we're agonizing for these 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 bordeaux was always there for others. >> she liked to help people that needed help. >> therefore, -- there for her

friends, there for her country. >> this was a good fit for her. >> she wanted to be an officer. >> she was estranged from her husband. had a new boyfriend. >> she was easy to talk to. >> and lately she seemed to have an admirer. >> did she ask kelli for her phone number? >> yeah. >> hundreds were included in the search, including this perfect stranger. >> i wanted to see if i could solve this. >> he was suspicious about one of the men in kelli's life. >> 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 decrepit 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 on nearby fort bragg. famous for billiards, beer and karaoke, it was once a popular little pub called froggy bottoms, and where it was private first class kelli bordeaux planned to unwind back on friday the 13th, 2012. kelli was just 23, a mere 5'1" and barely 100 pounds. but she could hold her own with anybody. >> girl power indeed. >> reporter: to her older siblings, matt and olivia, kelli was always the perfect combination of tough and sweet. >> bouncy, bubbly and happy,

just trying to have a good time. >> she was always working to get better. >> that started in pre-k. she got straight a's. all schooling was just a cake walk for her. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: kelli grew up in florida and enlisted in the army when she was 22. 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.

>> reporter: 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 want to do it in 20 years, i really want this to be something. >> reporter: so she would have possibly made a life out of the military? >> oh, yeah. >> that was the plan. >> reporter: kelli's professional life was on track, but her personal life was complicated. kelli 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 kelli to north carolina, kelli asked mike to come with her. >> reporter: why did kelli want to save the marriage? >> i don't think she wanted to see it as a failure. she said i have three months where i'm going to make this work. >> reporter: but kelli couldn't make it work. despite her efforts, the marriage was on the rocks.

>> she bought a one-way plane ticket to florida and he left. >> reporter: did she actually use the word divorce. >> i remember the text message was very clear. she said, listen, mike, i've tried for three months to try to make this work. i can't do this anymore. this is it. >> reporter: 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 easy to talk to. she was fun to be around. >> kelli had a knack of being with everybody? >> if she was there, she was the life of the party. >> reporter: justin said he gave her space. but when mike ultimately moved out, kelli asked justin to move in. >> reporter: were you in love with kelli? >> yeah, we were in love. i don't know if we were going to

get married and have kids, but that was our intention, to further our relationship. >> reporter: did kelli want kids? >> yeah. >> justin went to fayetteville to see his future home. the couple also hit froggy bottoms. then justin went to florida. he had 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. >> reporter: did she say if she was going with anybody? >> no. she was like, i want to go see karaoke and not think about work, not think about mike. she was just trying to get away from all that and relax. >> reporter: kelli also texted justin about her plans. justin wasn't happy she was going out on the town to a place with people she didn't know.

>> she didn't know anybody there. so if something happened, nobody is going to call us because nobody knows anything. >> reporter: kelli and justin kept in touch, texting frequently. everything seemed fine, he said. olivia, meanwhile, went to bed early. did you try and text her or call her the next morning? >> i probably tried to text her and say, hey, how was last night, whatever. but it was not uncommon for us not to talk for a day or two. i was like, let her chill out. >> reporter: but justin said he did receive a text from kelli around 1:30 a.m. he said there was something strange about it. >> reporter: the verbiage, i made it home safe. i'll call you tomorrow. why would you text, i made it home safe. >> reporter: did you try to call her? >> yeah. >> reporter: what were you

thinking? >> it was bad. i knew it was bad. >> reporter: what were some of the scenarios going through your mind? >> that someone was holding her somewhere. >> then talk turned to her estranged husband. >> were you talking divorce? >> kelly was. g divorce? >> kelly was ♪ ♪ you don't always set out to be a rock star. but when the spotlight finds you. you become one anyway. ♪ ♪

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♪♪ 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. on sunday, now frantic, justin 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 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 started 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, but it's usually people with a disciplinary problem. kelli bordeaux was not a problem. she was always there where she was supposed to be, always contacted her family, her friends, 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 numbering 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 were 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? >> 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. woods" continues. and one that's forever wild. but freedom means you don't have to choose just one adventure.

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>> 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 vibz vibes from people sometimes. i could see it.

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 not have him find out where she lived. at the apartment complex go out and meet him. i don't want him there if i'm not there. i don't know what this guy does all day and all night. >> this guy stuck in your mind? >> 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 safely 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 campsite 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 altogether. >> 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 housesitting for his dad that saturday. his dad was out of town. he fed the horses and he was hanging out with different guys,

so we located those people, interviewed them. we got video of him at a convenience store in his hometown, so he was there. >> what time was that video taken? >> around noon on saturday. >> so that doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't in fayetteville? >> his father put him there, his friends put him there. >> you didn't feel like anybody was covering for him, or -- >> we went to the point of saying, okay, if he premeditatedly did this, he could leave his phone in florida, bought another phone. we even checked into that. he was there. mike bordeaux was eliminated as a suspect. >> 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 da 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 alone, even though you confined her. >> 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 da 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. sers tripled. which meant hiring 20 new employees and buying 20 new laptops. so she used her american express business card, which gives her more membership rewards points on her business purchases. somebody ordered some laptops? cynthia suarez. cfo. mvp. get the card built for business. by american express. with relapsing forms of ms... there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too.

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autumn, 2012. kelli bordeaux had been missing for months. the search was continued but it been 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 feverishly searching for her. nobody knew, not even police, not even kelli's family. his name was david marshburn. he didn't know kelli but had an intense interest in her case since the day she disappeared. >> she was in the military. you don't just up and disappear. she was a young female. that's just not right. he was a bounty hunter and special investigator. his job? to find people, dead or alive.

remember that tv interview nick holbert did? marshburn saw it, too. >> when i'm watching him, it was 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 just did it. >> to bring some answers to her family. >> yeah. i loved doing it. i loved helping the family out. >> reporter: marshburn was convinced holbert had buried kelli's body in the thick brush near fayetteville. >> how daunting of a task was it? >> it's like throwing a rock a bit bigger than this, throwing

it out here and saying, you got to find it. if you miss it by an inch, you might as well miss it by a mile because it's 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 watchdog with a keen sense of smell named kaz. >> he's trained on track and trail, whatevermarshburn, marci and kaz slogged through fields, forest, 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. i'm at my wit's end. >> then came an unlikely break. in may 2013, nick holbert was

released from jail after being locked up from that parole violation. if holbert was happy, david marshburn was thrilled, because now he could deal with him face to face. just a day after his release, marshburn holed up at the house where holbert was staying. i've never talked to a killer. have you? >> i work for "dateline." >> were you worried he would kill you? >> i didn't fear him because i don't fear anybody. nobody is big or gad enough, it's the man upstairs i'm worried about. >> so it's more like, i want to get this right, i want to solve this. >> and if you do one thing wrong, it turns to hell. marshburn took a deep breath and knocked on the door. >> he answered the door. i said, hey, nick, i'm david

marshburn. i'm a private investigainvestig. i'm here to try to find kelli bordeaux and i think you can help me. >> his strategy was simple, to get nick holbert to think he was an alibi. >> it was basically to say i'm an angel, let me help you. >> help him how, though? >> to get him to see the light. >> you're telling nick you're going to prove that 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 held nick holbert's confidence, getting him to gradually tell him what happened to kelli bordeaux. >> i had to get into his mind and find out what he was about. >> did you think he was just going to confess to you? >> no.

i didn't know how i was going to get it out of him. >> by this time police knew about david marshburn's investigation. >> did you take david marshburn seriously? >> he wanted to come and befriend nick holbert. >> what did you think of that? >> we told him to go for it. he had common sense. we were okay with him trying to befriend him. >> marshburn is a private eye, not a police officer. unlike a police officer, he could try tactics that were unorthodox. a few months after they met, marshburn told holbert they were ready to cut a deal if he confessed. he even presented holbert with this very attractive plea bargain agreement. >> it would be manslaughter and he would get three or 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? >> he believed it to a point, but then he threw it back at me after looking at it for five minutes, and he 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 get to be his friend? i had to say some crap 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 more of a frenemy. but marshburn said he paid a high price as he practically

abandoned his wife and young son. >> i didn't do family stuff. if nick called me and said, hey, i need cigarettes, i need money, i would get up and leave, get to him and do what i had to do and come back. >> were you obsessed? >> when i have an answer, i don't give up. i wanted to be the one to find the answer. marcia, my partner, she's the same way. we don't stop until we get results. >> but holbert still wasn't providing any answers about kelli, who had now been missing some 18 months. by this time, marshburn had 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'll chop another one off. i wanted to torture him because i knew he knew. >> you really would have done that? >> i hated him that bad. i despised him. >> he really got into your head. >> i wouldn't say he got into my head, i spent so much money, almost lost my family, almost lost the favorite thing i had. >> marshburn didn't resort to torture, but he did need a new tactic, something that would finally make holbert share his deadly secret. coming up -- >> marshburn finds a new pressure point. >> that was his achilles heel. >> but will it work? is the mystery about to be solved? >> this is it? >> this is it. >> when "deep in the woods" continues. woods" continues. follow me. ♪

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♪♪ 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 need to tell me what happened. the middle you're probably not sure, it's fuzzy, you got tunnel vision. the end is where we need to get to. that's where i need to be. you need to get me to where kelli is at. i'll leave you right here and you think about it and i'll wait as long as you need me to. he didn't say a word. nothing. >> this must have been a powerful moment between you two. >> it was. he was standing there just looking straight down. it feels like he's imaging all this stuff of what went on. >> did you feel like he was finally going to reveal to you?

>> i knew he was. 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 the clock, 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 confess. 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 do we got to go? he said, down that road.

i said how many times have i been on this road? how did i miss her? 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 >> 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. >> after two long years, are all questions about to be answered? answered? when "deep in the woods" continues. ep in the woods" continues. most bladder leak pads were similar. until always discreet invented a pad that protects differently. with two rapiddry layers. for strong protection, that's always discreet. question your protection. try always discreet. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults.

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fluit. it was a long night in north carolina. nick was holed up in a hotel. a few milds away, david was wide awake wondering, hoping, that tomorrow would be the day that he could finally bring kelli home. >> i couldn't sleep. we were just all excited for the next day.

so the next day comes. we have to pick him up. >> he was nick holbert who was now outside fateville. it was may 14. 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 look over and there's some clearing over here and there's the sun coming down. >> then, in that very same spot, he 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. i'm sorry. i get emotional. >> had you even seen her yet? >> mm-mm. >> you just knew. >> mm-hmm, we just knew. >> but they had to be sure. so, now the grim task of digging began. >> we found a little piece of a jacket. when we pulled that jacket back, that's when we stopped. we said, 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, what appeared to be a human bone in the place he's digging. and at that time, we contacted him, said hey, cease and desist on digging. don't do nothing else.

>> police rushed to the scene and soon, detective jeff locklear was interrogating holbert on camera. >> where do you want me to start, at 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 so 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 says he then took kelli's body deep into the woods and buried her. >> are you okay with going back there? >> i don't know, i don't really want to. >> holbert was then taken downtown and arrested. >> this morning, detectives with the 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. >> she was at work. >> he called me and was like, 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. >> and then it's a sense of relief. instead of wondering, what if, what if, what if, what if. >> olivia called kelli's boyfriend, justin thompson. >> as soon as she called, i just 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 didn't want her body, i wanted her. so i was like, what happens to nicholas holbert isn't going to change what he's done, whether he says he's sorry, 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 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. >> for the family of kelli bordeaux, the loss, the pain, the sorry 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 in 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. >> yeah.

>> for a soldier. >> i'll always have these. these will stay with me forever. the hardest part, i can't help him. i'm a mother. i fix stuff. a skinned knee. i cannot fix this. i can't bring him back. >> on the ground in front of the vehicle. >> it was devastating when they found him. the single dad so passionate about helping others. >> he was a selfless person.