• Report: Bar hand questioned over missing Fort Bragg soldier

    More than 100 police officers and soldiers searched the woods near Fort Bragg Wednesday, looking for clues in the disappearance of Army private Kelli Bordeaux. NBC's Mike Viqueira reports.

    By NBC News affiliate WESH and Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com

    A bar hand who is a registered sex offender has been questioned twice by police in connection with the disappearance of Fort Bragg soldier Kelli Bordeaux, according to a report.

    Pfc. Bordeaux, 23, from St Cloud, Fla., disappeared after leaving the Froggy Bottoms bar late Saturday night in Fayetteville, N.C. She was reported missing Monday when she did not report for duty.

    Read the full story at WESH.com

    Police said they have found evidence that has them worried about her disappearance. They have not commented further.

    However, ABC News 11 reported that Nicholas Holbert, a 25-year-old worker at the bar, gave the soldier a ride home but denied having anything to do with her disappearance.

    Holbert reportedly said he dropped her 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," it quoted Holbert as saying. "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."

    Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office / AP

    Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux, shown in this undated handout photo provided by the Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office.

    ABC News 11 reported that Holbert, who lives behind the bar, was questioned for a second time Wednesday by Fayetteville Police.

    He told the station he believed he was being targeted because he has a criminal record. The station said Holbert is a registered sex offender and was convicted as a 16-year-old of indecent liberties with a 5-year-old child.

    According to her Facebook page, Bordeaux has been married for two years to her husband, Michael Bordeaux, and she attended Valencia Community College.

    A friend told WESH.com Kelli Bordeaux's husband recently moved back to central Florida from Fayetteville. A U.S. Army official said the couple were separated. Officers said the husband is cooperating with investigators. 

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