Police Arrest Michael McLellan in Kidnapping and Murder of NC Teen Hania Aguilar

The FBI arrested a man on Dec. 8, in the kidnapping and murder case of North Carolina teenager Hania Aguilar.

Michael Ray McLellan, 34, was identified as the suspect in the killing, the FBI and Lumberton Police Department said. He was already in custody on charges in an unrelated case.

McLellan was charged with 10 felonies, including first-degree murder, first-degree forcible rape, and abduction of child, reported WLOS.

He appeared before a state magistrate at the Robeson County Detention Center early on Saturday and is being held in the county’s detention center with no bond.

His first court appearance at the Robeson County Courthouse is slated at 9 a.m. on Dec. 10.

A body found on Nov. 27 is believed to be Aguilar, although officials said on Dec. 5 that they were still working on confirmation through dental records.

The North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office is also conducting an autopsy and toxicology testing on the body while the North Carolina State Crime Lab is processing any evidence discovered on the body or at the scene off Wire Grass Road where the body was found.

Abduction and Search

Aguilar, 13, was grabbed from her front yard in Lumberton on Nov. 5 by a man dressed in black wearing a yellow bandana and spirited away in a stolen vehicle.

The stolen vehicle was found off Quincey Road on Nov. 8.

The community mourned the loss of Aguilar after her body was found.

He funeral was slated for Dec. 8 at 12 p.m. at Lumberton High School, after a Dec. 7 Catholic mass at St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church. She was set to be laid to rest in Meadowbrook Cemetery.

According to her obituary, Aguilar was in 8th grade at Lumberton Junior High School and leaves behind her mother, father, and two sisters.

Hania Noleia Aguilar was abducted from her front yard in Lumberton, North Carolina on Nov. 5, 2018, prompting an Amber Alert. Her body was found on Nov. 27 in Robeson County, North Carolina. Lumberton Police Department

Killer Likely Knew Teen

A profiler said prior to McLellan’s arrest that the person who killed the teenager likely knew her.

Michael Teague, a forensic psychologist who previously worked as a criminal profiler for both the Raleigh Police Department and what is now the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, said the circumstances surrounding the abduction indicate the killer and girl knew each other.

“This just didn’t happen out of nowhere. I mean, this person didn’t just drop out of Mars,” he told WRAL. “They would be walking around the area. I mean, you almost have to be from there, working from there.”

Minutes before the abduction, security footage showed a man walking toward the trailer park where Aguilar lived. Teague said clues could be gleaned from the footage even though the man’s face is obscured.

He also said that the autopsy results will help in the investigation.

From NTD News