Fayetteville’s Kelli Bordeaux case: Private investigator solves soldier’s disappearance

twenty-three-year-old Kelli Bordeaux was a combat medic here in Fort Bragg North Carolina and her bathily disappearance which shocked residents of Fayetteville the quiet little southern town that Fort Bragg put on the Mac it's gripping because it is a young lady who is just starting out on life and she's like any other 20-something year old who's gonna go and have a good time hang out with some friends and not a hint that anything could happen the way it did making this mystery all the more compelling that Kelly was hardly your profile soldier a former high school cheerleader and beauty queen whose good looks had always made her a magnet for male suitors her older brother and sister were constantly having to fight off boys were like trying to flirt with her oh and they'd pick her up but I'd just look at them and they knew put her down like don't touch her again and Kelly's gog arias fun-loving personality also made her one of the most popular girls and her hometown of st. Cloud Florida she would become friends with people and see the best of them instantaneously she just seemed like an all-american kind of girl who just enjoyed having a good time but Nancy McCleary a staff writer with the Fayetteville Observer says the petite 5 foot 1 inch blonde was also as tough as nails there was a spirit about her that seemed independent feisty that along with the passion for adventure and a dream of seeing the world is what made the military a natural calling for her she'd went to college prior but she wanted something more I think it's a good challenge a good opportunity and Kelly becoming a combat medic also satisfied Kelly's desire to help people I mean you're putting herself on the line trying to save others Kelly had been stationed at Fort Bragg for only a couple of months since completing basic training and boot camp and her husband of less than two years Mike Bordeaux had moved with her from st. Cloud Florida the couple settling into an off-base apartment together but there were problems in their relationship is that right yeah I mean they were young yeah what was never Dave Marshburn a private eye who conducted his own investigation into Kelly's disappearance says the stress of adjusting to a new life in another state would put their marriage under even more pressure with Mike unable to find a job and drinking heavily she just had enough of it the couple would decide to take a trial break from each other Mike returned home to Florida and Cali remaining alone in Fayetteville where she knew nobody others at her fellow soldiers at Fort Bragg it's also a lot of trends to figure out your place in Fort Bragg and with your unit there and you're in your company there and seeing who your friends are there but the private life of private first class Kelli Bordeaux was about to get complicated for about a year Kelly had been having an affair with a secret boyfriend named Justin Thompson whom she'd met back in st. Cloud Florida before joining the military do you think Kelly really liked Justin oh yeah sister Olivia says Kelly liked Justin so much she had decided to divorce Mike who had no idea his estranged wife already had a new man I think the plan was eventually like once she was officially on paper divorce is Justin come and be there and see what the relationship can turn into but ironically it would be during one of Justin's weekend visits to Fayetteville that Kelly would meet yet another suitor Nicholas Holbert who worked as a hopper at a local bar called froggy bottoms where Kelly and Justin had gone for drinks Nick gave her his telephone number and tried to befriend her do you think he was interested in her oh yes but p.i Marshburn says Kelly thought of Nick only as a drinking buddy at froggy bottoms after boyfriend Justin had returned home to Florida Nick offered the week before to bring her back out there and she she accepted returning to froggy bottoms with him the following Friday night right before she went out she just said hey does this look okay and sent me a picture of her and I was like yeah you look you it returned out to be the last photo of Kelly who would never be seen again after leaving froggy bottoms later that night with Nick Holbert that last picture of her it's haunting on the Friday night she disappeared private first class Kelli Bordeaux had been excited about going out to have some fun after another hard week at Fort brass okay have fun be careful talk to you tomorrow everything seemed normal oh yeah Kelly wouldn't drink and drive so her new acquaintance Nicholas Holbert had given her a ride to froggy bottoms where he worked as a general helper Kelly had even told boyfriend Justin Thompson who was living in Florida that Nick was taking her to the bar and Justin who met Nick with Kelly at the bar just a week earlier wasn't happy about it I said to be afraid of Nicholas I told her he was creepy and what did she say she's like I'll be fine oh my god I was like I don't know I even texted her that night before she left was like you better bring her pepper spray private eye David Marshburn who conducted his own investigation of the Kelli Bordeaux case says Nick considered their night at froggy bottoms a date but Kelly didn't she was there to have fun that's all it was she was there as a friend he was there as trying to be a boyfriend but Kelly just thought of him as a drinking buddy they went to the bar and she basically didn't pay him any attention she was singing cutting uh flirting with other guys you know just being friendly Kelly would leave froggy bottoms with Nick sometime after midnight she had had a few drinks at this point right but she wasn't drunk her bar tab wasn't enough to make somebody dizzy Nick would later tell cops that he dropped Kelly off near her apartment and boyfriend just have received a text from Kelly cellphone later that night reading quote got home safe I'm going to bed call me tomorrow it was so weird she just liked the firt though the text message before that was hey call me call me call me he did constantly all weekend to no avail you can't get ahold of your girlfriend you're calling her you're texting her so he alerted Kelly's family and he's like no something's up something happened like something's going on and he knew immediately then when Kelly doesn't report for duty at Fort Bragg on Monday morning and there's no sign of her at the apartment friends family and army brass really get worried that's not Kelly especially not Kelly she's a soldier and that's always first and foremost her superiors knew that this wasn't a soldier that went gave Kelly is reported missing to police and a massive search is mounted I did the first interview with the medium which is begging begging and crying and just begging for anybody who knew anything my sister was missing and I needed help finding her the search efforts were tremendous I mean four-wheelers you can imagine they called for volunteers to come out and help search and I think it was around five hundred people showed up among them Nick Holbert and Kelly's a strange hubby Michael who along with her boyfriend Justin where the cops mean persons of interest in most of these cases they're gonna look at anyone who is connected to this person especially anyone who is having a relationship they broke it down in like a circle so they said Kelly's in the middle we're gonna look at the people closest to her first and because Nick was the last known person to see Kelly before she vanished he was immediately under heavy suspicion I think right off the bat over it was as soon as we knew that Hobart was the last person to see her but it seemed like everyone in Fayetteville had their own idea of who might have had something to do with Kelly's disappearance I thought it was mine why did you think it because it's always the husband or the estranged husband who you weren't even looking at anyone else you were thinking no I at the back of my mind it it was it was mine for Doug that's her spouse and they're separated and it's questionable staff writer Nancy McCleary of the Fayetteville Observer says she found Mike's behavior suspicious after he'd rushed up from Florida to join the search for Kelly he was very distraught very emotional the police were reportedly also highly suspicious of Mike the police department's Person of Interest number one person of interest and I do know this for a fact what's the husband not Nick Mike had provided police with a verified alibi that he was at his home in Saint Cloud Florida hundreds of miles from Fayetteville North Carolina when his estranged wife disappeared but Nancy McCleary says there was widespread talk among local media that it was still possible for him to have slipped into Fayetteville and harmed Kelly it was about a six-hour drive and we figured that given that she had last been seen leaving the bar between midnight and 2:00 a.m. and that she wasn't discovered missing until much later they well that gives him ample time to get down there to get down there and get back but Michael Bordeaux had his own suspect in mind the first name I heard of was Justin the other man who had won his wife's affection away from him had you ever met Justin no private first class Kelli Bordeaux had been keeping an intimate in perilous secret the beautiful 23 year old soldier had been having an extramarital affair for more than a year and her husband Michael didn't have a clue so you didn't know about anything up until that point right until he and the other man in the love triangle Justin Thompson both found themselves persons of interest when Kelley went missing the detective was the first person and tell me about it now in exclusive interviews of crime watch daily each of them talks for the first time about loving the same woman and living under a cloud of suspicion after Kelly's mysterious disappearance I feel like oh like I have to like think about it on the daily just because I go this is the SAS ever been about it I don't know what you do to me but um it's tough I mean everything about everything she was like a dream girl really Michel Bordeaux had fallen in love with Kelly at first sight as soon as I saw her I was just like yeah I know she's she's she's special I knew it and the two would be married in their hometown of Saint Cloud Florida despite some family misgivings when they were in their early 20s they were both so young [Music] but Kelly and Mike made a nice-looking couple we were living fine we were happy we weren't broke we were we were doing pretty good then just three months after the wedding they hit the first bump in their young marriage when Kelly decided she wanted to pursue a career in the military I didn't like it because I didn't want to lose her to the military I didn't want her growing overseas but a determined Kelly wouldn't be deterred she was just thinking about our future she kept telling me that she was like it's our future and Kelly would leave Mike at home in Florida while she went away to basic training and boot camp that was like eight or nine months that I didn't have her at all the two would finally be together again when Kelly was assigned to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville North Carolina and Mike moved there with her hoping to start a family I wanted a baby and she thought she wanted a baby but Mike had no job and a bad drinking problem and you admit to that yeah yeah I am a big alcoholic I was really bad and Kelly had a change of mind she didn't want a baby anymore it appeared Kelly didn't want Mike anymore either she needed to take a break that's what I thought and he moved back to Florida you thought you guys had that rank I thought not even like a a breakup like just to just give me give me two weeks or a month or you know and I and I didn't have a problem with that I said I will give you whatever you need because I want to be with you forever what Mike didn't know was that his wife wanted their separation to be permanent so she could be with Justin Thompson her secret other man and like Mike Justin Thompson had also fallen in love with the gorgeous Kelly when they first met at a bar she was just bright bubbly louder I could hear her voice like over the crowd you know so I just she stood out in a crowd yeah you didn't know she was married at the Tahoe she didn't have a ring on and it was funny because we were hanging out one of her friends told me that she was married it dies like but I was like well I don't care it's not my problem Justin was not only impressed by Kelly's beauty and sparkling personality but also her brave decision to become a combat medic in the army I don't know how you choose that because we can go to anything you want to she choose medic I was like a man after dating Kelly for about a year and with Mike finally out of the picture Justin was about to take his place in Kelly's life in Fayetteville I was both live up there and Kelly was said to have been planning to divorce Mike with the view of possibly Mary and Justin so you guys were serious yeah I mean we kicked that Mike out so he was like they were done but Kelly would mysteriously go missing just as Justin was prepping to move to Fayetteville to be with her and investigators naturally speculated that Mike had perhaps learned Kelly had been having an affair and killed her out of jealousy I did have to look at the husband but Mike insists he didn't learn Kelly was in love with another man until detectives told him when they questioned him I just didn't want to hear I didn't want to believe anything any of this was real when you heard the name Justin what did you think had you ever heard this name no no I'm wrong and Mike says Kelly's affair with Justin was the least of his concerns whatever was happening I don't care about that that's not what I'm trying to figure out I'm trying to figure out where my wife is I'm trying to find out anything and everything to do with that but he also suspicions that the man who stole his wife might have had something to do with her disappearance the first name I heard of was Justin and police wonder if Justin and Kelly may have had a lover's TIFF perhaps after she told him she was going out drinking with Nick Holbert Nick was a bar helper they both met while drinking at froggy bottoms when Justin visited Kelly in Fayetteville just a week before she went missing and he would be the last known person to see her alive after leaving the very same bar with her he was really um strange he's like it's like his eyes he was always like staring he's like I don't know it's really me her police not only wondered if Justin may have been angry enough to kill Kelly they also questioned why he never contacted police for three days after she went missing but Justin says he had in fact been calling police since the day after Kelly disappeared no it's not when was your first call to police Saturday so you call back again on Sunday after be repeatedly rebuffed he says he decided to try one last time at what point do you pull the plug and say I have to make a Monday and Justin says police finally took his missing-persons report seriously I was like yeah well you know a couple days ago it could have been nice it's okay and like everybody else involved in the case Justin had his own suspect did you think Mike had something to do with this it truthfully you know in my head to everybody that was close how do I get something to do with it but he didn't he had anything to do it he's too much of a emotional lovey-dovey even though emotional people like react crazy sometimes there would he would always have that hope that he could get Kelly back before he would try to get rid of her on his own Justin pointed the finger at Nick Holbert the man who was trying to steal Kelly away from him I knew it was him from the beginning when I talked to the detectives I knew it was him police believe that one of the three men in the private life of private first class Kelli Bordeaux had something to do with her mysterious disappearance I think they were just looking at us three Mike Bordeaux Kelly's recently estranged husband Justin Thompson a secret boyfriend she'd been having an extramarital affair with for more than a year and Nicholas Holbert a new acquaintance said to be trying to steal Kelly away from Justin do you think he was interested in her oh yes but cops had no evidence to connect any of them to Kelly go me Missy both estranged husband Mike and Kelly's boyfriend Justin had provided alibis that they were each hundreds of miles away in st. cloud Florida when Kelly disappeared and Fayetteville North Carolina and Nick Holbert the last known person to see Kelly before she vanished had told police he dropped her off near her apartment after an evening of drinking at a Fayetteville bar called froggy bottoms his story was supported by a text boyfriend Justin received from Cali cell phone later that night telling him she had arrived home safely it was so weird the text message before that was hey call me call me call me Justin was unable to reach Kelly again and suspected Nick had harmed her I knew it was him from the beginning why now why I told when I talked to the detectives I knew it was him and Justin wasn't the only one I actually happen to see Nick Holbert on TV doing his interview on Kelly bored of pleading with the public for information on her whereabouts while he was out looking for her with hundreds of other searchers I told my wife I said look he's lying how did you know I'm like a human lie detector just about I can just tell when people feeding me BS I do it all the time I think people BS like you wouldn't believe but David Marshburn is a private detective who's hunted down hundreds of fugitives wanted for jumping bail and he was determined to go after Nick and solve the Kelli Bordeaux mystery I told my wife I said I want to see if I can find this girl I can find somebody that's on the run but finding somebody just sitting still that's gonna be another task I just wanted to go out on your own and try to figure this out if you could write marshburn suspicions about Nick would only grow when he learned he was a homeless drifter living in his truck in a makeshift camp behind froggy bottoms where he worked as a bar hand and then police would discover Nick was a convicted sex offender who had molested and beaten a five-year-old girl when he was 16 Eddie Rayner that I don't know I know he beat her so badly that I was told she was still in a wheelchair Marshburn says Nick was also a predator when it came to females of any age he was just so pervertedly interested in women it was crazy he just was like an obsession it was like a police still couldn't link Nick to Kelly's disappearance but they did manage to put him behind bars for a year for failing to register as a sex offender in Fayetteville so while he was in jail the only thing to do is go possibly put areas to where Nick had been and I wound up working hundreds of hours searching woods searching ponds searching lakes everything when Marshburn fails to find any trace of Kelly's body he devises a plan to befriend Nick when he gets out of jail and trick him into telling but he knows about Kelly's disappearance I had to be his best friend I had to be a good friend talk do you befriend him right away I do when he answered the door I said Nick I'm David Moore and I'm a PI I'd like to talk to you about Kelly I don't believe you done told him right out of the gate but I believe you could help me to clear your name so we could find her you had your strategy mapped out I did I had it in three stages you didn't have nothing to do with it you might have had to do something with it you did it by the end of that you did it stage I was accusing him of doing it and he want Marshburn would start by literally buying Nick's friendship and Trust what did you do well the guy was down on his luck he needed money and if I gave him money he would keep wanting to see me whether I talked to him by Kelly or not I mean there was some times where I would be dinner with my family he'd call and say I don't have anything I need some cigarettes I need to eat and I dropped what I was doing leave my family and go to an hour away just to give him some money but months would go by without a frustrated Marshburn getting any information out of Nick about Kelly's disappearance I almost was to the point to take him and you can ask anybody as close to me exactly what I said I wanted to take him to a barn somewhere start cutting his fingers off until he told me where the hell she was and that's how mad I was I was so close but yet he wouldn't give it to me he's such a not to tell me where it weighed he don't weigh and I had done so much for me but Marshburn persisted trying all kinds of ploys one of them convincing Nick he'd worked out a deal with prosecutors and presenting him with a fake plea bargain he drew up himself he's gonna tell he committed murder he can kill Kelly he's gonna apologize for it he's gonna get mental health for it he's gonna stay in like an apartment complex where he'll have a computer to work on he's believing this yes wholeheartedly he took it and looked at that and stared at it and read it over and over and then all of a sudden he paused for a little bit and then hand it back to me said I'm not gonna sign it they'll just take it back but the mere fact that Nick considered the deal was proof to Marshburn that he was responsible for Kelly's disappearance at that point two months into talking to him that gave me the concrete evidence that now I got to get it out of Wiley private detective David Marshburn was just one more sneaky trick away in the Kelli Bordeaux mystery I'm so close but yet he wouldn't give it to me after befriending Nick Holbert and winning his trust Marshburn had already learned enough to know he killed the beautiful 23 year old GI and Marshburn had almost got Nick to sign a phony deal that falsely promised him a slap on the wrist for confessing it would get probation and rehabilitation but when Nick backs out at the last minute Marshburn comes up with a new ruse and it was a tough one because it's um maybe as what he is still he had a hunch it would work it was the indictment that would get him this time Marshburn convinces Nick he's about to be indicted for Kelly's murder the reason why I wanted to do an indictments cuz I don't understand indictments a lot of people don't unless you're in the legal realm so an indictment will be easy to BS about and hard for him to understand it the crafty PI shows Nick a fake indictment he drawn up himself and gets him thinking he's under police surveillance so I put a bondsman outside his house in a Crown Vic and he seized the Crown Vic he saw I told you man or watching me they're watching me Nick is scared this is the only doubt they're coming after me they got something Nick is suddenly ready to sign the earlier fake plea deal accepting the phoney offer of a hand slap sentence in return for a confession and he agrees to lead Marshburn to Kelly's body buried in a wooded area near his makeshift camp behind froggy bottoms bar as soon as we pull into froggy bottoms I can't even get the darn thing in park and he's jumping out and going straight back to where he killed her now Marshburn is finally about to learn the answers he's been seeking for the two years since Kelly went missing and I walked over there to him and I put my hand up on his shoulder and I said Nick are you ready to tell me you see yeah I said did you do something to Kelly yes an hours later at the crime scene Nick would also confessed to detective Jeff Locklear of the Fayetteville Police Department and somewhere between what Nick tells detective Locklear and what he'd earlier confessed to David Marshburn there lies the truth about what he did to private first class Kelli Bordeaux his exact words were while I was on top of her she started screaming Nick's confession begins on that Friday night that he took Kelly to froggy bottoms where he was working as a bar hand back to the bar late fool drink some karaoke everything going good so as the night went on she was ready to go home she went to go pay her bar tab that's already acted kind of funny towards me Nick went ahead and went outside and was waiting at his car and while she was paying her tab the bartender told her be careful of this guy he's a sex offender and she had no idea and when she came out she went down the sidewalk of the froggy bottoms she passes Nick's car and passes him and she's walking home and says hey I thought I was taking you home ok now child molester something like that so he ran up behind her and hit her knocked her out and stuck her in the car and took her back to where I stay there what happens there he gets out he pulls her out and lays her on the ground and he pulls her clothes off he goes ahead and starts having sex with her and he's raping her right because he his exact words were while I was on top of her she started screaming I got scared I didn't mind going here so I hit her again he grabbed a rock and just beat her in the head with it as she did at this point after a few seconds yes she was dated and then what what did he tell you he did he wrapped her head a trash bag [Music] now remember that text Kelly's boyfriend Justin have received from her phone on the night she disappeared saying she had arrived home safely well Nick admitted that he had sent that message and disposed of her phone after he'd already killed her when Nick confessed he told us as he was going I was a river he threw her phone Ian Nick Holbert had confessed to murdering private first class Kelli Bordeaux a need led private investigator David Marshburn and his cadaver dog to a shallow grave where Hobart had buried her body so we dig down we find a little piece of the jacket so we're digging again and we find her find the leg ball then we dig again there's the whole jacket we take the jacket and pull the whole jacket back and there she is described with the bag on her head the whole nine yards I said a little crass and baby girl you going home going home baby girl and she gets back and I'm starting to up yeah Hobart would be arrested and subsequently pled guilty to first-degree murder but p.i Marshburn had mixed emotions about finally solving the mystery of what happened to Kelly like meeting meeting somebody she hadn't seen for a long time and getting to bring her home the family has closure it's extremely unfair she was a great person but finally learning what happened to Kelly is little comfort to those who still mourn her including her estranged husband Mike and her boyfriend Justin she will always be in my heart and in my mind forever like we're still married and the pain and suffering Nicholas Holbert inflicted upon Kelly and her survivors made Marshburn want to do the same to him you not only kill her but you raped her you're sick and you need to be put away forever hey that guy is the epitome of the devil to me a literally Nicholas Homer and the devil are together in my head but nobody was as furious as Kelly's older brother Matt all I could think about honestly was just I'm gonna stab this guy and some were worried that Matt just might do something just like that at hobart sentencing hearing i had to set a few things and then me and the judge like kind of locked eyes and i think he realized i was like gonna freak out in fact matt became so enraged and vocal that a judge ordered him to be removed from the courtroom where he admitted to local TV reporters honestly what i thought would happen is I would just assault him so it was a good thing that the judge kicked me out Hobart tried to apologize to Kelly's family and he was right when he's trying to read his apology the whole time all I'm thinking is just shut up and Kelly's mother Jonah demanded he listened to her instead Nicholas Hobart would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole all thanks to David Marshburn the dogged private detective who single-handedly brought him to justice and solved the Kelli Bordeaux mystery not even for his own personal gain and that's the thing is like he's doing it for my family and we don't even know yeah so I'm like it he's doing this just because he wants to be able to make that difference it's astronomical it's I mean it's it's more than my family can even show gratitude for and the Fayetteville Police admits they could have never closed the case without him are you glad Dave was so persistent oh absolutely he could do things that police cannot do I'm glad he was persistent because it brings closure to the worldö family Marshburn admits there were times he almost gave up every day I was exhausted having to search for this girl I was muddy I was good I got sick I was just fed up with it I was tired of his game but he says he felt morally bound to keep going for the sake of Kelly and her family and solid is donating his time skill and money to a worth he calls a way of giving back that's the only way I get back that's the only way I feel like it gets back to God's children people then need it and the reward is seeing Nicholas Holbert behind bars kind of fits and yeah I'd like an animal you treat like one he deserves it at his sentencing Hobart asked Kelly's family if one day they could find it in their hearts to forgive him at this point her brother and sisters say they can't see that ever happening and I certainly can't blame them

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 4,555,703

Rating: 4.6217537 out of 5

Keywords: Kelli Bordeaux, David Marshburn, Nick Holbert, True Crime Daily, Crime Watch Daily, david marshburn north carolina

Id: A2M_psaG1ew

Length: 34min 1sec (2041 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2019