Suspect charged in the kidnapping, rape and murder of North Carolina teen Hania Noelia Aguilar

On December 8, just hours before the funeral for 13-year-old Hania Aguilar – whose lifeless body was discovered on November 27 following her kidnapping more than three weeks earlier – a suspect was charged in the teen’s murder. Yesterday, police in North Carolina along with the FBI, released word that 34-year-old Michael Ray McLellan has been charged with Aguilar’s murder. According to The Huffington Post, “McLellan faces 10 counts including first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping, felony restraint and concealment of a death. He was already in police custody on unrelated charges.”

Aguila was kidnapped outside of her Lumberton, North Carolina, home around 7:00 a.m. on November 3 while she was waiting for the rest of her family to come outside and drive to school. The FBI, Lumberton Police Department, SBI, and Robeson County Sheriff’s Office investigators located her body off Wire Grass Road in Robeson County around 4:45 p.m. on November 27. Investigative leads prompted the investigators to search that area.

USA Today reported Lumberton Police Chief Michael McNeill as saying that Hania’s body was found in a body of water in Robeson County about 10 miles south of the mobile home park where she was kidnapped.

In total, McLellan has been charged with first-degree murder, first-degree forcible rape, statutory rape of a person under 15 years of age or younger, first-degree sexual offense, statutory sex offense with a person 15 years or younger, first-degree kidnapping, felony larceny, felony restraint, abduction of child and concealment of a death, according to ABC News.

McLellan is scheduled to appear in court on Monday morning. He’s currently being held at the Robeson County Detention Center without bail. For more on the story, see the video accompanying this article.

Also see:

Body found preliminarily confirmed to be missing North Carolina teen Hania Aguilar

Reward for missing teen increases to $20,000