48 Hours - The Hunter: Searching for Kelli Bordeaux

Episode Date: October 25, 2015

When a young U.S. Army combat medic goes missing, a bounty hunter takes on his biggest case ever.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. Real people. Real crimes. Real life drama.

People, real crimes, real life drama. Tonight, the whereabouts of 23-year-old private first class Kelly Bordeaux are a mystery. I received a phone call from the Army. They knew something was unusual, that she wasn't there. And nobody knew where she was. Police believe she may be in danger. Do you remember when Kelly Bordeaux disappeared? Oh, for sure. She was a very attractive, very successful young soldier.

Was just going with friends to a local night spot on a Friday night and just kind of vanished into thin air without any real explanation. It truly was a missing persons case that really gripped the community. Guys, we appreciate everybody coming out. 23-year-old Kelly Bordeaux was last seen leaving. No good solid leads. With every minute that passes, her family becomes more and more anxious. Please just return my sister.

I can barely function without knowing where my daughter is. I mean, there was over 600 people at one point that went on the massive search when they had the helicopters and the dogs. So far, searchers have turned up no clues. Like I said, she was a United States soldier.

She was very proud of that. She was a very determined young woman. She wasn't just a nobody. She wasn't just some girl. She was my youngest child. She was my baby. If only we could find her. Ten days on, Kelly Bordeaux's family is as determined as ever. We had several suspects in the early stages of the case. We had Nicholas Holbert, who was last seen with her. We had Mike Bordeaux, who was her estranged husband. And we had Justin Thompson,

who was the young man that she was dating at the time. First day I got the case, everybody's a suspect. Only person I knew that weren't a suspect was me. We thought outside the box a lot during this investigation. I feel I can find anybody. No one is meant to be missing. Everybody's meant to be found. Everybody.

I followed my heart and I started searching for Kelly. Miss Kelly. David Marshburn is a private investigator here in the Fayetteville-Cumberland County area. These are the areas that the cell phone ping was coming from. I had never heard of him before this case. I'm good at figuring out people, reading people, and knowing what their next move is going to be.

Scott was a little different, and he has the gift of the gab. When I go hunt someone down, I don't like anyone that's with me, helping me. I had the right guy. I had the man. This was his home. Can you take me to her? Can you lead us to where she's at?

And he said yes I'm Troy Roberts tonight on 48 hours the hunter In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us.

I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+.

Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. When Kelly Bordeaux went missing, it was huge. It was all over the national news. It got attention everywhere. Why do you think that is?

Because she was a young female Fort Bragg soldier. It's a story. David Marshburn was watching the news in the spring of 2012 when he heard about United States Army Specialist Kelly Bordeaux. The 23-year-old combat medic had gone missing from Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to Fort Bragg. She's one of ours that protect us, so I felt the need to protect her. You're thinking, you can help find this person. That's what you're good at? Do it.

You got any weapons on you? After all, Marshburn, a newly minted private investigator, makes his living as a full-time bounty hunter. How many criminals have you captured? If I had to guess a number, over 500. It was just days into the police investigation that Marshburn, now a CBS News consultant, decided on his own to take on Kelly's case.

He did not tell the police or Kelly's mother, Jonna Henson, about his secret investigation. She was a girly girl, but yet she was really tough. All Jonna knew in April 2012 was that her youngest child had vanished into the night. What was going through your mind? I really thought, she must be at a friend's house. They'll find her in a few hours, that'll be that. her youngest child had vanished into the night. What was going through your mind? I really thought she must be at a friend's house.

They'll find her in a few hours. That'll be that. I didn't really panic until like a day went by. And then it was like nobody's seen her since Friday. So then I was like, wait a minute. Okay, now I'm really starting to panic. The Army also reached out to Mike Bordeaux, Kelly's estranged husband. Mike told Kelly's superiors that he'd been living in Florida and had no idea where Kelly was.

Mike called me and he said, hey, have you talked to your sister today? And I was like, no, she should be in formation. He's like, no, she's not. Olivia Cox is Kelly's sister. Let me call her. So then I called her and I called her and I called her and then I called him back. And I was like, where is she? And he's like. Let me call her. So then I called her, and I called her, and I called her. And then I called him back, and I was like, where is she? And he's like, I don't know.

Kelly's family immediately headed to Fayetteville Police Headquarters, where they met with the lead investigator on the case, Detective Jeff Locklear, who took Jonna aside. I said, you're a mother, and I know you're never going to give up hope, even to the last minute. At that point, no one had heard from Kelly for three days. I used the old adage, we're going to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

And as she's walking out the door, she turned around and she simply said this, Find my baby. All I want is my sister. I just want Kelly Bordeaux to be brought back to us safe and sound. Please give her back. Everyone who knew Kelly said it was not like her to walk away from obligations. She's always been determined all the way back to high school when she was an A student who also ran track and was on a cheerleading squad.

She excelled at basically everything, but she never would rub it in your face. And Kelly was said to have a personality that matched her intelligence. According to her mom and her sister, Kelly was full of fire. On the night of April 13, 2012, as she was heading out the door, Kelly took this selfie and sent it to her sister. The last picture, the one that she sent of her in the outfit, it was, hey, does this look okay? And I was like, yeah, you look cute. her. The last picture, the one that she sent of her in the outfit, it was, hey, does this look okay? And I was like, yeah, you look cute. Kelly went to the Froggy Bottoms bar where witnesses remembered that she was drinking, playing pool, and singing karaoke. She felt safe there because

it was so close to home. That was the last place she was seen. Police did not know what happened next, but Kelly's mother was deeply suspicious of husband Mike Bordeaux because she knew Kelly had broken up with him only a week earlier. Kelly gave him a thousand dollars and a one-way ticket to Orlando and said, we're done. Me and her love each other very much. Mike Bordeaux had returned to Fayetteville and publicly denied he and Kelly had broken up. He was the concerned husband, taking part in searches and appearing on national TV. Just please let her come home.

Just let her come home to her family, me, friends. Just let her come home. But Jonna wasn't buying it, and she confronted Mike. You know, I'm going to ask you this, Mike, you know, did you do something to my daughter? And what did he say to you? He slammed the phone down on me, actually. Mike called back and denied hurting Kelly.

In the meantime, police began checking out his alibi. Was he really in Florida at the time Kelly disappeared? Detective Locklear went looking for answers and suspected he could find them on Kelly's cell phone. With this new generation, the phone is just a, it's a goldmine of information. If you want to know something about a person, get your hands on their phone. Locklear couldn't get his hands on Kelly's phone, but he got the next best thing, the person she was texting that night, Kelly's new boyfriend, Justin Thompson. She was texting me throughout the night, and at the end of the night,

she texted, like, call me. Justin did not immediately see that text, but later he grew worried because he knew that Kelly was hanging out that night with a guy she'd only recently met, a bar worker named Nick Holbert. I told her, that guy is creepy, man. Justin had been with Kelly at Froggy Bottoms the week before when they met Holbert for the first time. She just took his number. I was there, you know, and he gave her a number. You know, if you guys need anything, I work here kind of thing. Holbert insisted he had nothing to do with Kelly's disappearance. He told the police and reporters that Kelly had asked him for a ride to and from the bar. Around 1, 1.30, she told me, she's like, I'm tired.

I want to go home. I said, OK. So we got in the car. And as soon as as soon as i pulled into meadowbrook she said you can stop right here and let me out i walked that television interview piqued the interest of rookie private investigator david marshburn i saw the interview with nick i hate that she's missing and I hope that she is found. And I said, look, he did it. He took her. He killed her.

But that theory had one big problem. Kelly's last text to her new boyfriend the night she disappeared. It read, got home safe. I'm going to bed. I'm tired and drunk. Call me tomorrow. I'm tired and drunk. Call me tomorrow.

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And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad free right now. As weeks went by and there was still no sign of Kelly Bordeaux. The possibilities are endless. You know, for a fact, she's not AWOL. At this point, you're like, all right, who has her and where are they holding her? Detective Jeff Locklear increasingly focused on Nick Holbert, the bar worker who said he'd driven Kelly to and from Froggy Bottoms the night she disappeared. And what Luckler heard had him worried.

Nick has some anger issues, unrestrained anger issues, if you will. Nick was not able to control his outbursts sometimes. He'd just get very angry very fast and do things. And some of the things Holbert did were nightmarish. And some of the things Holbert did were nightmarish. When he was a teenager, he was convicted of taking indecent liberties with a five-year-old girl and served nearly five years in prison. When he got out of prison, he was kind of from here to there. He didn't have a stable place to stay.

He just kind of moved around, that kind of stuff. Upon his release, Holbert was a convicted sex offender who was required to register his address with authorities. But once he got that job at Froggy Bottoms, he began camping out in the woods behind the bar. He basically had a parachute and a tarp draped between two trees that he would pull his car under. So his car was more or less his tent. By this time, investigators had confirmed the alibis of Mike Bordeaux and Justin Thompson, who were both in Florida when Kelly vanished. They were cleared as suspects, but Locklear was still puzzled over that last text from Kelly's phone, the one that

said she arrived home safely. I let her sister take a look at it, and she said, Kelly didn't send this text. And I said, well, how do you know? She said, when she texts, she texts in complete sentences. That's not the way that she sounds. It's not the way she would sound. She said, I don't believe my sister sent this text message. Locklear suspected Nick Holbert had sent that text but had no proof, and Holbert was cooperative. He continued speaking to investigators without a lawyer present, gave them a DNA sample, and even allowed them to search his car. What were your impressions of him? He was simple, wasn't angry. He didn't sound secretive. He answered the questions fairly quickly, didn't act like he was hiding anything.

The police had no evidence Holbert had done anything to Kelly. Why are you turning yourself in, Nick? You think we get a few words from you? No. Can you tell us what happened? But because he was a convicted sex offender and had not registered a permanent address, authorities were able to throw him in jail. They put Nick Holbert in a place where I knew he would be while this investigation went forward. You know who our suspect is? That strategy did not sit well with David Marshburn, who was itching to talk to Holbert. When I found out they arrested Nick and put him in jail for the sex offender stuff, I thought, well, if she was alive, she's dead now

because they've incarcerated him. So I felt like it would be better off for him to be out than in. In the meantime, police continue doing forensic testings on Holbert's campsite and car. Was Kelly's DNA found in his car? No. Here's the issue with the car. He was living in that car. It was dirty. It was filled with clothing, trash. It was just in really bad shape. Crime scene investigator's nightmare. As the weeks turned into months, Nick Holbert

remained the number one suspect in Kelly's disappearance, but police were not able to charge him. How great was your frustration when this case went cold? Well, for one, we're kind of careful about using the word cold in that homicide squad. We adopted a motto, there's no greater crime than the theft of a human life. We take that seriously. Kelly's family had no choice but to watch and seethe inside. It was extremely frustrating because for us, we can't force him to talk, can't force you to confess, even though everything is pointing to you.

Neither Locklear nor Kelly's family knew that David Marshburn was conducting his own secret investigation with the help of his assistant, Marsha Ward. Back here is where he was actually living. Like the police, Marshburn closely examined Holbert's makeshift campsite, hoping to find clues investigators may have missed. This was his home. He knew this area very well, like a hunter. And that's about like he was, a hunter with his prey. He used netting, limbs, duct tape, plastic, just all sorts of weird stuff. stuff. A year and a month after Kelly vanished, May 2013, Nick Holbert was released from jail for failing to register as a sex offender. He had the motive. David Marshburn set off to meet him

face to face. How did you begin your relationship with Nick? So I was a little leery, but I said, hey, Nick, how you doing? I'm David Marshburn. I'm a private investigator, and I'm trying to find Kelly Bordeaux. I said, will you talk to me? He said yes. Marshburn had a plan to make Holbert feel at ease. The way I lined it up was

you didn't have nothing to do with her disappearance. I want him to think I'm on his side. And it worked. With no rules to follow, Marshburn then did something very unorthodox. I knew that was the one way I could keep him on my side was to pay him. And I paid him. Paid him every time I saw him. Wait, you paid him? I found out he had money issues. He needed money for cigarettes. He needed money to eat. I paid off his probation so he wouldn't go back to jail and I could continue talking to him. I was his friend. And a true friend, if you need them, they're there for you. As time were on and Holbert began trusting Marshburn, the private

eye documented the time they spent together with these photos and a few months into his unofficial investigation, Marshburn finally told the police what he was up to. Well, they told me, hey, we're not going to tell you anything. You know, if you're talking to Nick, you continue on. They didn't want to put me in working with them because then it limits me what I can do. So you didn't dismiss him? We did not. And typically, conventional police methods shy away from

using somebody who's not a police officer or detective to kind of get information from a guy. This is one of those special circumstances where we felt like the time was right, the person was right. Marshburn was making inroads, but he paid a heavy price. I almost lost my family. I almost lost everything I had because of him. Because of the... I'm getting ready to tear up.

But, um... Because of your obsession with this case? Mm. Give me a minute. I mean, man. It was hard for me because, you know, I know he did it. I'm sitting there with a killer, I know he done it. What do you miss the most? Being able to talk to her, spend time with her, you know, do our girly stuff together.

I can actually still call her phone and hear her voice, which I'll do that every once in a while. Hey, it's Sally. Can't get to the phone right now. Leave me a message and I'll call you back. As time passed and investigators could give Kelly Bordeaux's family no answers, they became frustrated, as did District Attorney Billy West.

For the Henson family and everybody that knew and loved Kelly, we wanted to bring some closure. Did you think that this was just a case that was going to go cold and would never be solved? It certainly was a concern. While the official investigation into Kelly's disappearance had hit a roadblock, David Marshburn was getting ever closer to prime suspect Nick Holbert. Marshburn decided it was time to switch tactics and began baiting Holbert with a bunch of what-ifs.

What if you did something? Could you have blackened out? Could have this happened? Could that happen? I was trying to give him outs. If something bad happened and you just didn't call 911, we can get you involuntary manslaughter, man. Trust me.

What Marshburn did next was more than just a bit unorthodox. He created this fake plea bargain implicating Holbert in Kelly's murder, including this unbelievable offer that Holbert would serve no more than 36 months in prison. Marshburn told Holbert the police wanted him to sign it. He thought about it and looked at it and then he just tossed it back to him and said, no, I'm not going to sign it because they're just going to change their mind. They'll take it back. But Holbert did not reject it outright as any innocent man would. At that point, I knew I had him 100,000%. I had the right guy. I had the man. Marshburn applied even more pressure.

Having a friend sit outside Holbert's apartment in what looked like an unmarked police car. That morning when I picked him up, he's like, well, they're watching me. They're watching me all the time. I've seen them watch me. He's real paranoid. Marshburn was not done playing mind games. He also invented an imaginary paralegal who he nicknamed CeCe. Called my friend CeCe, which happens to be my wife.

I pick up the phone and I say, CeCe, what's going on? Nick's house is being watched. Then Marshburn told Holberg that CeCe would tip them off if an arrest was imminent. So she calls and says, oh, he's being indicted by a grand jury. They're fixing to get him. So I said, Nick, we need to really think about this indictment thing. We need to start really, really concentrating on what happened, what went on. I kind of pressured him.

I felt like this was it. This was the day. It was time to try and get a confession out of him. I'm like, okay, Nick, we're going to go to Froggy Bottoms. We're going to start this thing over again. We're going to go from step one all the way through. As soon as I pull up, he jumps out instantly and walks straight to the back. Marshburn followed Holbert to his campsite behind the bar.

Froggy Bottoms is about 300 feet up this way. So what I did was I walked over here while he was staring off that way. I wound up picking a branch up like this. And while he was standing over there, I would stand over here and then walk towards him. And I'd simply just snap him. Steady, snapping. Sort of to give him a time limit, the clock's ticking. It was May 13, 2014, more than two years since Kelly had gone missing,

and Marshburn decided that, for Holbert, time was up. So I walk all the way over here, and I put my hand on his shoulder, and I said, did you do something with Kelly? He said yes. I said, Nick, look, it's okay. You might not remember the bad stuff, the middle stuff, but the end is where we need to get to. Nick, I need to know where she is. And if you have anything to do with it,

I want to help you and get this heavy burden off your chest. We got to find her. Can you take me to her? Can you lead us to where she's at? And he said yes. David Marshburn snuck in a call to Detective Locklear to let him know what was going on. Then Holbert brought him here to this isolated spot just five miles from where Kelly was last seen. They went into the woods to try to find Kelly's makeshift burial site.

I said, is she on top of the ground, below the ground? She's like, man, I can't remember. So I finally get my dog out, and I had my dog go search. My dog kept alert. I'm like, something ain't right here. Marshburn thought his specially trained cadaver dog, Kaz, had picked up a scent. Marshburn felt he was tantalizingly close, but it was getting dark, and he knew he had to stop for the night. So I said, look, it's late. Let's go take

you home, and then we'll come back and pick you up in the morning. Marshburn was so close to the truth that he forgot about one of the tall tales he told Holbert. He said, I don't want to go home. I said, what do you mean you don't want to go home? I'm scared the police are going to be there. I'm like, oh, yeah. I just had to remind myself, oh, yeah, that's right. Marshburn took Holbert to a nearby motel, paid for him to stay the night, and then went home.

So did you have a sleepless night? Oh, yeah. I was excited. I knew we were a sleepless night? Oh, yeah. I was excited. I knew we were getting to the end of it, so I did have a restless night. Anxious. To his relief, by daybreak, Holbert was still there,

and the mystery of what happened to Kelly Bordeaux would soon be solved. As I understand it, you decided to do the right thing. Try to kind of tell us a little bit about what happened. Yeah. That next morning, an apprehensive David Marshburn, hoping he was close to finding Kelly, headed back to the motel where he stashed Nick Holbert, unsure if he'd even be there. But he was. Nick comes out, and we all get in the car,

and this time he's a little bit different. Nick starts laughing and says, you know, no wonder nobody can find her. I can't even find her. You know, he makes a joke about it. When they reached the site, Marshburn told Holbert to search an area down the path, leaving Marshburn, his assistant Marsha, and Kaz alone to investigate.

Kaz, come on, find it. The light was shining down there. It was just in the middle of the woods right here. So we made a path. Kaz comes in. He lays on the spot. I say, Marsha, go get the pry rod. And I push it in just a little bit, and all of a sudden it sinks. It goes just straight. And I say a prayer.

I said, baby girl, you're going home. You're going home, baby girl. And I say a prayer. I said, baby girl, you're going home. You're going home, baby girl. And it was a good feeling. After you discovered the shallow grave, did you call Nick over? Oh, no. We didn't tell him at all. I dug a little bit, found a little piece of jacket, took a picture of it, sent it to Locklear. Then I dug a little bit more, found a leg bone, took a picture of it, sent it to Locklear, and I texted him, telling him, I think we found her.

All of a sudden, my phone rings. So I pick up the phone, I'm like, hello, whispering real quiet. And he said, get all your stuff, get out of the woods. Within minutes, Detective Locklear arrived with other investigators, one wearing a camera. This is the actual footage shot that day, May 14, 2014. As soon as we got out of the vehicle, our investigative assistant had a body cam on,

and I just asked him. As I understand it, you decided to do the right thing? And he said, yeah. Well, where do you want to start from? The very beginning? Well, let's do it like this, Nick. I think at this point, man, after all these times passed,

you know, things are what they are, okay? You tell me what happened. Two sides to every story. Somewhere in the middle is the truth. Tell me your side of it. In this never-before-seen video, prime suspect Nick Holbert describes in chilling detail

what happened the night Kelly vanished. Went and picked her up. Went back to the bar. I played pool, drank some karaoke. Everything was going good. It was then that investigators learned the motive for Kelly's murder. And, you know, when she said she was ready to go home, you know, I was talking with her. And I can't remember exactly what was said, but I know she said to me, she said, now, f*** you, you f***ing child molester, or something like that.

And I just snapped and zoned out and hit her, knocked her out. And I stuck her in the car and took her back to where I stayed at. Literally, you're in a misdemeanor posture. You could have walked away and we wouldn't be sitting here today. Why did you kidnap her? And he didn't have much of an answer for that.

Did y'all ever have any sex? No sex at all. So I won't have much of an answer for that. Did y'all ever have any sex? No. No sex at all? So I won't find evidence of that. And then she woke up, started screaming, and I hit her again, knocked her out again. And I mean, I can't really remember what happened in that time period. I know, you know, I mean, she was dead. Within five minutes, he told us.

He confessed. You know, he just laid it out there for us. Then that morning, I reckon it was like 5, 435 or something, I stuck her in the car and took her down here. Then what? Took her down here. Then what? I pulled in here.

I mean, I went, took her over there and buried her. He tells them, to the T, what he's going to find. You're going to find a jacket covering her. You're going to find a bag over her head. You're going to find her laying in a hole. Locklear wanted Holber to lead him to Kelly's remains. You okay with going back there, Nick? I don't know.

But you okay with it? Mentally, you okay with it? I don't know. Well, you tell me. I mean, you're a grown man now. But Holbert refused to face what he had done. I think it weighed on him. And I think that carrying that weight for two years had not only physically changed him, but had mentally changed him. So Detective Locklear followed Marshburn. We come on back here.

We dig down. And it's still flesh. And the foot flopped. Okay. We saw the white bag, everything he told us, we stopped. Okay. And I called D. All right.

Once we had that, I advised him, you know, he's on the wrist at that point. As Holbert was being placed into a police car, Marshburn approached him one last time. I reached up and patted Nick on the shoulder and I said, man, it's going to be okay. I didn't have to do that, but I want to play it to the end. Did you ever speak to Nick again after his arrest? He called me, but I didn't answer the phone. Locklear brought Holbert to police headquarters where he cleared up one last mystery. He admitted he was the one who sent that last text from Kelly's cell phone. Police charged Holbert with first-degree murder. And then Locklear called Kelly's mother. I promised her that as soon as I knew, or as soon as we found Kelly, I would immediately call her. Her voice cracked,

I would immediately call her. Her voice cracked. And she didn't know what to say. As Detective Locklear explained the details to her, Jonna would learn about the crucial role Marshburn played in finding Kelly's body. Mr. Locklear had told me that someone from outside was working on the case. Now Jonna knows his name, David Marshburn. I appreciate everything that he did do for me and my family. I don't think I would know where Kelly was

if it wasn't for Mr. David Marshburn. Everybody rise, please. And as Kelly's murder case moved forward... My name's John Henson. ...Jonna would finally confront her daughter's killer. Mr. Holbert, could you look at me for a minute? We've got pretty roses today. I understand that you visit her grave often.

Mm-hmm, I do. I like to take her fresh flowers. How's it going, baby girl? That's kind of therapeutic for me. I can't really go out there every day anymore because, yeah, I'll just cry and cry and cry. Do you think there'll ever be a day when you won't feel this pain? Nope. No, not until the day I die.

Love you, love you, honey. It's been more than three years since Kelly Bordeaux vanished, and 15 months since Nicholas Holbert confessed to murdering her. Oh, yes, oh, yes, oh, yes, this is the Army General Court of Justice. There will be no trial. You may be seated. Instead, a plea deal has been worked out. Do you now personally plead guilty to first-degree kidnapping?

Yes, sir. Do you now personally plead guilty to first-degree kidnapping? Yes, sir. Do you now personally plead guilty to first-degree murder? Yes, sir. Holbert would spend the rest of his life in prison without any chance of parole. I spoke with Ms. Henson many times about the possibility of a plea. District Attorney Billy West. We made it clear to Mr. Holbert and his defense team that if he did not take this life without parole plea, we would proceed capitally and would seek the death penalty in his case. It only takes one juror to hold out, so life without parole made more sense to me. He goes in prison and he stays there.

He doesn't leave until he dies. Jonna, along with Kelly's brother Matt and sister Olivia, attended the sentencing. How difficult was it for you to be at the sentencing? That was pretty hard. I wanted to do to him what he did to Kelly. I thought that's what he deserved. That would be justice. My adrenaline was just pumping.

And apparently Matt had the same idea. Me and the judge just locked eyes, and I think he could tell I was, like, ready to kind of freak out, you know? And yeah, then all the bailiffs escorted me away. Holbert surprised just about everyone at the sentencing when he tried to apologize to Kelly's family. I thought long and hard on what to say or if I should even say anything at all. For Kelly's sister Olivia, it was far too little, far too late. And I realized that there isn't anything I could say or do that would ease the pain and the suffering that you have endured. I just wanted him to shut up. I just wanted, I just stopped. Your words mean nothing.

Then it was Kelly's mother's turn to talk. Could you look at me for a minute? She did awesome. I don't understand how you could take a beautiful young girl and beat the life right out of her. I know there are things that she wanted to say that she didn't get to say. You took something so precious from me. I was really proud of her for having the courage and be able to say something, whether it has an impact on him or not.

I don't really have anything else to say except he can go to hell. I held back a lot, actually. Yeah, I told him to go to hell. I don't think he realized what type of person he took away. She was a United States soldier. It is my honor to deliver this... Shortly after Kelly's body was found, there was a memorial service at Fort Bragg in her honor.

...Spherehead medic, soldier, specialist, Kelly Bordeaux. Detective Jeff Locklear attended the service. And I was kind of touched that the family invited us. They wanted us to come out. David Marshburn also was invited. And for the first time since he began his quest to find Kelly, nearly two years before, Marshburn privately met with Kelly's mother. She told me thank you, and she wanted to give me something, so she gave me these.

Kelly's dog tags. Probably the biggest honor you could get. Oh, this is the guy that found her, and I'm like, oh my God, what do you say? It's a thank you, thank you, thank you. I found her. And I'm like, oh, my God. What do you say? He said, thank you, thank you, thank you.

If I'd have known the family at the time that I found Kelly and the shape she was in and all, we wouldn't have had a trial. I'd have handled it right then. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that. I'd have been the judge, jury, and the executioner, I'll tell you that. Bluntly, I'd have shot him. I'd have been the judge, jury, and executioner, I'll tell you that. This is almost three quarters of an hour recess. Bluntly, I'd have shot him. I'd have killed him. When you think of Kelly today, what comes to mind? Sadness and grief.

She could have gave a lot to this country, being in the military and to society. Now she's just a story and a memory. Under his plea deal, Nicholas Holbert waived all rights to an appeal. Nicholas Holbert will receive psychiatric counseling and substance abuse treatment in prison. David Marshburn is investigating a new missing persons case. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.