NORTH CAROLINA — The Lumberton Police Department and the FBI have arrested 34-year-old Michael Ray McLellan in connection with the kidnapping and murder of 13-year-old Hania Noelia Aguilar. McLellan was being held at the time of his arrest in law enforcement custody on charges unrelated to this case.
The Lumberton Police Department charged McLellan with ten felonies on the following state charges;
1st Degree Murder
1st Degree Forcible Rape
Statutory rape of a person under 15 years of age or younger
1st Degree Sexual Offense
Statutory sex offense with a person 15 years or younger
1st Degree Kidnapping
Felony Larceny
Felony Restraint
Abduction of Child
Concealment of a death
Hania was forced into a family member’s idling SUV and kidnapped from her driveway in the Rosewood Mobile Home Park in Lumberton on November 5, 2018. With support from the SBI and the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, the Lumberton Police Department and the FBI followed more than 850 leads and conducted nearly 500 interviews. The FBI’s Lab at Quantico conducted a forensic exam of the stolen SUV, recovered on November 8, 2018. The North Carolina State Crime Lab provided preliminary test results on Hania’s body, located on November 27, 2018. The results of those tests, including some received on December 7, 2018, and a thorough criminal investigation resulted in the current charges.
On Monday, the Robeson County District Attorney’s Office announced DNA has linked McLellan to a 2016 rape case. Officials say the 2016 rape was solved while officers probed Hania’s death and kidnapping.
