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.
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.
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
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
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.