Missing soldier’s mom, husband ‘keeping hope alive’

More than two weeks since the disappearance of 23-year-old Army combat medic Kelli Bordeaux, police have not named any suspects or produced any concrete leads — but her mother is still holding out hope for her safe return.

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Johnna Henson, the mother of Pfc. Bordeaux, spoke with TODAY Wednesday along with the missing soldier’s husband, Mike, as the search for Kelli continues. She was last seen April 14 at Froggy Bottoms bar in Fayetteville, N.C., and was reported missing on April 16 when she did not report for duty at nearby Fort Bragg.

“Until I know differently from Detective Locklear or the Fayetteville Police Department, I am definitely keeping hope alive,’’ Henson told Savannah Guthrie, referring to Fayetteville detective Jeff Locklear. “She’s a wonderful young lady, and she needs to be with her family.’’

‘She wouldn’t just disappear’
Bordeaux was last seen drinking at the bar with Nicholas Holbert, 25, a registered sex offender who lived in a tent behind the bar and worked there. Holbert told a local television station that all he did was drop Bordeaux off at her apartment from the bar that night. Her apartment was in walking distance from the bar, according to Locklear.

Mike Bordeaux was in Florida visiting his parents when his wife disappeared, but believes Holbert has something to do with it. Holbert has since been jailed and charged for the unrelated offense of failing to report his address as a sex offender. He has not been named a person of interest in the case.

“He was the last one with her,’’ Mike Bordeaux said. “She wouldn’t just disappear.’’

“I really don’t have a comment on ‘Mr. Nick,’’’ Henson said tersely.

Police and volunteers searched nearby woods on horseback and searched the Cape Fear River in vain. The searches are being conducted by volunteer groups at this time, as the Fayetteville Police Department no longer has an active search.

“I believe that they’re doing everything they can to find her safe and bring her back home,’’ Mike Bordeaux said. “I don’t doubt what they’re doing.’’

“Instead of the searching, (the police) still have a lot of volunteers and organizations doing the searches so that they can actually get out and talk to the people, the people that they need to be talking to to find out what happened to Kelli,’’ Henson said.

In the initial days after her disappearance, police received a signal from Bordeaux’s iPhone, pinging from a wooded area, but they could not pinpoint its exact location and the signal is now gone. Bordeaux used the phone to take a picture of herself in a pink top and dark shorts on the night she went to Froggy Bottoms bar, and sent a text that night that she had arrived home before she disappeared.

Her family urges anyone with information on her whereabouts to contact authorities.

“If anyone knows anything, anything at all, please contact the Fayetteville Police or Detective Locklear,’’ her husband said. “ I just want her to come home.’’