Robeson DA: Missed evidence from 2016 could have saved life of Hania Aguilar

Sheriff Burnis Wilkins, who took office on Dec. 3, said his office is in the initial stages of the internal probe.

"Once we determine what occurred, the citizens will be made aware of the findings," the statement said.

Robeson County District Attorney Luther Johnson Britt has said deputies failed to act on evidence from a rape two years ago that was linked to Michael Ray McLellan, who is now being held in connection with the Nov. 5 kidnapping and slaying of the 13-year-old girl.

During an interview Wednesday, Britt said had the evidence not been overlooked, it could have saved Hania's life.

"That's a correct statement," he said. "We're not going to deny that."

Hania was snatched from the front yard of her Lumberton mobile home on Nov. 5 after she went outside to wait for other relatives to come outside and take her to school.

Authorities: DNA linked defendant to Hania Aguilar

According to investigators, McLellan, 34, of Fairmount, allegedly forced the girl into the family's green SUV, which the teen had started, and fled from the area. The vehicle was found within a few days, but Hania's body wasn't located until Nov. 27.

Federal and local law enforcement authorities mounted a massive search for the girl and pleaded with the public to come forward with tips or information that could lead to an arrest.

After the family's SUV was found, authorities have said the vehicle offered the first clues to connect McLellan, 34, of Fairmont, to the crime.

"When the car was found and the car was processed, Mr. McLellan became a suspect," Britt has said.

McLellan's DNA was apparently submitted to the federal database after he was convicted in 2007 of a felony assault with a deadly weapon and first-degree burglary.

Law enforcement officers apparently did not act on his DNA information from that incident.

A woman who was attacked by a man who removed an air-conditioner from a home, crawled through a window and assaulted her at knifepoint. Britt says she had tried to defend herself with a gun, but it didn't fire.

As the state crime lab worked to reduce a backlog of ignored rape kits last year, it discovered that DNA from the 2016 kit matched McLellan. Britt said that information was sent to the district attorney's office and the sheriff's office, and should have prompted investigators to obtain a new DNA sample from McLellan to confirm the test, but no one followed up. McLellan remained free.

In February, he was convicted of felony breaking and entering, and motor vehicle larceny — and released in June, with credit for time served.

In October, police said he pointed a gun at a woman, tried to take her car and demanded money. He left that scene without hurting the woman, and surrendered to police in that case on Nov. 13, eight days after Hania was kidnapped.

Prosecutors charged McLellan in Hania's case while he was in custody for the October attack, but didn't publicly identify him until Saturday, the day of Hania's funeral. Only after that did they charge him with rape and burglary in the 2016 case.

McLellan faces 10 felony charges, including: first-degree murder, first-degree forcible rape and statutory rape of a person 15 or younger, first-degree sex offense and statutory sex offense with a person 15 or younger, first-degree kidnapping, larceny, restraint, abduction of a child and concealment of a death.

Britt said telling Hania's mother about the error that cost her daughter's life was "the most difficult conversation I've ever had to do" with the relative of a crime victim.