husband. >> were they talking divorce? >> kelli was. mike wasn't. >> had a new boyfriend. >> she was pretty fun. she's easy to talk to. >> and lately she seemed to have an admirer. >> did he ask kelli for her phone number? >> yes. >> when she suddenly vanished, hundreds joined the search including this perfect stranger. >> i said, i'd like to see if i could solve this. >> he was suspicious about one of the men in kelli's life. >> it is like, dude, i can tell you're lying. >> but getting the truth wouldn't be easy. >> i had to get into his mind, see what he was about. >> what you were involved in was psychological warfare. >> uh-huh. he knows where she's at. >> after a young soldier's mysterious disappearance, one man's personal battle to find her. >> do you think he's finally going to reveal to you? >> oh, i know he is. ♪ hello and welcome to "dateline". kelli bordeaux was just starting what she hoped would be a long career in the military, but fate had other plans. one night the young army medic was hanging out at a local bar when suddenly she vanished. fearing the worst, friends and family launched a frantic search, but it would take a stranger hell bent on justice to track down the ugly truth behind kelli's disappearance. here is andrea canning with "deep in the woods." ♪ it is closed now, just a decrepit old shack with only the weeds for company. the good times are long gone, back when it was a watering hole for some of the soldiers braced at nearby fort bragg. famous for billiards, beer and karaoke, it was once a popular little public called froggy bottoms and it was where private first class kelli bordeaux planned to unwind one friday night back in april, 2012, friday the 13th. kelli was just 23, a mere 5'1" and barely 100 pounds, but she could hold her own with anybody. >> girl power indeed. >> to her older siblings, matt and olivia, kelli was always the perfect combination of tough and sweet. >> bouncy, bubbly, happy, and just trying to have a good time. >> i think she was always working to get better. she had a driven personality. >> kelli also had a big heart. she was warm and generous, always putting others first. >> she liked to help people that she saw needed help. she wanted them to be better because she could help them to be better. >> kelli grew up in florida and then enlisted in the army when she was 22. >> you just wait until i see you. i'm not playing with you at all. >> after basic training the army sent her to fayetteville, north carolina. at fort bragg kelli trained as an army medic, one of the most demanding jobs in the military. >> i think it gave her an opportunity to do something better with her life and she wanted to help people. >> and what was it about being army medic? that's an intense job. >> it was something that would push her to her limits. i want to make a career out of it, i want to do my 20 years. she's like, i really want this to be something. >> so she would have possibly made a life out of the military. >> oh, yeah. >> yes, that was the plan. >> kelli's professional life was on track but her personal life was complicated. kelli had a husband named mike bordeaux. she got married in 2010 before she joined the service but later separated. after some time apart, the couple decided to give it another shot. so when the army sent kelli to north carolina, she asked mike to come with her. >> why did kelli want to save the marriage? >> i think she didn't want to see it as a failure. she said, i'm going to give it three months where i devote -- i am going to make this work. >> but kelli couldn't make it work. despite her efforts the marriage was on the rocks. >> she bought him a one-way plane ticket to florida and he left. >> and did she actually use the word divorce? >> i remember in the text messages very clear, like, listen, mike, i have done everything i can for the last three months to make it work, i can't do this anymore, like this is it. >> during her initial separation from mike, kelli started seeing someone else, a guy from her hometown of st. cloud, florida, named justin thompson. >> she was just fun. she was easy to talk to. she was always laughing, loving, she never meant anything wrong to anybody. >> kelli had a knack of making everyone happy? >> she was inviting to everyone. if you were there you were part of the marriage. >> when mike ultimately moved out, kelli asked justin to move in. >> were you in love with kelli? >> yes, we were in love. i don't want to be like we were going to get married and have kids because i don't know what was going to happen, but i know it was our intentions, to further our relationship. >> was home wherever kelli was? >> yes. >> in early april of 2012 justin visited fayetteville to get acquainted with his future home. the couple also hit froggy bottoms. then justin returned to florida. he would be back in two weeks, this time for good. meanwhile, that friday the 13th kelli decided to go to the bar alone. she texted her sister olivia before she left that night and sent this selfie. >> did she say if she was going with anybody? >> no, she's like i'm going to go sing karaoke and not think about work, not think about mike, just kind of trying to get away from all of that and relax. >> kelli also texted justin about her plans. justin said he wasn't happy that kelli had gone out alone in a new town she didn't know. >> i didn't feel like her life was in danger, i just didn't feel like that was a good environment. >> what was a good environment? >> the fayetteville area, her by herself. if something was to happen, no one was going to call and say, hey, kelli hasn't come home in a while, nobody knows anything. >> throughout the evening kelli and justin kept in touch, texting frequently. everything seemed fine. olivia meanwhile went to bed early. >> the next morning did you try to call her or text her? >> probably at some point i texted her and said, hey, how was last night, but it wasn't uncommon for us not to talk for a day or two. i just riemember, like, let her chill this weekend. >> but justin did wake up to a text sent from kelli around 1:30 a.m. he said something was strange about it. >> the verbiage about it didn't make sense. i made it home, i'm same, i'll call you tomorrow. why would you text me i made it home, i'm safe, i'll call you tomorrow. >> did you try to call her then? >> yes. >> what happened? >> it was dead. >> what were you thinking? >> it was bad, i knew it was bad. >> what happened to kelli bordeaux? her family begins to panic. >> coming up, what were some of the scenarios running through your mind? >> that somebody was holding her somewhere. >> and then police turn their attention to kelli's estranged husband. >> were they talking divorce? >> kelli was, mike wasn't. >> when "dateline" continues. ws with this one little nexgard chew comes the confidence, you're doing what's right, to protect your dog from fleas and ticks for a full month. it's the #1 vet recommended protection. and it's safe for puppies. nexgard. what one little chew can do. and it's negatively impacting your enamel. eating and drinking healthy things that are acidic thinning and yellowing can happen as a result of that. pronamel is a proactive solution designed to help protect your enamel. ♪ saturday, the morning after. kelli bordeaux had been out of touch for hours. her boyfriend, justin thompson, knew something was wrong. what was supposed to be a day off was now turning into a day of dread. not a call, text or tweet from her, he says. >> i remember talking to my mom. i was like, i don't want to start a storm but i'm really worried about it because i knew something bad happened. >> why did you jump to that conclusion so fast? >> if you talk to somebody every day and they you can't get hold of them it is no good. >> saturday came and went, still nothing from kelli. on sunday, now frantic, phoned the fayetteville police department, urging them to start searching. >> nobody would help me. i called them several times. >> police policy required a family member to call in and provide more personal details on kelli before they could start searching. so the next day justin decided to call the army basin stead. >> i asked them if she showed up. i said it is important, if she didn't show up you need to go to her house. they got back on the phone and said she didn't show up. >> army investigators and fayetteville police went to kelli's apartment. >> they got inside? >> uh-huh. >> no kelli? >> no kelli. >> is that when everybody starts taking this really seriously. >> that's when started to panic, yeah. >> word spread when fort bragg called her estranged husband mike who then phoned her sister olivia. reliable kelli missed roll call and wasn't at home. >> i started calling her like crazy, trying to find anybody in the army with her, like have you seen her, did you go out on friday. i was just trying everything. >> everything led to nothing, no leads, no clues, no kelli. >> what were some of the scenarios that were running through your mind? >> just that somebody was holding her somewhere. >> a kidnapping kind of thing. >> yeah, i was more concerned she was hurt somewhere and she wasn't able to get to us so we have to get to her. >> olivia, matt and mike immediately made plans to all meet in fayetteville. by now the fayetteville pd was all over the case. one of the investigators assigned was veteran homicide detective mike ballard. >> we knew this could be an endangered person. >> why the homicide unit when she has barely been missing. >> kelli bordeaux was not a problem soldier, always contacted her family, her friends, and then she just disappears off the face of the earth. >> breaking news in the case of kelli bordeaux, the fort bragg soldier missing since saturday. >> the disappearance of the beautiful young army medic was now big news and covered extensively by local media like nbc station wrl tv. >> right now it is still a missing person case. there is a lot that is not known at this time. >> olivia and mike arrived in fayetteville where they took a grim meeting at police headquarters. >> what did you tell them? >> that we were hoping for the best but preparing for the worst and they should do the same thing, too. >> i remember at one point the detectives were trying to take us back to talk to us more and we were walking into a room and it said homicide on the door, and i was like i'm not going in there. they were like, no, no, this is just the best room. i was like, that's not happening, i'm not letting that thought in. i have to stay positive. >> this is an out-of-character thing to happen to my sister. it is not something that she would do. >> 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 numbers in the hundreds combed the fields and thick forests surrounding fayetteville. >> i searched basically every day i was there, sunup to sundown for the most part, and then it is just searching, searching, searching. >> this volunteer group started at kelli's apartment, but just like police their search turned up nothing. >> detectives were also combing through kelli's 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's 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 help 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's boyfriend, justin thompson. little did they know that justin had a huge new lead waiting for them about the night kelli disappeared. coming up -- a new possible suspect. >> he is the last person that is seen with kelli. that was very concerning to us. >> why something in his past would trigger even more alarm bells. >> it certainly was a red flag. >> when "dateline" continues. what's this? your cold's gonna make you a zombie tomorrow. wrong. i'm taking a powerful nighttime cold medicine, so i can sleep great and wake up human. don't eat me i taste terrible! mucinex nightshift cold and flu. fight your worst symptoms so you can sleep great and wake up human. tv sports announcer: yeah, that's my man there. tv sports announcer: time out. let's go to a commercial. nooooooo! not another commercial! when you bundle your home, auto and life insurance with allstate you could save 25%. in fact, the more you bundle the more you can save. put the other game on if it's important to you allstate can protect it. ...home auto and life insurance you could save 25%. if it's important to you allstate can protect it. what? bundle and save with allstate. click or call for a quote today. too shabby! too much! i can rent this? for that price? absolutely. it's just right! book your just right rental at thrifty.com. ♪ police have just told us they have no new leads. >> nothing. >> kelli bordeaux. >> missing soldier kelli bordeaux. >> what happened to kelli bordeaux? >> it was now national news. suddenly quiet little fayetteville was ground zero for a massive search for a missing army medic. >> detectives say information in this case keeps pointing them to look in this area near where she was last seen. >> kelli bordeaux had been missing some 72 hours. the chances of finding her were growing slimmer by the day. >> investigators have combed through just about every area here in fayetteville as well as in cumberland county. >> 600 miles away in florida, kelli's boyfriend justin thompson was talking to detectives, telling them he was home the weekend kelli disappeared. >> he was not where he said. we checked his phone. everything checked out with justice. >> justin told detectives something else, another name to check out. when he and kelli visited froggy bottoms the week before she disappeared they met a chatty guy who worked there named nick holbert. >> he started talking to us. i get vibes, you could see it was weird. >> kelli being kelli asked holbert if he wanted to join them for a game of pool. holbert hung out with them until justin and kelli decided to head home for the night. >> did he ask kelli for her phone number? >> yes. >> and? >> she gave it to him because he worked there. it is always good to have somebody that works at the bar as a friend. >> that friday the 13th when kelli decided to go back to the barbie herself, justin told detectives she wasn't really alone. he said she arranged to get a ride from nick holbert. >> i just said this guy, watch out, be careful around him. >> this guy stuck in your mind? >> yeah, he's weird. i don't know what she was doing. >> did you say maybe you shouldn't -- >> i said it. >> -- go with him? >> i said it, but i wasn't adamant about it. i'm not going to tell her no a thousand times on text message. >> kelli made it safe to the bar where she texted justin throughout the night, but then there was the last odd text he received. justin was sure he had something to do with her disappearance and sent the text to cover his tracks. detectives went to froggy bottoms where they found nick holbert. they discovered he was down on his luck living in the woods behind the bar. they searched his camp site and his car. not one clue. holbert also agreed to an interview at the police station where he told detectives, yes, he picked up kelli on friday, the 13th, and later dropped her off at the entrance to her apartment complex. >> since friday night, no contact with her whatsoever, you don't know where she is at? >> no. >> what do you know about her? >> nothing, really. i've known her for, what, six hours all together. >> holbert was fully cooperative. didn't duck one question. >> 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. >> everything kept coming back to nicholas holbert as the prime suspect. >> so investigators dug into holbert's background and discovered something rather disturbing. >> he was a registered sex offender and served time in a penitentiary for that. >> it certainly was a red flag, the fact that he had a prior sex offense and he is the last person that's seen with kelli. that was very, very concerning to us. >> the da didn't have any evidence to arrest holbert for kelli's disappearance, but he did discover holbert was violating the terms of his parole. >> he was a prior sex offender, and he was not registered properly and he was placed in jail. >> sex offender nicholas -- >> right where detectives wanted him. now they could watch holbert, see if he blabbed to a cell mate about what happened to kelli. they also questioned him twice, even took him back to froggy bottoms to jog his memory, but holbert stuck to his same, though sometimes inconsistent story. >> you caught him in lies but you couldn't crack him? >> exactly. >> by now olivia and matt had left fayetteville and gone home. >> i remember feeling defeated. we came up here thinking that something was going to happen and it didn't. >> i don't know. i felt like i didn't sleep for a couple of weeks. it was 24/7 thinking about what happened, what happened, what happened. >> detectives and the da seemed toe close to an answer. they even had their prime suspect in custody, but weeks passed, months. holbert stopped talking. >> you couldn't arrest him? >> we needed her body. we needed to find kelli bordeaux. >> little did police know it would take some two years to finally unravel the mystery, but they were about to get help, help they never imagined. deep in the forest a secret investigation was underway, a man on a mission to bring kelli home. coming up -- why a perfect stranger cared so much about kelli. >> she needed to be found. >> who he believed had taken her and his risky scheme to get the man to talk. >> he buys that? >> hook, line and sinker. >> when "dateline" continues. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best, with emergen-c. hello, i saw you move in, and i wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood with some homemade biscuits! >>oh, that's so nice! and a little tip, geico could help you save on homeowners insurance. >>hmm! >>cookies! uhh, biscuits. >>mmmm, is there a little nutmeg in there? oh it's my mum's secret recipe. >>you can tell me. it's a secret. >>is it cinnamon? it's my mum's secret recipe. call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. i'll come back for the plate. saving on homeowners did yocould be signs thatn be. syour digestive systemwn isn't working at its best? taking metamucil every day can help. metamucil supports your daily digestive health using a special plant-based fiber called psyllium. psyllium works by forming a gel in your digestive system to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down. metamucil's gelling action also helps to lower cholesterol and slows sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. so, start feeling lighter and more energetic... by taking metamucil every day. free! free!! uh...free! free, free, free. free. free free! free!! that's right, turbotax free is free. free,free free free. hello. i'm dara brown. here is what is happening. the house early saturday passed a coronavirus aid package which president trump is supporting. it will now go to the senate. the president declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, freeing up $50 billion to help state and local governments fight the new virus as the number of cases crossed 2,100 in the u.s. that's what is happening. 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 story just didn't add up, and now a total stranger was ready to prove it. once again here's andrea canning with "deep in the woods." >> autumn, 2012. kelli bordeaux had been missing for months. the searches continued but were 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 secretly searching for her. no one knew, not police, not even kelli's family. his name was david marshburn. he didn't know kelli but had an intense interest in her case from the day she disappeared. >> she was in the military. you just don't up and disappear. she was a young female. that's not right. >> he is both a bounty hunter and private investigator. his specialty, finding people, dead or alive. >> i knew she wasn't alive. i knew she needed to be found. >> she seemed like a really nice -- >> remember that tv interview nick holbert did? marshburn saw it too. >> when i'm watching him it's like, dude, i can tell you're lying, he did it, he knows where she's at, he killed her. >> and marshburn was also convinced he could find kelli bordeaux. operating on his own time and own dime, marshburn started carefully researching the details of kelli's disappearance. >> i don't know what got into me to do it. i mean i just did it. >> to bring some answers to her family. >> yeah, i love doing it. i love helping a family out. >> marshburn was convinced holbert had buried kelli close to the froggy bottoms bar somewhere in the thick forest surrounding fayetteville. >> how daunting of a task was it? >> it is like -- i don't know, taking a rock no bigger than this and just throwing it out here and saying, "go find it." and you miss it by an inch, you might as well have missed it by a mile because it is not that easy to find something. >> marshburn needed help, so several months into his very private search he added two new members to his team, an assistant named marcia ward and a specially-trained search dog with a keen sense of smell named cass. >> he's named on tracking, trailing, whatever you want, what odor you want. >> including buried bodies. together marshburn, marcia and cass slogged through ponds, fields, forests, thousands of acres and searched for months, but no trace of kelli. >> i got really frustrated and disappointed, and i'm at my wit's end. >> then came an unlikely break. in may 2013, nick holbert was released from jail after being locked up on that parole violation. if holbert was happy, david marshburn was thrilled because now he could deal with him face-to-face. so just a day after his release marshburn pulled up to the house where holbert was staying. >> i've never talked to a killer. have you? >> i work for "dateline." >> oh, yeah. i take that back. >> what were you nervous about, that he would try to hurt you or just that the stakes are high here? >> sort of like a star struck, you know what i mean? you're like, wow, it is happening. >> marshburn took a deep breath and knocked on the door. >> and he answered the door, and i said, "hey, nick, i'm david marshburn, i'm a private investigator, i'm here to try to find kelli bordeaux and i think you can help me." >> his strategy was simple, trick holbert into thinking he was an ally. >> it was basically telling him, i'm your angel, i'm your help, let me help you. >> help him how though? >> for people to see the light that he was not guilty. >> and he buys that? >> hook, line and sinker. >> so now the bounty hunter and the prime suspect talked. over the next few months marshburn gradually started to win holbert's confidence, coaxing him to confidence about what really happened to kelli bordeaux. >> i had to get into his mind and see what he was about. >> did you think that he was going to just confess to you? >> uh-huh, i knew that. i didn't know how i was going to get it out of him. >> at this point police were aware of david marshburn and his diy investigation. >> did you take david marshburn seriously? >> absolutely. he came to us and wanted to befriend nick holbert. >> what did you think of that? >> hey, go for it. we can't tell him what to do. >> marshburn, remember, is a private eye, not a police officer. unlike detectives he could try tactics that were, to say the least, unorthodox. a few months after they met marshburn told holbert that the da was ready to cut a deal if he confessed. marshburn even presented holbert with this very attractive plea bargain agreement. >> it would be something like manslaughter and he would do three to four years and he would go to a mental hospital. >> the so-called deal was completely bogus. >> you'll see, i put a fake judge on there. it was justin f. case, honorable justin f. case. just in case. >> did he believe it? >> yeah. he believed it to a point, but then he threw it back at me after looking at it for about five minutes said, no, they'll just take it back. >> marshburn thought that wasn't exactly the reaction of an innocent man. now he was fully convinced nick holbert had killed kelli, but he needed to get holbert to reveal where he buried her body. >> how can i be his friend? and i had to do some things, say some crap that i just didn't believe, but i had to do it to play the part. >> marshburn bought holbert countless meals, beers, even hired him to do odd jobs, slowly becoming a bff, or maybe a more of a fren-enemy. but marshburn said he paid a high price as he practically abandoned his wife and young son. >> if we were eating somewhere, and nick called and said i need cigarettes, i need some money, i would get up and do what i had to do and come back. >> were you obsessed? >> when i have somebody i'm hunting down i don't stop until i get them. >> isn't that obsessed? >> i don't know. when i'm hunting someone down i don't stop until i get the answers i need. >> but holbert still wasn't provided answers about kelli who had now been mincissing some 18 months. by this point marshburn spent 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. >> marshburn didn't resort to torture but he needed a new tacti tactic, something that would holbert share his deadly secret. >> coming up, marshburn finds a new pressure point. >> that was his achilles heel. >> uh-huh. >> but will it work? when "dateline" continues. when "dateline" continues. aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. but when allergies attack,f any the excitement fades. allegra helps you say yes with the fastest non-drowsy allergy relief and turning a half hearted yes, into an all in yes. allegra. live your life, not your allergies. ♪ there were still a few flyers scattered around fayetteville, but nearly two years after kelli bordeaux had mysteriously vanished the investigation had cooled. new crimes now took priority. kelli's family still visited fayetteville periodically to keep the case alive, somehow never losing hope. >> people would ask, how do you keep thinking she's alive. i was like, until you can prove otherwise why should i believe it. i would rather believe the better scenario. >> how did you have that hope it would happen? >> because the other avenue wasn't one i wanted to go down. >> back in florida, kelli's boyfriend, justin thompson, had been living in limbo with a bad case of survivor's guilt. >> i could have done more. somehow i should have done better. i should have told her don't go, argued about it. i don't know. >> what was the waiting like, the not knowing? >> terrible. just like slams on the brakes, in your liech yfe 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 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 cc, 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 last bit of pressure, his own ticking clock of storts to puor holbert over the edge. >> i pick up a stick, i figure if i sit there and snap it, it would ring in his mind, hey, i'm on the clock, the clock is ticking. i started snapping the twiggs off it. finally i got to the last pieces off of it and he said something like, okay, i'm ready. >> ready to confidence. finally after a year-long cat-and-mouse game holbert revealed to marshburn that he killed kelli bordeaux. they got back in the van and holbert directed marshburn to a remote area where he remembered burying the body. >> and then he said, right here. so we pulled down this path. >> are you getting nervous? >> no. i'm excited i'm going to find her. and i took cass and me and cass try and find her. >> marshburn and cass spent the next several hours combing through the thick woods, trying to get a scent of kelli's grave. >> we searched to almost dark and cass starts laying down and so we start digging. can't find nothing. >> what is that telling you though? >> thinking we're close. >> but not close enough. holbert couldn't remember exactly where he buried kelli's body. it was almost dark. everybody was exhausted. so marshburn reluctantly called it a day, but he didn't take holbert home. >> i give him a hotel room and i tell him i'm going to be back in the morning. >> did you worry that he might get spooked and take off? >> i was worried he was going to kill himself. >> and take the secrets of kelli's grave to his own. coming up -- an excruciating few hours. >> i couldn't sleep that night. marcia couldn't sleep. >> in the morning, one final search and at long last a sign. >> all of a sudden he starts whimpering and he stops. >> after two long years, are all questions about to be answered? when "dateline" continues. 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>> uh-uh. >> reporter: you just knew? >> we just knew. >> reporter: but they had to be sure. so now the grim task of digging began. >> we find a little piece of a jacket. when we pulled that jacket back, that's when we stopped. we said, well, this is her. i mean, this is it. >> reporter: 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. it appears to be a human bone in the place he's digging. and at that time we contacted him and said, hey, cease and desist on the digging. don't do nothing else. >> reporter: police rushed to the scene, and soon detective jeff locklear was interrogating holbert on camera. >> where do you want me to start from? the very beginning? >> reporter: holbert told the whole horrible story. how he took kelli to the bar and they hung out. then later, said holbert, someone there told kelli about his prior sex offense. she got upset and swore at him in the empty parking lot. >> and i just snapped and zoned out and hit her and knocked her out. >> reporter: holbert said he took kelli to his campsite, where she woke up and started screaming. >> and i hit her again and knocked her out again. i mean, she was dead. >> reporter: holbert said he then took kelli's body deep into the woods and buried her. >> you okay with going back there, nick? >> i don't really want to. >> reporter: holbert was then taken downtown and arrested. >> this morning, detectives of the fayetteville police department homicide unit recovered what we believe to be the remains of private first class kelli bordeaux. >> reporter: by now kelli's family had gotten the news. >> matt called me. >> she was at work. >> and he was like hey, you need to come to mom's now. they found kelli. and i just remember dropping the phone and i was like, i'll be right there. >> and then it's, like, a sense of relief instead of just wondering what if, what if, what if. >> reporter: olivia called kelli's boyfriend, justin thompson. >> as soon as she called, i just -- i knew they found her. i was just so grateful, honestly. i was just so happy that she was found. i can't say happy. >> reporter: relieved? >> yeah. i guess i was relieved, and then i was, like, sad again all over again. now we're going to have to do the funeral thing. >> reporter: two weeks later they paid their final respects. the funeral in florida was such big news it was actually televised. >> aim, fire. >> reporter: kelli bordeaux was just 23. >> everybody rise, please. >> reporter: just over a year later came a measure of justice. >> are you, in fact, guilty of each of these crimes? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: facing the possibility of the death penalty, nick holbert 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. and so i was like, you know, 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. >> reporter: 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 for two years nonstop, kelli, kelli, kelli, kelli, kelli. >> reporter: do you think this case ever would have been solved without you? >> no. i don't think that nick would've ever told anyone unless they were his friend. but he did tell me. >> reporter: for the family of kelli bordeaux, the loss, the pain, the sorrow never goes away. but david marshburn at least gave them a chance to heal. >> he ended a suffering for my family, while we're sitting here agonizing for these last two years. he was the one that was able to come in and end that for us. and to make it to where you can try to start rebuilding and doing things that will make kelli proud and to live your life. >> reporter: the family also had something for david marshburn. a very special gift from kelli. >> kelli's dog tags, which, that's a great honor in itself. >> reporter: this is a very important thing for a soldier. >> yeah. i'll always have these. these will stay with me forever. that's all for this edition of "dateline." thank you for watching. is. first up on msnbc, testing times. the next front on the battle to stop the spread of coronavirus. >> i am officially declaring a national emergency. two very big words. the action i am taking will open up access to 50 billion -- >> taking action, the president and congress with sweeping moves to accelerate critical supplies to people in need.

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