N.C. pond searched in missing soldier case

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FORT BRAGG, N.C., April 18 (UPI) -- Divers searched a pond in North Carolina Wednesday, looking for clues in the disappearance of Army Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux, authorities said.

WRAL-TV, Raleigh, said a tip led investigators to the pond off Dobbins Holmes Road in Eastover. The search was to continue Thursday morning, Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine said at a news conference Wednesday night.

About 8 miles away, Fayetteville police combed the area around the Froggy Bottoms bar in Fayetteville where the 23-year-old Fort Bragg soldier was last seen Saturday, WRAL-TV, reported. Bordeaux, who is assigned to a medical unit at the base, was not reported missing until Monday when she did not show up for work, CNN reported.

Army officials have said little on the record about the investigation. One official who did not want his name used told CNN an employee at the bar gave Bordeaux a ride home because she had been drinking.

The official said Bordeaux's apartment and car have been searched.

WRAL-TV said it learned police questioned a person of interest in the case Wednesday afternoon. Bergamine said investigators interviewed Nicholas Holbert, 25, who sometimes worked at the bar, but Bergamine stopped short of calling him a person of interest.

"Anybody who was one of the last people in contact with Mrs. Bordeaux early Saturday is someone we want to talk to," he said.

Holbert has felony convictions for indecent liberties with a child and child abuse, state Corrections Department records show.

Joanna Henson, Bordeaux's mother, told HLN, CNN's sister news network, she thinks something happened during the trip and her daughter told the driver to let her out of the car.

Olivia Cox, Bordeaux's sister, said Bordeaux has been married to a civilian for two years. An Army spokeswoman said Bordeaux, a native of St. Cloud, Fla., enlisted last year.

"She joined the military to make her family proud," Cox said. "She just wanted to have that future securely in place. She knew the military would do that."