Hundreds turn out to help in search for missing Bragg soldier

Investigators are calling the disappearance of 23-year-old Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux an active missing persons investigation, but there are enlisting the public's help as clues to her whereabouts and well being grow scarcer. Bordeaux was last seen 12 days ago.

On Thursday morning, volunteers and the TMC K-9 Search and Rescue Team began scouring the areas around Froggy Bottoms – the Ramsey Street bar where Bordeaux was last seen April 14 – and the apartment she shared with her husband about a half mile away. 

Rescue team spokeswoman Chris Sayre said her team of hounds will search a grid of about 3 to 6 miles. 

"Somebody's got to search it all," Sayre said. "We're missing that one thing that could break this case wide open. 

Previous searches conducted at the bar and Bordeaux's home turned up nothing, investigators have said. 

Matt Henson, Bordeaux's brother, said he hopes a large turnout will help uncover new leads in the nearly 2-week old investigation. 

"With the amount of bodies we'll have, we're just hoping some kind of progress is made to point us in the right direction," Henson said.

Volunteers arrived between 9 and 9:45 a.m. Thursday at the parking lot of the Cape Fear Valley Healthy System's Health Pavilion North at Ramsey Street and Andrews Road to begin helping the K-9 team with the search.

Since Bordeaux's disappearance, police have arrested Nicholas Holbert, a registered sex offender who said he gave Bordeaux a ride home from the bar, and Steven Cantrell, the bar owner, both on charges unrelated to her case. Police haven't said whether either man is a person of interest in the case.

Bordeaux's family, including her husband, have come to help search for her, police said. Mike Bordeaux said Tuesday that he was in Florida to buy a Chevrolet Blazer at the time his wife disappeared.

Anyone with information about Bordeaux can call a hotline at 910-433-1114.