugly breakup.
Debbie Collier, 59, was found dead under brutal circumstances earlier this month, a day after police said she sent her daughter Amanda Bearden, 36, a $2,385 payment using the Venmo app and a bizarre message that suggested she was being held against her will. Investigators however, publicly ruled out both kidnapping and suicide last week.
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Deputies found Collier stripped naked at the bottom of an embankment off a rural highway 60 miles from her home in Athens – lying on her back with her hand grasping at a tree – and with "charring" on her abdomen. There were remnants of a fire nearby as well as a partially burnt blue tarp and a red tote bag. Her rented Chrysler Pacifica, which led police to her location, was abandoned alongside the road. The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the investigation into Collier’s murder, had not yet publicly identified any suspects or persons of interest in the case as of Saturday.
Bearden, the daughter who received the cryptic Venmo payment, has a lengthy criminal history, including domestic violence cases involving a string of men stretching back more than a decade. Investigators served a search warrant at her home just days after her mother's remains were found in Habersham County, Fox News Digital reported Friday. Her current boyfriend, Andrew Giegerich, 27, has pleaded guilty to numerous offenses against Bearden in the past three years, and although she had an order of protection against him last fall, they appear to have reconciled and have been spotted together at her home this week.
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On Sept. 4, 2021, Giegrich showed up at her doorstep in violation of the restraining order, according to police documents.
Bearden called police and complained that Giegerich, whom she had broken up with and kicked out, arrived around 8:30 a.m. and began "beating on the door and yelling," according to the incident report.
He told responding officers that she’d been stealing his paychecks directly.
"I didn’t have a phone because my phone broke, so this is the dumbest mistake I’ve ever [made,] we linked our cards together so she can send herself money from my card," he tells the officers. "The first person to touch my money is her."
"That's the only reason we've had any contact, because every week she takes $500 or $600 from my check, and I just don't see how that's right," Giegerich tells police at the start of the bodycam video, when they ask why he broke the no-contact order. "And she goes and does dope with my money."
He claimed she'd "manipulated" him into having free access to his money and treated him poorly.
"[She can] basically do whatever she wants to me, kick me out whenever she wants, basically just do whatever," he tells the officers. "And it's OK because I'm a man. There's nothing I can do about it other than just let her do it and leave."
READ THE INCIDENT REPORT:
Giegerich told police he had no phone and had allowed Bearden to link his card to hers before they broke up. But after the split, which appears to have been on rough terms, he claimed she kept taking money directly out of his account. During the encounter, he also briefly mentioned Collier in a rambling sentence as police questioned him.
"I've been arrested before – the last time I got arrested because they falsified whatever, I mean her mom," he said. "I don't know what the issue is here. I don't know why I'm so unliked."
He told the officer that he had even taken care of Bearden after she'd been struck by a car.
Throughout the encounter, police repeatedly told him he couldn't be on Bearden's property in violation of the order and that he needed to seek relief in civil court if she had been stealing his money.
Police ultimately arrested Giegerich for violating the order, and he began crying when they took him into handcuffs.
He pleaded with officers to let him speak with Bearden. They finally relented and told him they’d ask her if she was willing but moments later they informed him she didn’t want to.
He could be heard telling the arresting officers that it wasn't fair and asked if he could just go home. At moments, he broke into tears.
Giegerich’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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In the ride to county jail, he appeared agitated in the backseat, banging against the cage and sobbing and concerned he’d be locked up "until November." The officer tried to comfort him, telling him he’d likely be freed the next morning.
Giegerich maintained throughout the conversation that he does not use drugs but he believed Bearden was using his money to buy "dope."
"She’s probably on drugs now," he told police outside the home, minutes before they handcuffed him.
But last week, after a judge jailed him for six days on another probation violation, his release order requires him to show proof of substance abuse treatment within 20 days.
Anyone with information on Collier’s case is asked to contact Habersham Sheriff’s Investigators Cale Garrison or George Cason at 706-839-0559 or 706-839-0560, respectively.
