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 that was a weakness. which marshburn exploited by enlisting a friend who owned a vehicle that looked like an unmarked police car. he had him park near holbert s house and conduct surveillance, fake surveillance.
if you knocked her down in the car, i need to know about that. no, i did not. not even touched her? no. so they let him go. if nick holbert was a suspect, he certainly wasn t acting like one. he joined search teams looking for kelli and even spoke on local tv expressing his concern. she seemed like a really nice and cool person, and i mean i hate that she s missing. but fayetteville police weren t buying holbert s story, and now he too was a person of interest along with kelli s husband, mike bordeaux. remember, mike said he was home in florida when she went missing, which detectives needed to confirm. family put him there friday night. friends put him there. his alibi checked out. so now, detectives and district attorney billy west zeroed in on the last person seen with kelli.
olivia quickly became a mainstay on every media outlet in the area. i just want my sister back, you know. i just want to talk to her. mike bordeaux also went on camera to plead for his wife s return. please let her come home. just let her come home. the public, police and military response was intense. it seemed like the whole town turned out to look for kelli. most of us are military, prior military or spouses, so we are very driven to find one of our own. search teams numbering in the hundreds combed the fields and thick forests surrounding fayetteville. i searched basically every day i was there, sun up to sundown for the most part, and then it is just searching, searching, searching. this volunteer group started at kelli ds apartment, but just like police their search turned up nothing. detectives were also combing through kelli ds background, her habits, and, most importantly, her circle of
family and friends. everybody s a suspect until we eliminate you. you started with mike bordeaux? mike bordeaux. kelli ds estranged husband? right, and he told me during the interview that they were having some problems and that s what threw me off when he would get on tv, there was no issues. me and her loved each other very much. and i just appreciate everyone out here helping looking for her. he wasn t being consistent. were they talking divorce? kelli was, mike wasn t. did you see that as a possible motive? yeah, we had to eliminate mike bordeaux. mike insisted he was in florida when kelli went missing in fayetteville. even so, police still considered him the primary person of interest. has her husband been questioned by detectives? we ve had conversation with mr. bordeaux. police also needed to have a conversation with kelli ds boyfriend, justin thompson.
with the fayetteville homicide fayetteville police department homicide unit recovered what we believe to be private first class kelli bordeaux. by now, kelli ds family had gotten the news. he called me and he was like, hey, you need to come to mom s now, they found kelli and i remember dropping to the floor, like, i dll be right there. then it s a sense of relief instead of just wondering, what if, what if, what if, what if. olivia called kelli ds boyfriend, justin thompson. as soon as she called, i knew they found her. i was so grateful. honestly, i was so happy that she was found. i can t say happy. relieved? yeah, i was relieved. i was sad again all over again, now we re going to have to do funeral thing. two weeks later, they paid their final respects. a funeral in florida was such big news, it was actually televised. aim, fire. . kelli bordeaux was just 23.