NICHOLAS Michael Holbert initially told police that he had gone out drinking with his new friend, Kelli Bordeaux, before dropping her off near her apartment later that night.
Holbert didn’t become a prime suspect in Kelli Bordeaux’s disappearance for months, but as the duo’s secret lives began to unravel, so did Holbert’s lies, leading to a shocking true crime exposé played out in a classic episode of NBC’s Dateline on Sunday, May 19, 2024.
Nicholas Michael Holbert was born on November 2, 1986.
Not much is known about his past or upbringing, but by 2012, Holbert was working as a barback and general helper at Froggy Bottoms, a local dive bar in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
It was there he met Kelli Bordeaux, a combat medic and soldier stationed at Fort Bragg.
Bordeaux was going through marital troubles at the time, and her husband, Mike Bordeaux, had recently moved from the couple’s apartment off-base back to Florida.
Though they were still married, Kelli Bordeaux had begun dating a man named Justin Thompson, who she knew from her hometown in St. Cloud, Florida.
Justin and Kelli both met Holbert during a night on the town, and had hit it off.
Holbert, however, believed Bordeaux was interested in him as more than just a friend.
“Nick gave her his telephone number and tried to befriend her,” said David Marshburn, a private investigator later hired to look into Bordeaux’s disappearence.
On April 13, 2012, Holbert gave Bordeaux a ride to Froggy Bottoms.
When Bordeaux was ready to call it a night, a bartender reportedly told her about Holbert’s living situation, or lack thereof.
He was reportedly homeless, and had set up a makeshift campsite in a wooded area just a few minutes away from Froggy Bottoms, living there and in his truck.
Bordeaux was also shocked to discover that Holbert was a convicted sexual offender, who had reportedly assaulted a five-year-old child when he was a teenager.
When Bordeaux turned down a ride from Holbert and tried walking home, he later confessed to police that he knocked her out and dragged her into his truck.
It was the last time she was seen alive.
Following her disappearance, police and private investigators turned to their list of suspects, including her estranged husband, her boyfriend, and Holbert.
Holbert ended up spending a year behind bars for failing to register as a sex offender in Fayetteville, and Marshburn, the private eye hired to investigate Bordeaux’s disappearance, devised a plan.
He befriended Holbert after he got out of prison, and gave him odd jobs.
He also told him he was going to help him “clear his name” to build his trust.
“I had it in three stages: You didn’t have nothing to do with it, you might have had something to do with it, you did it,” Marshburn said.
“By the end of that you did it stage, I was accusing him of doing it and he won’t [sic] deny it.”
In May 2014, Fayetteville police found Kelli Bordeaux’s body, buried in a wooded area near both her apartment and Froggy Bottoms, the bar where she was last seen alive.
Investigators said they located her with the help of Nicholas Michael Holbert, the man accused of killing her.
Marshburn’s plan worked and had been essential in getting a confession out of Holbert.
Shortly after her body was found, Holbert was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping.
In August 2015, Holbert was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
He had pleaded guilty to both charges, helping him avoid the death penalty.
“I realize there isn’t anything I could say or do that would ease the pain and suffering that you have endured because of my actions,” Holbert said, as reported by WRAL News.
“But I feel compelled by not only myself but by God to attempt to apologize to you and your family,” he added, speaking directly to Bordeaux’s mother, brother, and sister, who attended his plea hearing.
Bordeaux’s mother, Johnna Hanson, said she could never forgive Holbert for what he did.
“You, Mr. Holbert, I hate. You took something so precious from me,” Johnna Hanson said.
“You took potential grandchildren from me. You took my baby girl,” she added.
“My heart is not big enough. I think I’m a good person, a forgiving person, but not when you brutally, violently, senselessly, you know….” she trailed off.
“It’s not an accident. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, sorry.’ No, I can’t forgive something like that. I’m sorry.”
As part of his sentence, Holbert has agreed to receive psychiatric counseling and substance abuse treatment in prison.
As of May 2024, Holbert is currently serving his life sentence at the Albemarle Correctional Institute in Albemarle, North Carolina.
On Friday, April 13, 2012, Kelli Bordeaux was gearing up for a night on the town after a hard week at Fort Bragg.
Bordeaux agreed to have Nicholas Michael Holbert drive her to a local bar, Froggy Bottoms, where the duo had met previously.
Holbert worked at Froggy Bottoms as a barback and general helper.
After spending some time drinking and dancing, Bordeaux was ready to call it a night, and went up to the bartender to pay her tab.
The bartender reportedly dropped two bombshells on Bordeaux, both of which implied that Holbert was not who he said he was.
They reportedly told Bordeaux that Holbert was homeless, and “living in his truck in a makeshift camp” in the woods behind the bar, as reported by True Crime Daily.
Even more shocking, however, was the revelation that Holbert was also ” a convicted sex offender who had sexually assaulted and beaten a five-year-old girl when he was 16.”
At the time, Holbert had already left the bar and was reportedly outside by his car, waiting to drive Bordeaux home.
After she paid her tab and left the bar, she reportedly walked past Holbert, which angered him.
The duo got into an argument, with Bordeaux reportedly saying she would rather walk home than be driven home by a “child molester.”
Enraged, Holbert reportedly knocked Bordeaux out, pulled her into his truck, and drove her to his campsite.
He later told police he was sexually assaulting her when she came to and began screaming, leading him to smash her in the head with a rock.
Holbert told police he wrapped her head up in a trash bag, and buried her near his campsite.
In a shocking twist, he then drove back to the bar to continue his night out.
Bordeaux’s body was finally discovered in May 2014, after Holbert began cooperating with authorities.
An autopsy revealed she had died from repeated blunt force trauma to the head, corroborating his story.
