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