jealousy that was all-consuming. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. this is dateline. we're agonizing through the last two years. initially it was panic and then it turned into torment. i was concerned that she was hurt somewhere. i felt so helpless. kelly was always there for others. >> she liked to help people that needed help. >> there for her friends, there for her country. >> this was a good fit for her. she wanted to be an officer. >> her personal life was a little more complicated. she was estranged from her husband.

>> were they talking divorce? >> kelly was. mike wasn't. >> had a new boyfriend. >> she was pretty fun. >> and lately she seemed to have an admirer. >> did he ask kelly for her phone number? >> yeah. >> when she sudden livanished hundreds joined the search including this perfect stranger. >> i said i'd like to see if i can solve this. >> he was suspicious about one event in kelly's life. >> but getting the truth wouldn't be easy. >> i had to get into his mind and see what he was about. >> what you're involved in was psychological warfare. >> yeah. >> he knows where she is at. >> after a young soldiers mysterious disappearance, one man's personal battle to find her. >> do you think he's finally going to reveal to you? >> oh, i know he is.

>> kelly was just starting what she hoped to be a long career in the military but fate had other plans. one night she was hanging out at a local bar when suddenly she vanished. fearing the worst, friends and family launched a frantic search but it would take a stranger hellbent on justice to track down the ugly truth behind kelly's disappearance. here's andrea with deep in the woods. >> it's closed now. just an old shack with only the weeds for company. the good times are long gone. back when it was a watering hole for some of the soldiers at nearby fort bragg. famous for billiards, beer and karaoke it was a popular club

ca call called froggy bottoms and it's where she planned to unwind on friday 13th. she was 5'1" and barely 100 pounds but she could hold her own with anybody. to her older siblings matt and olivia she was always the perfect combination. >> bouncey and bubbly and trying to have a good time. >> she was working to get better. she had a driven personality. >> kelly also had a big heart. she was warm and generous and also putting others first. >> she liked to help people that she saw needed help. she wanted them to be better because she could help them to be better. >> she grew up in florida an enlisted in the army at 22.

>> just wait until i see you. >> after basic training the army sent her to fayetteville, north carolina. at fort bragg she trained as an army medic. one of the most demanding jobs in the military. >> it gave her an opportunity to do something better with her life. >> what was it about being an army medic? that's an intense job? >> it was something that would push her to her limits. i want to make a career out of that. i really want this to be something. so she would have possibly made a life out of military. >> yeah. that was the plan. >> kelly's professional life was on track but her personal life was complicated. kelly had a husband named mike bordeaux. they got married in 2010 before she joined the service but later separated. after some time apart the couple decided to give it another shot so when the army sent kelly to north carolina, she asked mike

to come with her. >> why did kelly want to save the marriage? >> i think she didn't want to see it as a failure. she said i'm going to give it three months where i devote. i am going to make this work. >> but kelly couldn't make it work. despite her efforts, the marriage was on the rocks. she bought him a one way ticket to florida and he left. the text messages said i've done everything i can. i can't do this anymore. this is it. during her separation from mike kelly started seeing someone else. a guy from her hometown of st. cloud florida named justin thompson. >> she's just fun. always laughing well and never did anything wrong to anybody. >> kelly had a knack for making people happy. >> yeah. she was inviting to everyone. in you were there you were part

of the party. >> when she tried to save her marriage he gave her space. but kel hi asked justin to move in. >> were you in love with kelly? >> we were in love. i don't want to say we were going to get married and have kids but that was the intention was to further our relationship. >> was home where ever kelly was? >> in early april 2012, justin visited fayetteville to get accounted with his future home. the couple also hit frogg froggy bootoms and then justin returns to florida. he'd be back in two weeks. this time for good. meanwhile, kelly decided to go to the bar along. she texted her sister before she left that night saenand sent a selfie. >> did she say if she was going

with anybody? >> no, just trying to get away from all of that and relax. kelly also texted justin about her plans. justin said he wasn't happy that kelly had gone out alone in a new town that she didn't know. >> what wasn't a good environment? >> the fayetteville area. her by herself. you don't know anybody there. nobody knows anything. >> throughout the evening kelly and justin kept in touch texting frequently. everything seemed fine, he said. olivia meanwhile went to bed early. >> the next morning, did you try to call her or text her? >> probably at some point i probably text her and said hey, how was last night? but it wasn't uncommon to not talk for a day or two. >> but justin said he did wake up to a text from kelly sent around 1:30 a.m. he says there was something strange about it. >> the verbiage.

the way she talked. i made it home, i'm safe. i'll call you tomorrow. >> why would you text me i made it home i'm safe. i'll call you tomorrow. >> did you try calling her then? >> yeah. it was dead. >> so what are you thinking? it was bad. i knew it was bad. was bad i knew it was bad. >> what had happened to kelly bordeaux? her family begins to panic. coming up. >> what were some of the scenarios running through your mind? >> that somebody was holding her somewhere. >> and then police turned their attention to kelly's estranged husband. >> were they talking divorce? >> when dateline continues. dive >> when dateline continues what a lip care routine? pay your lips some attention. the chapstick total hydration collection. exfoliate nourish naturally enhance your lips. chapstick. put your lips first. there's a company that's talked than me: jd power.people 448,134 to be exact.

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so, where you go, the pro goes. go with align, the pros in digestive health. saturday, the morning after. kelly bordeaux had been out of touch for hours. her boyfriend knew something was wrong. what was supposed to be a day off was turning into a day of dread. not a call, text or tweet from her. i remember talking to my mom and saying i don't want to start a storm but i'm worried about it. i knew something happened. >> why did you jump to that conclusion so fast? >> when you talk to somebody every day and can't get ahold of them it's not good. >> saturday came and went and still nothing from kelly so on sunday, justin phone the fayetteville police department urging them to start searching.

>> nobody would help me. >> police policy required a family member to call in and provide more personal details on kelly before they could start searching. so the next day justin decided to call the army base instead. >> i asked them and said it was important. and they got back on the phone and said she didn't show up. >> army investigators and fayetteville police went to kelly's apartment. >> they got inside, no kelly. >> no kelly. >> is that when everyone starts taking this really seriously? >> everyone started to panic, yeah. >> world spreads like wildfire as fort bragg called her estranged husband mike that then phone her sister olivia. kelly had missed roll call and wasn't at home. >> i started facebook messaging her, texting her, calling her like crazy. i started trying to find anybody that i knew that was in the army with her.

have you seen her? i was just trying everything. >> everything lead to nothing. no loads, no clues, no kelly. >> what were some of the scenarios that were running through your mind? >> just that somebody was holding her somewhere. >> yeah. i was more concerned that she was hurt somewhere and she wouldn't be able to get to us so we have to get to her. >> olivia matt and mike immediately make plans to all meet at fayetteville. by now, the fayetteville pd was all over the case. one was veteran homicide detective mike ballard. >> she's barely been missing. >> always contacted the family or friends. and then she just disappears off the face of the earth. >> breaking news in the case of kelly bordeaux, the fort bragg soldier missing since saturday. >> the disappearance of the

beautiful young army medic was now big news and covered extensively by local media like nbc station wral tv. >> right now it's still a missing person case. there's a lot that's not known at this time. >> they arrived in fayetteville where they took a grim meeting at police headquaters. >> what did you tell them? >> that we were hoping for the best and prepared for the worst and they should be the same thing too. >> at that point the detective was trying to talk to us more and we were walking through a room and it said homicide on the door. i said i'm not going in there. they said that's just the best room. >> i said that's not happening. i'm not letting that thought in. have to stay positive. >> this is an out of character thing to happen to my sister. it's not something she would do. >> olivia quickly became a main stay on every media outlet in the area. >> i just want my sister back. i just want to talk to her. >> mike bordeaux also went on

camera to plead for his wife's return. >> please let her come home. just let her come home. >> the public, police and military response was intense. it seemed like the whole town turned out to look for kelly. >> most of us are military, or spouses so we're very driven to find one of our own. >> search teams numbering in the hundreds combed the fields and thick forests surrounding fayetteville. >> i searched basically every day i was there, sun up to sun down for the most part and then it's just searching, searching, searching. >> this volunteer group started at kelly's apartment and just like police their search turned up nothing. >> they were combing through her background, her habits and most importantly her circle of family and friends. >> you started with mike bordeaux. >> right. >> kelly's estranged husband. >> he told me during the

interview that they were having some problems and that's what threw me off. on tv there was no issues. >> me and her loved each other very much. and i just appreciate everyone out here helping looking for her. >> he wasn't being consistent. >> were they talking divorce? >> kelly was. mike wasn't. >> did you see that as a possible motive? >> yeah. we had to eliminate mike. >> mike insisted he was in florida when kelly went missing in fayetteville. even so, police still considered him the primary person of interest. >> has her husband been questioned by detectives? >> we've had conversation with mr. bordeaux. >> police also needed to have a conversation with kelly's boyfriend justin thompson. little did they know that justin had a huge new lead waiting for them about the night kelly disappeared. >> coming up, a new possible suspect. >> he is the last person that is

seen with kelly. that was very concerning to us. >> why something in his past would trigger even more alarm bells. >> it certainly was a red flag. >> when dateline continues. d fl >> when dateline continues make nature's bounty hair skin and nails step one. it's the number one brand uniquely formulated for silky hair, glowing skin and healthy nails. nature's bounty, because you're better off healthy.

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no new leads. >> they have nothing. >> what happened to kelly bordeaux? >> it was now national news.

suddenly quite little fayetteville was ground zero for a massive search for a missing army medic. >> detectives say information in this case keeps pointing them to look in this area near where she was last seen. >> kelly bordeaux had been missing some 72 hours. the chances of finding her were growing slimmer by the day. >> investigators have combed through every area in fayetteville as well as cumberland county. >> 600 moiles away in florida, kelly's boyfriend was talking to detectives telling them he was home the weekend that kelly disappeared. >> he checked his phone. everything checked out. >> justin told detectives something else. another name to check out. when he and kelly visited frog gi bottoms the week before she disappeared they met a chatty guy that worked there named nick holbert. >> he started talking to us.

you get vibes from people. i could see it was weird. >> but he says kelly being kelly asked him if he wanted to join them for a game of pool. he hung out with them until justin and kelly decided to head home for the night. >> did he ask kelly for her phone number? >> yeah. >> she gave it to him because he worked there so it's always good to have somebody that works at the bar as a friend. >> that friday 13th when kelly decided to go back to the barbie herself, justin told detectives she wasn't really along. she arranged to get a ride from nick. >> i just said watch out, be careful around him. >> this guy really stuck in your mind. >> yeah, he was weird. i don't know what she was doing. >> did you say maybe you shouldn't -- >> i said it. i said it but i wasn't addiment about it. i'm not going to tell her no a thousand times on the text message. >> kelly made it safely to the

bar where she texted justin throughout the night and then there was that last rather odd text he received. he was sure she had something to do with his disappearance. >> she went out with this kid and was supposed to come home and didn't come home with that kid. >> detectives went to froggy bottoms and he was down on his luck living in the woods behind the bar. they searched his camp site and his car. not one clue. holbert agreed to an interview at the police station where he told detectives he picked up kelly on friday 13th and later dropped her off to the entrance of the apartment complex. >> what do you know about her? >> nothing really. i'd known for her what six hours all together? >> he was fully cooperative. didn't duck one question.

>> so they let him go. >> if nick was a suspect, he certainly wasn't acting like one. he joined search teams looking for kelly and spoke on local tv expressing his concern. >> i hate that she's missing. >> but fayetteville police weren't buying his story and now he too was a person of interest along with kelly's husband mike bordeaux. remember, mike said he was home in florida when she went missing which detectives needed to confirm. >> family put him there friday night friends put him there. his alibi checked out. >> so now detectives and district attorney billy west zeroed in on the last person seen with kelly. >> everything kept coming back to holbert as the prime suspect. >> so investigators dug into his

background and discovered something disturbing. >> he was a registered sex offender and served time in the penitentiary for that. >> it was a red flag. the fact that he had a prior sex offense and he was the last person seen with kelly. that was very, very concerning to us. >> the d.a. didn't have any evidence to arrest him for kelly's disappearance but he did discover he was violating the terms of his parole. >> he was a prior sex offender and he was not registered properly and he was placed in jail. >> right where detectives wanted him. now they could watch him and see if he blabbed to a cell mate about what happened to kelly. they also questioned him twice. even took him back to jog his memory. but he stuck to the same and sometimes inconsistent story. >> you caught him in lies but you couldn't crack him. >> by now, olivia and matt left

fayetteville and had gone home. >> i remember feeling defeated. we came up here thinking that something was going to happen. >> i feel like i didn't sleep for a couple of weeks. it was 24/7 thinking about what happened, what happened, what happened. >> detectives and the da seemed so close to an answer. they even had their prime suspect in custody but weeks passed, months, he stopped talking. >> you couldn't arrest him. >> we noded her body. we needed to find kelly bordeaux. >> little did police know it would take some two years to finally unravel the mystery but they were about to get help. help they never imagined, deep in the forest, a secret investigation was underway. a man on a mission to bring kelly home. coming up, why a perfect stranger cared so much about kelly. >> she needed to be found. >> who he believed had taken her

and his risky scheme to get the man to talk. >> he buys that. >> hook, line and sinker. >> when dateline continues. sink >> when dateline continues trele. the only fda-approved 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy. the power of 1-2-3. ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 trelegy. with trelegy and the power of 1 2 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works 3 ways to open airways, keep them open and reduce inflammation for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. think your copd medicine is doing enough? maybe you should think again. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy

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here's what's happening. house intel chairman adam schiff responded to a request for the whistleblower to testify in impeachment hearings. he said the testimony would be redundant and unnecessary. >> saturday marked 30 years since the fall of the berlin wall. the german chancellor lead a commemorative ceremony saying no wall is so high or so wide it can't be broken down. now back to dateline. n down now back to dateline welcome back to dateline. i'm natalie morales. where was kelly bordeaux?

after the alibis of her husband and boyfriend checked down, police suspected a man had the answer, a convicted sex offender he told detectives he drove kelly home from the bar that night but never touched her. to police the story just didn't add up and now a total stranger was ready to prove it. once again, here's andrea canning with deep in the woods. >> autumn 2012, kelly bordeaux had been missing for months. the searches continued but were winding down and so was hope. privately many around town felt kelly would never be found. but in the forest outside of fayetteville, there was someone still secretly searching for her. no one knew. not police. not even kelly's family. his name was david marshburn. he didn't know kelly but had an intense interest in her case from the day she disappeared.

>> she was in the military. you don't hlet them disappear. she was a young female, that's not right. >> he's a bounty hunter and private investigator. his specialty, finding people, dead or alive. >> i knew she wasn't alive. she just needed to be found. >> remember that tv interview nick holbert did? he saw it too. >> when i'm watching him i'm like dude i can tell you're lying. he did it. he knows where she is at. he killed her. >> and marshburn was also convinced he could find kelly bordeaux. operating on his own time and own dime, marshburn started carefully researching the details of kelly's disappearance. >> i don't know what got into me to do it. i just did it to. >> to bring some answers to her family. >> yes. i love helping the family out. >> he was convinced holbert

buried kelly close to the bar somewhere in the thick forest surrounding fayetteville. >> how daunting of a task was it? >> it's like -- i don't know, taking a rock no bigger than this and just throwing it out here and saying go find it and you miss about an inch you might as well miss it by a mile. it's not that easy to find something. >> marsh burn needed help so several months into his private search he added two new members to his team. an assistant named marsha ward and a search dog with a keen sense of smell. >> he is trained on tracking and trailing, whatever you want. what odor you want. >> including buried bodies. together, they went through ponds, fields, forests, thousands of acres and searched

for months. but no trace of kelly. >> i got really frustrated and disappointed and i'm at my wits end. >> then came an unlikely break. in may 2013, nick holbert was released from jail after being locked up on the parole violation. if he was happy, david was thrilled because now he could deal with him face to face. so just a day after his release marshburn pulled up to the house where he was staying. >> i have never talked to a killer, have you? >> i work on dateline. >> i take that back. >> what were you nervous about? that he would try to hurt you or just that the stakes are high here? >> sort of like star struck, do you know what i mean. you're just like wow, this is happening. >> marshburn took a deep breath and knocked on the door. >> and he answered the door and i said hey, nick, i'm david

marshburn, i'm a private investigator. i'm here to try to find kelly bordeaux and i think you can help him. >> his strategy was simple. trick holbert into thinking he was an ally. basically telling him i'm your angel. i'm your help. let me help you. >> help him how, though? >> for people to see the light that he was not guilty. >> and he buys that. >> hook, line, and sinker. >> so now, the bounty hunter and the prime suspect talked. over the next few months, marshburn gradually started to win holbert's confidence, coaxing him to confess about what really happened to kelly bordeaux. >> i had to get into his mind and see what he was about. >> did you think he was going to just confess to you? >> no. i didn't know how i was going to get it out of him. >> at this point, police were aware of david marshburn and his

diy investigation. >> did you take david seriously? >> absolutely. he came to us and wanted to befriend nick. >> what did you think of that? >> go for it. we can't tell him what to do. >> marshburn remember is a private eye, not a police officer and unlike detectives he could try tactics that, to say the least, were unorthodoxed. a few months after they met he told him that the d.a. was ready to cut a deal if he confessed. marshburn even submitted him with a very attractive plea bargain agreement. it would be something like manslaughter and he would do three to four years and he would go to a mental hospital. >> the so-called deal was completely bogus. i put a fake judge on there. it was justin f. case. honorable justin f. case. >> just in case. >> did he believe it? >> yeah. >> yeah, he believed it to a

point but then he threw it back at me after looking at it for about five minutes and said no, they'll just take it back. >> marshburn thought that wasn't exactly the reaction of an incident man. no, he was fully convinced that nick holbert killed kelly but he needed him to reveal where he buried the body. >> i had to do some things and say some crap that i didn't believe but i had to do it to play the part. >> marshburn bought him countless meals, beers, even hired him to do odd jobs, slowly becoming a bff or maybe more of a frenemy but he paid a high price as he practically abandoned his wife and young son. >> i didn't do any family stuff. if we were eating somewhere and nick picked up the phone and called and said man i need something and i need some money, i'd get up and leave and i'd go

straight to him and do what i had to do and come back. >> were you obsessed? >> i don't stop until i get them. >> isn't that obsessed? >> i don't know, dedicated. >> but he still wasn't providing any answers about kelly that had been missing some 18 months. by this time, marshburn spent thousands of hours and some $40,000 trying to crack holbert. he was losing hope and considering quitting or even trying something drastic. >> at times i wanted to just take nick and cut his fingers off and say you tell me or i'll chop another one off. i wanted to torture him. >> you would have done that. >> i hated him that bad. i despised him. >> marshburn didn't resort to torture but he did need a new tactic. something that would make holbert finally share his deadly

secret. coming up, marshburn finds a new pressure point. >> that was his achilles heel. >> but will it work? when dateline continues. work? when dateline continues. man: sneezes skip to the good part with alka-seltzer plus. now with 25% more concentrated power. nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. oh, what a relief it is! so fast!

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kelly's family still visited fayetteville periodically to keep the case alive. somehow never losing hope. >> i would ask how do you thike thinking she is alive? until you can prove otherwise why not believe it? i'd rather believe the better scenario. >> how did you keep that hope? >> the other avenue wasn't one i wanted to go down. >> back in florida, justin thompson had been living in limbo with a bad case of survivor's guilt. >> i could have done more. i should have told her no, don't go. i should have tried to argue about it. i don't know. >> what was the waiting like and the not knowing? >> terrible. just slams on the brakes in your life. you can't do anything. i honestly didn't think we'd ever find her. what was going to change? >> but little did justin know

things were about to change up in fayetteville the private investigator david marshburn confronted nick holbert. he was working practically 24/7 to get a confession, chasing every clue he dropped. >> we'd go talk to him and then go out and try to figure it out. we knew we were going on wild goose chases. we had to do it. what else you got? >> marsh burn needed to turn up the heat on holbert and had an idea. >> he was always worried. >> that was his achilles heel. >> so i knew that was a weakness. >> which he exploited. he had an unmarked police car and had him parked near his house and conduct surveillance. fake survey lebs. >> it worked like a charm.

he saw them right out of the gate and come outside and got paranoid. >> so paranoid that marshburn tried another trick to push him to give it up. he had his wife pose as a paralegal and draw up phony inindictment papers charging him with kelly's murder. >> i changed who the detective was and changed the charges. he was being indicted and i got cece my pair legal person on the phone. >> who is your wife. >> who is helping me. the plan was working good and he was worried. >> holbert took one look at the indictment papers and went into a panic. sincing nick was near his breaking point, he reminded him about that plea deal if he confessed. so they took a ride to froggy bottoms, back to where it all began. >> i said look, nick, you're fixing to be indicted on this. they have evidence.

you need to get me to where kelly is at. and he's standing there just looking straight down and it feels like he is imaging all of this stuff going on of what he knows. >> do you think he's finally going to reveal to you. >> this is it. >> this is it. i had chills. >> marshburn then applied one last bit of pressure. his own ticking clock of sorts to push him over the edge. >> so i pick up this stick and i figured if i snap it, that it would ring in his mind, i'm on a time limit, the clock is ticking, i start snapping the twinges off of it and finally i got to the last little piece off of it and he said something like okay, i'm ready. >> ready to confess. finally after a yearlong cat and mouse game, holbert revealed to marshburn that he killed kelly

bordeaux. they got in the van and he directed marshburn to a remote area where he remembered burying the body. and then he said right here. so we pull down this path. >> are you getting nervous? >> no, i'm excited i'm going to find her and we try to find her. >> marshburn spent the last several hours combing through the thick woods trying to get a scent of her grave. >> we searched until almost dark. can't find nothing. >> what is that telling you though? >> we're close. >> but not close enough. holbert couldn't remember exactly where he buried kellys body. it was almost dark. everybody was exhausted. so marshburn reluctantly called it a day but he didn't take holbert home. >> i got him a hotel room and i told him i'm going to be back in the morning. >> did you worry he might get spooked and take off?

>> i was worried he was going to kill himself. >> and take the secrets of kelly's grave to his own. >> coming up, an excruciating few hours. >> i couldn't sleep that night. >> in the morning one final search and at long last a sign. >> all of a sudden he starts wimpering and he stops. >> after two long years are all questions about to be answered? when dateline continues. e answed when dateline continues. love s. like yard-sale savers. tee-time savers. and especially med d savers. select a medicare part d plan with walgreens as your preferred pharmacy and get co-pays for as low as zero dollars and 100 rewards points on prescriptions. isn't saving great? save smartly on med d. walgreens. trusted since 1901.

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welcome back. under intense pressure from private investigator david marshburn, nichok holbert had finally confessed to the murder of kelli bordeaux. he even agreed to take david to kelli's body. but after hours scouring the forest for her grave, their search was in vain. now the unlikely pair was about to try again. question was, could the admitted killer make good on his promise and give kelli's family the peace they deserved? here's andrea canning with the conclusion of "deep in the woods." >> reporter: it was a long night in north carolina. nick holbert was hold up in a hotel. while a few miles away, david marshburn was wide awake, wondering, worrying, hoping that tomorrow would be the day that he could finally bring kelli bordeaux home. >> i couldn't sleep that night. marsh couldn't sleep. i mean, we were just all excited for the next day.

so, next day comes, we go pick him up, and he's real quiet. >> he, of course, was nick holbert, who was now back in the forest outside fayetteville. it was may 14th, 2014. two years of searching had now come down to this one sweltering spring morning. but holbert still couldn't remember exactly where he had buried kelli's body and went off searching in a different direction. >> we're standing there, i'm like, darn it, i cannot figure this out. and all of a sudden, i looked over to my left and there's some clearing over here and there's the sun coming down. >> then, in that very same spot, cass seemed to pick up a scent. >> all of a sudden he starts crawling to it, like whimpering crawling. and he stops. that was our spot. >> they carefully pushed a metal rod into the ground.

the soil was loose, like a hole had been dug and filled in. it was at that moment marshburn was overwhelmed we motion. >> at that time, i said, baby girl, you're going home. you're going home, baby girl. sorry. i'm sorry. i get emotional. >> had you even seen her yet? >> mm-mm. >> you just knew. >> just knew. >> but they had to be sure, so now the grim task of digging began. >> we found a little piece of the jacket. when we pulled that jacket back, that's when we stopped. we said, well, this is her. i mean, this is it. >> throughout the day, marshburn had been texting fayetteville police about his progress. now, minutes after finding kelli's body, he sent them something definitive and dreadful. >> a photo that appears to be a human bone in the place he's digging. and at that time, we contacted him and said, hey, cease and

desist on digging. don't do nothing else. >> police rushed to the scene, and soon, detective jeff locklear was ininterrogating holbert on camera. >> where do you want to start from, the very beginning? >> holbert told the whole, horrible story, how he took kelli to the bar and they hung out. then later, said holbert, someone there told kelli about his prior sex offense. she got upset and swore at him in the empty parking lot. >> and i just snapped and zoned out and hit her, knocked her out. >> holbert said he took kelli to his camp site where she woke up and started screaming. >> and i hit her again, knocked her out again. and i mean, she was dead. >> holbert said he then took kelli's body deep into the woods and buried her. >> are you okay with going back there, nick? >> i don't know, i don't want to. >> holbert was then taken downtown and arrested.

>> this morning, detectives with the fayetteville homicide, fayetteville police department homicide unit recovered what we believe to be the remains of private first class kelli bordeaux. >> by now, kelli's family had gotten the news. >> matt called me -- >> she was at work. >> he was like, "hey, you need to come to mom's now. they found kelli." and i remember dropping the phone to the floor, like "i'll be right there." >> then it's a sense of relief, instead of wondering, what if, what if, what if. >> olivia called kelli's boyfriend, justin thompson. >> as soon as she called, i knew they found her. i was just so grateful, honestly. i was just so happy that she was found. i can't say happy -- >> relieved? >> yeah, i guess i was relieved. i was like sad again all over again. now we're going to have to do the funeral thing. ♪ >> two weeks later, they paid their final respects. the funeral in florida was such big news, it was actually televised. >> aim, fire! >> kelli bordeaux was just 23.

>> everybody rise, please. >> just over a year later came a measure of justice. >> are you, in fact, guilty of each of these crimes? >> yes, sir. >> facing the possibility of the death penalty, nick holbert pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing kelli in exchange for a life sentence. >> i wanted my sister. i didn't want her body, i wanted her. and so, i was like, what happens to nicholas holbert isn't going to change what he's done, whether he says he's sorry or whether -- it doesn't matter. >> for david marshburn, his remarkable work was done. case closed. justice served. kelli bordeaux was finally home. but he says solving her case left him with mixed emotions. >> once we got finished, we were depressed. it was a depression like you would not believe, because we went for two years nonstop, kelli, kelli, kelli, kelli.

>> do you think this case ever would have been solved without you? >> no. i don't think that nick would have ever told anyone unless they were his friend, but he did tell me. >> but the family of kelli bordeaux, the loss, the pain, the sorrow never goes away, but david marshburn at least gave them a chance to heal. >> he ended a suffering for my family, where we're sitting here agonizing for these last two years, he was the one that was able to come and end that for us and to make it to where you can try to start rebuilding and doing things that will make kelli proud and to live your life. >> the family also had something for david marshburn, a very special gift from kelli. >> kelli's dog tags, which, that's a great honor in itself. >> this is a very important thing for a soldier. >> yeah. i'll always have these.

these will stay with me forever. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. good morning. i'm jo ling kent at msnbc world headquarters here in new york. it's 6:00 in the east. it's 3:00 a.m. out west. and here's what's happening. new wrinkles in the impeachment inquiry. the lead democrat has a direct message to republicans and the president about who's in charge. new poll. the first real gauge of mike bloomberg's impact on the race. will he hurt democrats or trump more? billionaire backlash. behind the numbers of elizabeth warren's wealth tax and why some of the ultrarich are opposed. and strawberry fields, made famous by the beatles. why it's now open to the public for the first time.