After a long week serving as a combat medic at Fort Bragg, Kelli Bordeaux went out for a night on the town, but her drinking buddy of choice proved to be deadly. NBC Dateline explores the murder of Kelli Bordeaux, and how her killer was brought to justice years later, in Deep In The Woods, airing on Sunday, May 19, 2024, and available to stream the following day on Peacock and Hulu.
Kelli Bordeaux, a combat medic at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, seemingly disappeared after a night at a local bar, Froggy Bottoms, in April 2012. Who was Kelli Bordeaux?
Kelli Bordeaux was a combat medic at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Bordeaux was born and raised in St. Cloud, Florida, where her “fun-loving personality” made her “one of the most popular girls in town,” as reported by True Crime Daily. A former high school cheerleader and beauty queen, Bordeaux had completed basic training and boot camp shortly before being stationed at Fort Bragg. She lived in an off-base apartment along with her husband, Mike Bordeaux.
When Mike was unable to find a job in Fayetteville, he reportedly began drinking heavily, putting a strain on the couple’s new marriage. While taking a trial break from one another, Bordeaux began an affair with a man named Justin Thompson, whom she had met in her hometown before joining the military. During one of Justin’s visits to see Kelli, the duo met Nicholas Holbert, a helper at a local bar called Froggy Bottoms. They struck up a quick friendship, and Nicholas even gave Bordeaux his number, interested in seeing her after Justin returned back to Florida.
Despite Kelli only viewing him as a drinking buddy, she did agree to what Nicholas considered a “date night” at Froggy Bottoms. On Friday, April 13, 2012, Kelli, ready to let loose after a hard week, and not one for drinking and driving, agreed to have Nicholas take her to the bar. “They went to the bar and she basically didn’t pay him any attention,” said private investigator David Marshburn. “She was singing, cutting up, flirting with other guys. Just being friendly.” When the 23-year-old left Froggy Bottoms around midnight, it would be the last time anyone saw her alive. What happened to her?
David Marshburn, who conducted his own investigation into Bordeaux’s disappearance, claimed that she “wasn’t drunk” when she left the bar with Nicholas. “Her bar tab wasn’t enough to make somebody dizzy,” he added. Nicholas would later tell the police that he dropped Bordeaux off at her apartment.
Her secret boyfriend at the time, Justin, received two conflicting text messages that night – one indicating that she got home safe, and was going to bed, preceded by an alarming text that just said “call me” repeatedly. Justin didn’t hear back from Bordeaux all weekend despite several calls and texts.
When she didn’t show up at Fort Bragg on Monday morning, police began a massive search, that included both Justin and Bordeaux’s estranged husband, Mike. “The police department’s number one person of interest, and I do know this for a fact, was the husband, not Nick,” said Marshburn. Marshburn, however, suspected Nicholas from the get-go. He found out that he was “a homeless drifter living in his truck in a makeshift camp behind Froggy Bottoms.” Nicholas was also “a convicted sex offender who had sexually assaulted and beaten a five-year-old girl when he was 16.”
Months after Bordeaux’s disappearance, Nicholas finally confessed. The night she disappeared, a bartender had reportedly told her about Nicholas’ past, which spooked her. She was beginning to walk home when Nicholas approached her, wondering why she wasn’t allowing him to drive her home. The two began arguing, and Bordeaux confronted him about being a homeless sex offender. Nicholas admitted that he ran up behind her and knocked her out, before driving her to his campsite and sexually assaulting her.
When Bordeaux came to and began screaming, he knocked her out repeatedly with a rock, effectively killing her. He then told police that he had wrapped up her body in a trash bag, buried her in the nearby woods, and went back to the bar to drink. In May 2014, two years after her disappearance, police uncovered Bordeaux’s remains with Nicholas’ help. She was buried about a 10-minute drive away from Froggy Bottoms. An autopsy confirmed that she had died from blunt force trauma to her head. Where is Nicholas Michael Holbert now?
Nicholas was promptly arrested and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. In court, he apologized to Bordeaux’s family “for all the pain and horror” he caused. Bordeaux’s mother, Johnna Henson, told Nicholas she couldn’t forgive him. “Look at me!” she demanded, as he tried to avert his eyes while she was reading a victim impact statement. “You took something so precious from me,” she said. “You took my baby girl for no reason.”
“I don’t understand how you could take a beautiful young girl for pretty much no reason,” she added. “Would you forgive someone like that?” On August 7, 2015, Nicholas was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at the Cumberland County Superior Court.
He is set to receive psychiatric counseling and substance abuse treatment while in prison. “The only way he needs to leave the Department of Correction is in a pine box,” District Attorney Billy West said during the sentencing hearing. “Everybody thinks it’s closure, but it’s not,” said Olivia Cox, Bordeaux’s sister.
“Him going to jail for the rest of his life won’t bring her back,” she added. As of May 2024, Nicholas is currently imprisoned at the Albemarle Correctional Institution in Albemarle, North Carolina.
