and is expected to strengthen. back here in the u.s., a statue of emmett till was unveiled in green will mississippi saturday. not far from where white men kidnapped and killed a black teenager. 1965 lynching of till became a catalyst for a civil rights movement. now, back to dateline. now, back to dateline. welcome back to dateline . i m natalie morales. where was kelli bordeaux? after the alibis of both of her estranged her and her boyfriend checked out, police suspected a man named nick holbert had the answer. a convicted sex offender, nick told detectives he drove kelli home from the bar that night but never touched her. to police the
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. it worked like a charm because he saw him right out the gate when he come outside and got paranoid. so paranoid that marshburn tried yet another trick to push holbert to give it up. he had his wife pose as a paralegal and drop phony indictment papers charging holbert with kelli s murder.
i took one of his old charges, changed who the detective was, changed the charges. he was being indicted and i got ceecee my paralegal person on the phone who is your wife? yeah, who is helping me. the plan was working good and he was worried. holbert took one look at the indictment papers and went into a panic. sensing nick was near his breaking point, marshburn reminded him about the sweetheart plea deal if he confessed. so, they took a ride to froggy bottoms, back to where it all began. i said, look, nick, you re fixing to be indicted on this. they evidently got evidence. you need to get me to where kelli s at. he s standing there looking straight down, and it feels like he s imaging all of this stuff going on of what he done. do you think he s finally going to reveal to you? oh, i know he is. this is it? oh, yeah, this is it. i had chills. marshburn then applied one
knocked her out. hoblert said he took kelli to his camp site where she woke up and started screaming. and i hit her again and knocked her out again. and she was dead. hoblert said he then took kelli ds body deep into the woods and buried her. you okay with going back there, nick? i don t want to. hoblert was then taken downtown and arrested. this morning, detectives 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
yes, i am. facing the possibility of the death penalty, nick hoblert pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing kelli in exchange for a life sentence. i wanted my sister. i didn t want her body, i wanted her. so what happens to nicholas hoblert 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 would not believe. because we went from two years, nonstop, kelli, kelli, kelli, kellie. do you think this case ever would have been solved without you? no. i don t think that nick would have ever told anyone unless they were his friend. but he did tell me. for the family of kelli