48 Hours - 48Hours Interview: Bounty Hunter David Marshburn on the Kelli Bordeaux case.

Episode Date: October 21, 2015

In this 48Hours Interview correspondent Troy Roberts talks to the man who helped break the Kelli Bordeaux disappearance and murder case, bounty hunter David Marshburn.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. I'm Troy Roberts for the CBS News broadcast, 48 Hours. In this week's podcast interview, we look at the disappearance of U.S. Army medic Kelly Bardot. Fort Bragg is located in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a military town through and through.

So a missing woman, one of the military's own, is big news. Kelly was last seen at a bar, Froggy Bottoms, on the night of April 13, 2012. She had gotten a ride there from a friend, a recent acquaintance, a bar back at the establishment, his name, Nick Holbert. Authorities questioned Holbert, and he denied knowing anything, so law enforcement focused their efforts on Kelly's personal life. She was married but separated from her husband and was dating again, so officials looked into the whereabouts of her estranged husband

and also her current boyfriend. Both had strong alibis. What you're about to hear is excerpts from an interview I did with David Marshburn, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur and bounty hunter who was drawn to help investigate this case on his own. So would it be fair to say you once were a bounty hunter? That is what people call me, and that's what people call me today, but we call it fugitive recovery agents. But, excuse me, we, my wife bonds them out, and I hunt them down. And that's the way we handle the bail bond business.

Was it lucrative? You got some good bonds, you got some bad bonds, but it's lucrative when you do it for the surety company. I've hunted down cartel members for the surety company, picked them up in Florida. Cartel? Yes, sir. It doesn't matter if they're in New York, Florida, California.

If I get a call and I can find them, I'm going to get them. Sounds dangerous. It is, but it's fun. It's real fun. Tell me about a close call. Close call, I got ran over. We had a $3,500 bond. Close call, I got ran over. We had a $3,500 bond. The guy, we had pulled up behind the guy and jumped out on him on the first night.

And before he could take off or get to the car in gear, I tased him in the neck before he could move. Well, the taser was so close to prongs that it was arcing between and it was cutting it out, so he couldn't, he could still move and maneuver. So he jerked the taser prongs out, put it in reverse, totaled three cars that night, including mine. He got away from us. Three nights later, we find him at a gas station. We pull up behind him, block him in again. This time he's blocked in between the building and our car so he couldn't go anywhere. He still rammed the building, tried to ram the building, and then he

backed up and when he backed up he ran over my leg. When I went down my partner shot and shot him right in the butt, come out of his back, and then he stopped. We pulled him out of the car, apprehended him, put him in handcuffs and waited for the police to show up. So how many criminals have you captured, would you say? I'd say it's in the hundreds, I'm sure. If I had to guess a number, over 500 at least. So you reasoned that if you've been able to capture criminals on the run, you could solve this mystery.

Yeah. I figured that if I can find somebody in another state, I'm sure I can find someone that's sitting still or missing or a female. Everyone is meant to be found. Another bondsman that worked for me, I got frustrated one time, and I was losing it. I was losing my cool, and he calmed me down and said, Look, just remember, everybody's meant to be found. You go and find them. And so from that point on, my motto is everyone's meant to be found.

So do you remember when Kelly Bordeaux disappeared? I do. I was watching TV and news media come up and I think they had an Amber Alert out. They did some type of alert. They did media. The media came out and said Fort Bragg soldier missing, last seen at Froggy Bottoms, last seen with a sex offender.

And I think a few days later I saw the interview with Nick, and I sat back and watched it, and I told my wife to come in there, and I said, look, he did it. He took her. He killed her. And she said, if you think that, why don't you go find her? I said, well, I'll try.

Where did you get that from that interview? How did you? His eyes, I used to play poker a lot, so I could read people very well. And his eyes, the way his eyes were, and he would squint them and he would twitch, his eyes would twitch. And just his motions and how he just, just cold.

It's more like you can read into someone saying, okay, he's cold, calculated, he's done something with her. And usually the last person that's with the person, the last person that's with a missing person is usually the one that done it. How big of a story was this? It was humongous. It was all over the national news.

It got attention everywhere. Why do you think that is? Because she was a young female. She was a Fort Bragg soldier. You know, it's a story. And I think all the media just attracted to it because of you got a sex offender you got Kelly Bordeaux she's a soldier and then you got a bar so all three things don't make a good mix so it's a good story but at the time you didn't weren't aware that Nick had a sex offense in his past did you I did I did when when he come up. When the news media come out, she had been last seen with a sex offender is the story of what was on the media. And then as it progressed, then you find out, well, the bar owner's not who he says he is. You find out more details and you got a bigger realm that you got to center on. You got to focus in on trying to narrow down who done it or who could potentially have

done it. And you take Nick, you take the husband, you take everybody into consideration and then you weed it out. I didn't want to get in trouble with this is the first PI case I've ever done. The reason why I could be a PI is because I've done so much work on finding people and hunting them down, as everybody calls it, a bounty hunter. So that's how I acquired my PI license. So actually doing a PI job was a little bit difficult because, first of all, I've never done missing people, all I've never done missing I've done missing people but I've never done a missing person you know I've done hunting someone down but not a missing person um it's two different things though you know you gotta really think about it um where was I at I'm

trying to think you know I know what strikes me is that law enforcement was all over this. They were. 500 people were searching for this young woman. What made you think you could make a difference? You've never done this before. I know that and I was a loner and I'm always a loner and what I mean by that is I do things on my own. I like doing things my way. When you got all these searchers out there, you see it on the news, everybody's walking in the woods. I like to go out there on my own and figure things out for my own.

When I go hunt someone down, I don't like anyone that's with me helping me to put their two cents in work because I like to focus on what I'm thinking and what I want to do and how I want to do it. And I guess it's controlling, I reckon, but I'm good at figuring out people, reading people, and knowing what their next move is going to be or guessing what their next move is going to be. But I didn't go out there with searchers. I did my own search. But then it got, you know, several months into it, it got to the point where I'm just backtracking over everybody else. I want to figure out where they have searched.

So I do want some information. I wound up calling a reporter and she gave me the name, a couple of names of two gentlemen that had done a lot of searching and they could help me on where they have already searched. So I called them up, meet with them and this is the first time I've ever met with them and you know they tell me all the areas and then they start giving me hints, you know, they tell me all the areas, and then they start giving me hints, you know, helpful things that the police department have given them. Look north is what they would always say, look north. And so that's where it all began as far as my connection with other people in searching for Kelly. You know what?

People go missing every day. searching for Kelly. You know what? People go missing every day. What was it about this particular case that attracted you? Well, she's a soldier. She, female. You know, him making that, him being on TV

and making that statement that he had nothing to do with it and I knew he was lying. I mean, it was like an instant connection that I said, I know he's lying. That's ultimately what really did it. And plus, I mean, it was all over the news everywhere. And you're thinking, you know, you can help this person. You've got all this information. You can help find this person. That's what you're good at.

Do it. And good at it he was. David Marshburn turned out to be very pivotal in this case. His sense of justice and dogged determination would help turn this cold case into a burning hot story. I'm Troy Roberts for the CBS News broadcast 48 hours. To hear more on this story, join us this weekend at 10 p.m. Eastern time for the 48 hours broadcast on the Kelly Bordeaux case, a look into her mysterious disappearance, the search and discovery of her remains, and the arrest and sentencing of her killer.

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