Vigil aims to promote hope in case of missing soldier

And while leads in Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux's disappearance are scarce, organizers are calling Friday's vigil a celebration of hope. 

"Although we know that it probably will not be a good outlook, we're going to hold out hope just like the family is until we do find something and there is a definite answer as to what happened," said search volunteer Shannon Jacobson. 

Friday's vigil, scheduled to being at 7 p.m., will be held next door to Froggy Bottoms Bar, the last place Bordeaux was seen before she went missing just after midnight on April 14. 

Bordeaux's family will also hold a vigil Friday evening in St. Cloud, Fla., the missing soldier's hometown. Bordeau'x mother told WRAL News in April that her daughter was a fighter. 

"Until (police) tell me any different, I'm going to keep thinking that she's here, and she's being held and she just cannot get away from whoever has her," Johnna Henson said. "I know Kelli will fight, and Kelli will try any way possible to get back to her family."

Since she disappeared, hundred of volunteers have scoured the area around Froggy Bottoms, Bordeaux's home and a rural Cumberland County pond looking for clues. 

"Even as a person that didn't know her, I'm surprised that nothing has showed up," Jacobson said. 

Investigators haven't speculated about what might have happened to Bordeaux, but since her disappearance, they have arrested Nicholas Holbert, a registered sex offender who said he gave Bordeaux a ride home from the bar, and Steven Cantrell, the bar's owner, on charges unrelated to her case.

Police, however, haven't said whether either man is a suspect or person of interest in the case.

Police have set up a special hotline – 910-433-1114 – for tips in the case, and Virginia-based security firm Black Ops Security Services & Consulting Inc. is offering an $8,000 reward for information to Bordeaux's discovery.