released from jail after being locked up from that parole violation. if holbert was happy, david marshburn was thrilled, because now he could deal with him face to face. just a day after his release, marshburn holed up at the house where holbert was staying. i ve never talked to a killer. have you? i work for dateline. were you worried he would kill you? i didn t fear him because i don t fear anybody. nobody is big or gad enough, it s the man upstairs i m worried about. so it s more like, i want to get this right, i want to solve this. and if you do one thing wrong, it turns to hell. marshburn took a deep breath and knocked on the door. he answered the door. i said, hey, nick, i m david
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
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
reporter: so paranoid that marshburn tried, yet another trick to push holbert to give it up. he had his wife pose as a paralegal and draw up 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 cici, my paralegal person on the phone. who is your wife? yeah, who s helping me. the plan was working good. and he was worried. reporter: holbert took one look at the indictment papers, and went into a panic. sensing nick was near his breaking point, marshburn reminded him about that 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 is at. and he is standing there, just
were you obsessed? when i have somebody i m hunting down, i don t stop till i get em. isn t that being obsessed? i don t know. dedicated. get the answers you need. i m not going to stop until i do get the answer or the answer comes. reporter: 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 off. and say, you tell me, or i m going to chop another one off. i wanted to torture him because i knew he knew. you really would have done that? oh, yeah, i hated him that bad. i despised him. reporter: marshburn didn t resort to torture. but he did need a new tactic. something that would make holbert, finally, share his deadly secret.