all of their victims are forever traumatized. >> they will never feel fully safe in their own homes. >> your life can never be the same. it never will be. no matter how much i put on that face and tell everybody that i am fine, i will never be the same after this. we're agonizing for 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. ♪

kelli bordeaux 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, the army? >> she wanted to be an officer. >> her personal life was a little more complicated. she was estranged from her husband. >> were they talking divorce? >> kelli was. mike wasn't. >> had a new boyfriend. >> she was pretty fun. she's easy to talk to. >> and lately she seemed to have an admirer. >> did he ask kelli for her phone number? >> yes. >> when she suddenly vanished, hundreds joined the search including this perfect stranger. >> i said, i'd like to see if i could solve this. >> he was suspicious about one of the men in kelli's life. >> it is like, dude, i can tell you're lying. >> but getting the truth wouldn't be easy. >> i had to get into his mind, see what he was about. >> what you were involved in was psychological warfare. >> uh-huh. he knows where she's at. >> after a young soldier's

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. ♪ it's closed now, just a dekrepity 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 based at nearby fort bragg. famous for billiards, beer and karaoke, it was once a popular little public called froggy bottoms and it was where private first class kelli bordeaux planned to unwind one friday night back in april, 2012, friday the 13th. kelli was just 23, a mere 5'1" and barely 100 pounds, but she could hold her own with anybody. >> girl power indeed.

>> to her older siblings, matt and olivia, kelli was always the perfect combination of tough and sweet. >> bouncy, bubbly, happy, and just trying to have a good time. >> i think she was always working to get better. she had a driven personality. >> that started from pre-k. she got straight as. all schools was just cake walk for her. >> kelli also had a big heart. she was warm and generous, always 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. >> kelli grew up in florida and then enlisted in the army when she was 22. >> you just wait until i see you. i'm not playing with you at all. >> after basic training the army sent her to fayetteville, north carolina. at fort bragg kelli trained as

an army medic, one of the most demanding jobs in the military. >> i think it gave her an opportunity to do something better with her life and she wanted to help people. >> and what was it about being 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 it, i want to do my 20 years. she's like, i really want this to be something. >> so she would have possibly made a life out of the military. >> oh, yeah. >> yes, that was the plan. >> kelli's professional life was on track but her personal life was complicated. kelli had a husband named mike bordeaux. she 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 kelli to north carolina, she asked mike to come with her. >> why did kelli 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 kelli couldn't make it work. despite her efforts the marriage was on the rocks. >> she bought him a one-way plane ticket to florida and he left. >> and did she actually use the word divorce? >> i remember in the text messages very clear, like, listen, mike, i have done everything i can for the last three months to make it work, i can't do this anymore, like this is it. >> during her initial separation from mike, kelli started seeing someone else, a guy from her hometown of st. cloud, florida, named justin thompson. >> she was just fun. she was easy to talk to. she was always laughing, loving, she never meant anything wrong to anybody. >> kelli had a knack of making everyone happy? >> she was inviting to everyone. if you were there you were part of the party. >> when kelli fried to save her troubled marriage, justin says he gave her space. but when mike ultimately moved

out kelli asked justin the move in. >> were you in love with kelli? >> yes, we were in love. i don't want to be like we were going to get married and have kids because i don't know what was going to happen, but i know it was our intentions, to further our relationship. >> was home wherever kelli was? >> yes. >> in early april of 2012 justin visited fayetteville to get acquainted with his future home. the couple also hit froggy bottoms. then justin returned to florida. he would be back in two weeks, this time for good. meanwhile, that friday the 13th kelli decided to go to the bar alone. she texted her sister olivia before she left that night and sent this selfie. >> did she say if she was going with anybody? >> no, she's like i'm going to go sing karaoke and not think about work, not think about mike, just kind of trying to get away from all of that and relax. >> kelli also texted justin about her plans. justin said he wasn't happy that kelli had gone out alone in a

new town she didn't know. >> i didn't feel like her life was in danger, i just didn't feel like that was a good environment. >> what was a good environment? >> the fayetteville area, her by herself. we don't know anybody there. if something was to happen, no one was going to call and say, hey, kelli hasn't come home in a while, nobody knows anything. >> throughout the evening kelli 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 texted her and said, hey, how was last night, but it wasn't uncommon for us not to talk for a day or two. i just remember, like, let her chill this weekend. >> but justin said he did wake up to a text sent from kelli around 1:30 a.m. he said something was strange about it. >> the verbiage, the way she talks, it didn't make sense. i made it home, i'm same, 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 to call her then? >> yes. >> what happened? >> it was dead. >> what were you thinking? >> it was bad, i knew it was bad. coming up -- what were some of the scenarios running through your mind? >> that somebody was holding her somewhere. >> and then police turn their attention to kelli's estranged husband. >> he told me during the interview they were having some problems. >> were they talking divorce? >> kelli was, mike wasn't. >> when "dateline" continues. ons donate now at redcross.org

we have to find somethingust else. good luck!ut it. what does that mean? we are doomed. [ laughter ] that's it... i figured it out! we're going to give togetherness. that sounds dumb. we're going to take all those family moments and package them. hmm. [ laughing ] that works.

♪ saturday, the morning after. kelli bordeaux had been out of touch for hours. her boyfriend, justin thompson, knew something was wrong. what was supposed to be a day off was now turning into a day of dread. not a call, text, or tweet from her, he says. >> i remember talking to my mom. i was like, i don't want to

start a storm but i'm really worried about it because i knew something bad happened. >> why did you jump to that conclusion so fast? >> if you talk to somebody every day, and then you can't get ahold of them, it's not good. >> saturday came and went, still nothing from kelli. so son sunday, justin, now frantic, phoned the fayetteville police department, urging them to start searching. >> nobody would help me. i called them several times. >> police policy required a family member to call in and provide more personal details on kelli before they could start searching. so the next day justin decided to call the army basin stead. -- the army base instead. >> i asked them if she showed up. i said it is important, if she didn't show up you need to go to her house. they got back on the phone and said she didn't show up. >> army investigators and fayetteville police went to kelli's apartment. >> they got inside? >> uh-huh. >> no kelli? >> no kelli. >> is that when everybody starts taking this really seriously. >> that's when started to panic, yeah. >> word spread when fort bragg

called her estranged husband mike who then phoned her sister olivia. reliable kelli missed roll call and wasn't at home. >> i was like what the hell. so thin started facebook mess i thinking her, texting her, calling her like crazy, trying to find anybody in the army with her, like have you seen her, did you go out on friday. i was just trying everything. >> everything led to nothing, no leads, no clues, no kelli. >> what were some of the scenarios that were running through your mind? >> just that somebody was holding her somewhere. >> a kidnapping kind of thing. >> yeah, i was more concerned she was hurt somewhere and she wasn't able to get to us so we have to get to her. >> olivia, matt and mike immediately made plans to all meet in fayetteville. by now the fayetteville pd was all over the case. one of the investigators assigned was veteran homicide detective mike ballard. >> we knew this could be an endangered person.

>> why the homicide unit when she has barely been missing. and i'm sure soldiers do go missing from time to time. >> some soldiers do, usually they have problems with their units, disciplinary problems. kelli bordeaux was not problem soldier, always contacted her family, her friends, and then she just disappears off the face of the earth. >> breaking news in the case of kelli 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 is still a missing person case. there is a lot that is not known at this time. >> olivia and mike arrived in fayetteville where they took a grim meeting at police headquarters. >> what did you tell them? >> that we were hoping for the best but preparing for the worst and they should do the same thing, too. >> i remember at one point the detectives were trying to take

us back to talk to us more and we were walking into a room and it said homicide on the door, and i was like i'm not going in there. they were like, no, no, this is just the best room. i was like, that's not happening, i'm not letting that thought in. i have to stay positive. >> this is an out-of-character thing to happen to my sister. it is not something that she would do. >> olivia quickly became a mainstay on every media outlet in the area. >> i just want my sister back, you know. 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 kelli. >> most of us are military, prior military, or spouses, so we are very driven to find one of our own. >> search teams numbers in the

hundreds combed the fields and thick forests surrounding fayetteville. >> i searched basically every day i was there, sunup to sundown for the most part, and then it is just searching, searching, searching. >> this volunteer group started at kelli's apartment, but just like police their search turned up nothing. >> detectives were also combing through kelli's background, her habits, and, most importantly, her circle of family and friends. >> everybody's a suspect until we eliminate you. >> you started with mike bordeaux? >> mike bordeaux. >> kelli's estranged husband? >> right, and he told me during the interview that they were having some problems and that's what threw me off when he would get on tv, there was no issues. >> me and help loved each other -- me and her loved each other very much. and i just appreciate everyone out here helping looking for her. >> he wasn't being consistent. >> mike was saying everything was great. >> yeah, yeah. >> and it waerchlt. >> like it was a marriage made in heaven. and it wasn't.

>> you were taking note of his actions? >> absolutely. >> were they talking divorce? >> kelli was, mike wasn't. >> did you see that as a possible motive? >> yeah, we had to eliminate mike bordeaux. >> mike insisted he was in florida when kelli 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 kelli's boyfriend, justin thompson. little did they know that justin had a huge new lead waiting for them about the night kelli disappeared. coming up -- >> you get vibes from people sometimes. i could see it. it was weird. >> a new possible suspect. >> he is the last person that is seen with kelli. that was very concerning to us. >> why something in his past would trigger even more alarm bells. >> it certainly was a red flag. >> when "deep in the woods" continues.

police have just told us they have no new leads. >> nothing. >> kelli bordeaux. >> missing soldier kelli bordeaux. >> what happened to kelli bordeaux? >> it was now national news. suddenly, quiet 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. >> kelli bordeaux had been missing some 72 hours. the chances of finding her were growing slimmer by the day. >> investigators have combed through just about every area here in fayetteville as well as in cumberland county. >> 600 miles away in florida, kelli's boyfriend justin thompson was talking to detectives, telling them he was home the weekend kelli disappeared. >> he was not where he said. we checked his phone. everything checked out with justin. >> justin told detectives something else, another name to check out. when he and kelli visited froggy bottoms the week before she disappeared they met a chatty guy who worked there named nick holbert. >> he started talking to us. i get vibes, you could see it was weird. >> kelli being kelli asked holbert if he wanted to join them for a game of pool.

holbert hung out with them until justin and kelli decided to head home for the night. >> did he ask kelli for her phone number? >> yes. >> and? >> she gave it to him because he worked there. it is always good to have somebody that works at the bar as a friend. >> that friday the 13th when kelli decided to go back to the bar, by herself, justin told detectives she wasn't really alone. he said she arranged to get a ride from nick holbert. >> i just said this guy, watch out, be careful around him. told her to have him not find out where she lived exactly. the on the complex. i told him to walk out and meet him. because i don't know what he does. i don't want him to hang out there. i don't know what he does all night. >> sound like --

>> yeah, he's weird. i don't know what she was doing. >> did you say maybe you shouldn't -- >> i said it. >> -- go with him? >> i said it, but i wasn't adamant about it. i'm not going to tell her no a thousand times on text message. >> kelli made it safe to the bar where she texted justin throughout the night, but then there was the last odd text he received. justin was sure he had something to do with her disappearance and sent the text to cover his tracks. detectives went to froggy bottoms where they found nick holbert. they discovered 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 also agreed to an interview at the police station where he told detectives, yes, he picked up kelli on friday, the 13th, and later dropped her off at the entrance to her apartment complex. >> since friday night, no contact with her whatsoever, you don't know where she is at? >> no. >> what do you know about her? >> nothing, really. i've known her for, what, six hours all together. >> holbert was fully cooperative.

didn't duck one question. >> if you knocked her down in the car, i need to know about that. >> no, i did not. >> not even touched her? >> no. >> so they let him go. if nick holbert was a suspect, he certainly wasn't acting like one. he joined search teams looking for kelli and even spoke on local tv expressing his concern. >> she seemed like a really nice and cool person, and i mean i hate that she's missing. >> but fayetteville police weren't buying holbert's story, and now he too was a person of interest along with kelli's husband, mike bordeaux. remember, mike said he was home in florida when she went missing, which detectives needed to confirm. >> what are you looking for in florida? >> he said he was house sitting for his dad that saturday. his tdad was out of town. he fed the horses and was hanging out with different guys.

so we interviewed those people, story added up. we have video of him taken of him in a store in his hometown. so he was there. >> what time was that video? ? >> around noon on saturday. >> that didn't necessarily prove that he was not in fayetteville. >> we talked to his dad. friday night he was there. family put him there friday night, friends put him there. his alibi checked out. >> so now detectives and >> we even checked into him premeditating this and leaving his cell phone there in florida and buying another phone for the trip. it didn't pan out. >> so now detectives and district attorney billy west

zeroed in on the last person seen with kelli. >> everything kept coming back to nicholas holbert as the prime suspect. >> so investigators dug into holbert's background and discovered something rather disturbing. >> he was a registered sex offender and served time in a penitentiary for that. >> it certainly was a red flag, the fact that he had a prior sex offense and he is the last person that's seen with kelli. that was very, very concerning to us. >> the d.a. didn't have any evidence to arrest holbert for kelli's disappearance, but he did discover holbert 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. >> sex offender nicholas -- >> right where detectives wanted him. now they could watch holbert, see if he blabbed to a cell mate about what happened to kelli. they also questioned him twice, even took him back to froggy bottoms to jog his memory, but holbert stuck to his same, though sometimes inconsistent story. >> you caught him in lies but you couldn't crack him?

>> exactly. >> by now olivia and matt had left fayetteville and gone home. >> you must have felt kind of like you were leaving your sister behind even though realistically you can't stay forever. >> i remember feeling defeated. we came up here thinking that something was going to happen and it didn't. >> i don't know. i felt 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 d.a. seemed so close to an answer, they even had their prime suspect in custody, but weeks passed, months. holbert stopped talking. >> you couldn't arrest him? >> we needed her body. we needed to find kelli 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 kelli home.

coming up -- why a perfect stranger cared so much about kelli. >> 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 "deep in the woods" continues.

you. >> i'm lindsey riser with breaking news from nashville. the fbi is leading the investigation into a massive explosion that rocked the downtown area this morning. police say it was an intentional act. this is video capturing the blast. an rv on the street had a recording saying a bomb would explode within 15 minutes. nashville police just releasing this photo of the rv asking for help. three people were injured and flights out of nashville are

grounded due to communication issues. now, back to ""dateline" extra". >> autumn, 2012. kelli bordeaux had been missing for months. the searches continued but were winding down and so was hope. privately, many around town felt kelli would never be found. but in the forest outside fayetteville there was someone still secretly searching for her. no one knew, not police, not even kelli's family. his name was david marshburn. he didn't know kelli but had an intense interest in her case from the day she disappeared. >> she was in the military. you just don't up and disappear. she was a young female. that's not right. >> he is both a bounty hunter

and private investigator. his specialty, finding people, dead or alive. >> i knew she wasn't alive. i knew she needed to be found. >> she seemed like a really nice -- >> remember that tv interview nick holbert did? marshburn saw it too. >> when i'm watching him it's like, dude, i can tell you're lying, he did it, he knows where she's at, he killed her. >> and marshburn was also convinced he could find kelli bordeaux. operating on his own time and own dime, marshburn started carefully researching the details of kelli's disappearance. >> i don't know what got into me to do it. i mean i just did it. >> to bring some answers to her family. >> yeah, i love doing it. i love helping a family out. >> marshburn was convinced holbert had buried kelli close to the froggy bottoms bar somewhere in the thick forest surrounding fayetteville. >> how daunting of a task was it? >> it is 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 it by an inch, you might as well have missed it by a mile because it is not that easy to find something. >> marshburn needed help, so several months into his very private search he added two new members to his team, an assistant named marcia ward and a specially-trained search dog with a keen sense of smell named cass. >> he's named on tracking, trailing, whatever you want, what odor you want. >> including buried bodies. together marshburn, marcia and cass slogged through ponds, fields, forests, thousands of acres and searched for months, but no trace of kelli. >> do you ever lose hope? >> oh, yeah, i got really frustrated and disappointed and

i am at my wits end. >> then came an unlikely break. in may 2013, nick holbert was released from jail after being locked up on that parole violation. if holbert was happy, david marshburn 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 holbert was staying. >> i've never talked to a killer. have you? >> i work for "dateline." >> oh, yeah. 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 a star struck, you know what i mean? you're like, wow, it is happening. not that i feared him. because i don't fear anybody. nobody is big enough or bad enough. it's the man upstairs i'm worried about. it is not anybody on earth. >> it is more like i want to get this right, i want to solve this? >> and if you do one thing wrong, it goes to hell. >> 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 kelli bordeaux and i think you can help me." >> his strategy was simple, trick holbert into thinking he was an ally. >> it was 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. >> so you are telling nick that you are going to prove he didn't have anything to do with the disappearance of kelli bordeaux? >> uh-huh. >> 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 kelli bordeaux. >> i had to get into his mind and see what he was about. >> did you think that he was going to just confess to you?

>> uh-huh, i knew that. 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 marshburn seriously? >> absolutely. he came to us and wanted to befriend nick holbert. >> what did you think of that? >> hey, go for it. we can't tell him what to do. he was intelligent. he had good common sense. so we was okay with him trying to befriend him. >> marshburn, remember, is a private eye, not a police officer. unlike detectives he could try tactics that were, to say the least, unorthodox. a few months after they met marshburn told holbert that the d.a. was ready to cut a deal if he confessed. marshburn even presented holbert with this 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. >> you'll see, i put a fake judge on there. it was justin f. case, honorable justin f. case. just in case. >> did he believe it? >> yeah. he believed it to a point, but then he threw it back at me after looking at it for about five minutes said, no, they'll just take it back. >> marshburn thought that wasn't exactly the reaction of an innocent man. now he was fully convinced nick holbert had killed kelli, but he needed to get holbert to reveal where he buried her body. >> how can i be his friend? and i had to do some things, say some crap that i just didn't believe, but i had to do it to play the part. >> marshburn bought holbert countless meals, beers, even hired him to do odd jobs, slowly becoming a bff, or maybe a more of a fren-enemy.

but marshburn said 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 called and said i need cigarettes, i need some money, i would get up and i would leave and i would go straight to him and do what i had to do and come back. >> were you obsessed? >> when i have somebody i'm hunting down i don't stop until i get them. >> isn't that obsessed? >> i don't know. >> i am dedicated. >> until you get the answers you need. >> when i'm hunting someone down, i don't stop until i get the answers i need. marcia, my partner is the same. we don't stop until we get results. >> but holbert still wasn't provided answers about kelli who had now been missing some 18 months. by this point marshburn spent thousands of hours and some $40,000 trying to crack holbert. he was losing hope and considered 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'm going to chop another one off. i wanted to torture him because i knew he knew. >> you really would have done that? >> oh, yeah. i hated him that bad, i despised him. >> he really got into my head. >> i wouldn't say he got into my head. he got into my damn emotions. where i needed -- i spent so much money, almost lost my family, lom lost everything i had. >> marshburn didn't resort to torture but he needed a new tactic, something that would holbert share his deadly secret. >> come up -- >> nick was always worried. >> mashburn finds a new pressure point. >> that was his achilles heel. >> uh-huh. >> but will it work? is the mystery about to be solved? >> this is it? >> this is it. >> when "deep in the woods"

continues. ds" continues.

♪ there were still a few flyers scattered around fayetteville, but nearly two years after kelli bordeaux had mysteriously vanished the investigation had cooled. new crimes now took priority. kelli's family still visited fayetteville periodically to keep the case alive, somehow never losing hope. >> people would ask, how do you keep thinking she's alive. i was like, until you can prove otherwise why should i believe it. i would rather believe the better scenario. >> how did you have that hope it would happen? >> because the other avenue wasn't one i wanted to go down. >> back in florida, kelli's boyfriend, justin thompson, had been living in limbo with a bad case of survivor's guilt. >> i could have done more. somehow i should have done better. i should have told her don't go, argued about it. i don't know. >> what was the waiting like, the not knowing? >> terrible.

just like slams on the brakes, in your life you can't do anything. i honestly didn't think we would ever find her. >> really? >> what was going to change? >> but little did justin know things were about to change. up in fayetteville, private investigator david marshburn had befriended nick holbert, the prime suspect in kelli's disappearance. marshburn was working practically 24/7 to get a confession, chasing every clue holbert dropped. >> we go talk to him and then we'd go out and try and figure it out. we knew we were going on wild goose chases. we had to do it. i mean what else you got? >> marshburn needed to turn up the heat on holbert and had an idea. >> nick was always worried law enforcement was watching him. >> that was his achilles heel? >> uh-huh. so i knew it was a weakness.

>> which marshburn exploited by enlisting a friend who owned a vehicle that looked like an unmarked police car. he had him park near holbert's house and conduct surveillance, fake surveillance. >> it worked like a charm because he saw him right out the gate when he come outside and got paranoid. >> so paranoid that marshburn tried yet another trick to push holbert to give it up. he had his wife pose as a paralegal and drop phony indictment papers charging holbert with kelli's murder. >> i took one of his old charges, changed who the detective was, changed the charges. he was being indicted and i got cc, my paralegal person on the phone -- >> who is your wife? >> yeah, 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. sensing nick was near his breaking point marshburn reminded him about the

sweetheart 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 evidently got evidence. you know the beginning, what happened. the middle, you are probably not so sure, because it is all fuzzy. you probably had tunnel visionings or you just don't want to remember the bad part. and the end. the end is where we need to get to. that's where i need to be. you need to get me to where kelli's at. i said i am going to leave you right here, and you think about it, and i will wait as long as you need to. he didn't say a word. nothing. >> it must have been a powerful moment between you two. >> it was. it was quiet. it was just my voice to him. and he's standing there looking straight down. i feels like he is imaging all the stuff he has done.

>> do you think he's finally going to reveal to you? >> oh, i know he is. >> this is it? >> oh, yeah, this is it. i had chills. >> marshburn then applied one last bit of pressure, his own ticking clock of sorts to push holbert over the edge. >> i pick up a stick, i figure if i sit there and snap it, it would ring in his mind, hey, i'm on a time limit, the clock is ticking. i started snapping the twigs off it. finally i got to the last pieces off of it and he said something like, okay, i'm ready. >> ready to confidence. finally, after a year-long cat-and-mouse game holbert revealed to marshburn that he killed kelli bordeaux. they got back in the van and holbert directed marshburn to a remote area where he remembered burying the body. >> and i said, where we gotta go? he said river road. my heart sank.

how many times have i been on this road, damn, how did i miss her? and then he said, right here. so we pulled down this path. >> are you getting nervous? >> no. i'm excited i'm going to find her. and i took cass and me and cass try and find her. >> marshburn and cass spent the next several hours combing through the thick woods, trying to get a scent of kelli's grave. >> we searched to almost dark and cass starts laying down and so we start digging. can't find nothing. >> what is that telling you though? >> thinking we're close. >> but not close enough. holbert couldn't remember exactly where he buried kelli's body. it was almost dark. everybody was exhausted. so marshburn reluctantly called it a day, but he didn't take holbert home. >> i give him a hotel room and i tell him i'm going to be back in the morning. >> did you worry that he might get spooked and take off? >> i was worried he was going to kill himself. >> and take the secrets of kelli's grave to his own.

coming up -- an excruciating few hours. >> i couldn't sleep that night. marcia couldn't sleep. >> in the morning, one final search, and at long last a sign. >> all of a sudden he starts whimpering and he stops. whimpering and he stopped. >> after two long years, are all of the questions about to be answered. when deep in the woods continues. alright, everyone, we made it. my job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. i'm having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. so we're using a speakerphone in the store. is that a good idea? one of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. you're looking for a grout brush, this is -- garth, did he ask for your help? -no, no. -no. we all see it. we all see it. he has blue hair. -okay. -blue.

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it was a long night in north carolina. nick holbert was holed up in a hotel. well a few miles away david marshburn was wide awake. 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. we were all excited for the next

day. so the next day comes and we go pick him up and he's real quiet. >> he, of course, was nick holbert who was now back in the forest outside of 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. >> and we're standing there and i'm like, darn it, i could not figure it out and i looked over it my left and there is some clearing over here and there is the sun coming down. >> then, if that very same spot, cash seemed to pick up a scent. >> he starts calling to it, like whimpering and crawling and he stopped. 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 with emotion. >> at that time, i said baby girl, you're going to home. i'm sorry. i get emotional. >> had you even seen her yet? >> uh-huh. >> you just knew. >> we just knew. >> but they had to be sure. so the grim task of digging began. >> we found a little piece of a jacket and when we pulled the jacket back we stopped and said this is her. this is it. >> throughout the day marshburn has been texting police about his progress. now minutes after finding kelli's body, he found something definitive and dreadful. >> a photo that appears to be a human bone. the place he's digging and at that time we contacted him and said cease and desist on

digging. don't do nothing else. >> police rushed to the scene and soon the detective was interrogating holbert on camera. >> where do you want to start? at the very beginning. >> >> holbert talked about how he took kelli to the bar and hung out and someone told kelli about his prior sex offense and she got upset and swore at him in the empty parking lot. >> and i just snapped and zoned out and hit her and knocked her out. >> holbert said he took kelly to his campsite where she woke up and started screaming. >> and i hit her again. and i mean she was dead. >> holbert took kelli's body deep into the woods and buried here. >> are you okay going back? >> i don't want to. >> holbert was then taken downtown and arrested. >> this morning, detectives with

the fayetteville police department homicide department recovered what we believe to be private first class kelli bordeaux. >> by now kelly's family had gotten the news. >> i called and he was like you need to come mom's now. i can't just leave work. and he said you need to come home. they found kelli. and i just dropped the phone and said i'll be there. >> instead of wondering what if. >> olivia called kelli's boyfriend. >> as soon as she called. >> i knew they found her. i was relieved. and i was sad all over again and now we 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. 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 death penalty, nick holbert pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing kelly in exchange for a life sentence. >> i wants my sister and i wanded her body and i wanted her. what happens to nicholas holbert isn't going to change what he's done. whether he said he's sorry, it doesn't matter. >> for david marshburn, his remarkable work was done. case closed. justice served. kelli bordeaux was finally home. but he said 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. >> do you have think this case would have been solved wwithout you? >> no. i don't think he would have told anyone unless they were his friend but he did tell me. >> but the family of kelli bordeaux, the loss and the pain and the sorrow never goes away. but david marshburn at least gave them a chance to heal. >> he was able to come and end that for us and to make it to where you could try to start rebuilding and doing tings 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 is a great honor in

itself. >> this is a very important thing for a soldier? >> i'll always have these. these will stay with me forever. i believe that he was an old soul. a beautiful soul. i know he's my son but he was the kindest person i've ever met in my life. he was definitely god's gift to me. >> a beloved teenage boy who disappeared. >> i have a report -- >> they saw his truck with caution tape around it. the police told my father that he was gone. >> i said, are you sure? what are