Debbie Collier autopsy implies murder

Famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden believes that Georgia mom Debbie Collier was likely murdered — and didn’t kill herself as authorities claim.

The former New York City chief medical examiner said Collier’s autopsy raises significant questions about how law enforcement came to believe she died by suicide, namely because the report notes she inhaled no soot or carbon monoxide.

“From a forensic point of view, that would indicate that she was dead before the fire started,” Baden told The Post Tuesday, saying soot and carbon monoxide are present 99% of the time when people die in a fire, especially self-immolation. 

The autopsy report, obtained by The Post and provided to Baden for review, claims Collier died from “inhalation of superheated gases, thermal injuries and a hydrocodone intoxication” and speculates she died in a “flash fire” due to the presence of a nearby gas can.

Collier was reported missing on Sept. 10 after she sent her daughter, Amanda, a Venmo payment for $2,385 with a chilling message: “They are not going to let me go, love you.” Her naked and badly burned remains were found in the woods 60 miles north of her home a day later.

“It would have to be severely windy to blow away any carbon monoxide,” Baden said, which is unlikely given the densely wooded area of rural Habersham County where she was found.

“I think the medical examiner doesn’t understand what forensic pathology is,” he quipped to The Post.

While Baden said the levels of hydrocodone in Collier’s system were higher than a therapeutic dose, it is impossible to tell what her tolerance for the drug was given that she had been prescribed the medication for a prolonged back injury.

Citing her toxicology report, Baden said about “a little less than half of people would die” from those levels. But if she did die of an overdose, the question of how the fire started remains, he said — and then her cause of death should be labeled “hydrocodone overdose with post-mortem fire injuries.”

“It makes it more confusing,” he said of the toxicology report. 

The forensic pathologist, who was hired by the families of George Floyd, Michael Brown and Jeffrey Epstein to do private autopsies and appeared in the show “Autopsy” said the fact that Collier was apparently found naked makes him further question the suicide conclusion.

“You usually need clothing to set yourself on fire,” he said.

Early in the investigation, police said she was naked when discovered, while the autopsy notes there were “charred remnants of clothing present in the distribution of the lower torso.”

Police say Collier was alone in the woods when she killed herself, but haven’t provided any proof for the claim. If she died before the fire as Baden believes, it would imply there was at least one other person there with her.

The medical examiners for the Georgia Bureau Investigation (GBI) admit they did not come to the conclusion that Collier killed herself by themselves, writing in the autopsy report that an “investigation by law enforcement revealed circumstances consistent with a self-intentioned act.”

“That means, ‘The police told me it was a suicide.’ We’re not just rubber stamps for the police, but some people think we are,” Baden said of forensic pathologists.

Collier, 59, worked for a local real estate agency in Athens, Georgia, where she lived with her husband, Steve, in a small yellow home on the edge of town. Police immediately opened a murder investigation into her death following the discovery of her remains, and at one point described her “killing” as “personal and targeted.”

After two months of investigating, the Habersham County sheriff and the FBI were never able to name a suspect, and her death was declared a suicide in November.

“Usually the GBI is much better than most,” Baden said. “I’m kind of upset that they could call this kind of a case suicide, especially with her being found naked — that’s outrageous.”