Police release image of missing soldier Kelli Bordeaux
Family, friends continue to search for clues
North Carolina authorities released the last known picture of the missing Fort Bragg soldier Kelli Bordeaux Thursday and say it was the outfit she wore to the night she went missing.
Bordeaux, a 23-year-old combat medic with the 44th Medical Brigade, disappeared April 14 after leaving the bar in Fayetteville at around 1:20 a.m. Fort Bragg officials reported her missing two days later after she failed to report to duty. Authorities have searched woods and a pond in the area and have not reported any significant leads.
Nicholas Holbert, 25, who has been questioned twice in Bordeaux's disappearance, was taken into police custody for failing to register as a sex offender at his new address in Cumberland County, N.C., according to WRAL-TV.
The station also reported that the owner of the Froggy Bottoms bar -- where Bordeaux was last seen -- was arrested Monday on outstanding warrants unrelated to the soldier's disappearance.
Holbert, who has not been named a person of interest in the case, admitted to driving Bordeaux home the night she was last seen. He has reportedly denied any involvement in the woman's disappearance, telling WTVD-TV that he dropped Bordeaux off at the entrance of her neighborhood at her request.
"As soon as you drive into the entrance to Meadowbrook, she said stop right here," Holbert told the station. “So I stopped and she said, ‘I’ll walk home.’ I said, ‘Are you sure?’ She said, ‘Yeah.’ I said I figured she didn’t want me to know where she lived, or somebody was there and she didn’t want to be seen together."
Holbert, who was convicted in 2003 of indecent liberties with a 5-year-old child, told the station he was being unfairly targeted because of his criminal record.
On Monday, police also arrested 49-year-old Steven Cantrell, the owner of the Froggy Bottoms bar, for failing to appear in a Cumberland County courtroom on a driving while impaired charge in 2001.
FBI agents also had warrants for Cantrell's arrest in Boston for failing to pay $400,000 in child support payments to three different women, sheriff's officials told WRAL.
Bordeaux, who has blond hair and brown eyes, was last seen wearing a pink tank top and black shorts, police said. She is described as 5 feet, 1 inch tall, weighing 102 pounds.
Meanwhile, her husband says he's grateful for the community's effort to find his wife.
Mike Bordeaux said in an interview Thursday there have been no new leads in the search for his 23-year-old wife, Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux of St. Cloud, Fla.
Mike Bordeaux says investigators have questioned his whereabouts when she was reported missing. He was in Florida visiting his parents. Mike Bordeaux says there were no problems in their marriage and the couple had never visited that bar.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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