With drones, dogs, FBI 'actively' investigating leads in Hania Aguilar case
Almost two weeks have passed since someone kidnapped Hania Aguilar from the yard outside her Lumberton home.
A reward of $30,000 is being offered for information on the 13-year-old girl, who was abducted on Nov. 5 by a man dressed in black and wearing a yellow bandana while she was standing outside her family's home in the Rosewood Mobile Home Park.
Lumberton police and the FBI said they have not given up on locating the missing teenager, an eighth-grader at Lumberton Junior High School.
"The Lumberton Police Department, the FBI, and a number of our state, local, and federal law enforcement partners are actively following investigative leads to find Hania Aguilar," the FBI Charlotte Division said Saturday. "Call the tip line number at 910-272-5871 if you have information to #FindHania."
According to officials, drones and a K-9 team are being used in the search for Hania.
"Investigators ask anyone living in Robeson County to check your own property this weekend for anything unusual or out of place," a press release read. "If you see something that doesn’t belong or is not normal, do not touch anything and call the tip line or 911. You know your property best and can most easily determine if something is worth contacting law enforcement to help us."
"We have no physical evidence, nothing to indicate that she is anything but alive," authorities said during a Tuesday press conference.
The FBI last week released surveillance video showing what appears to be a man walking in the area where the girl was taken.
Investigators said the man was walking south on Lambeth Street before turning north on NC Highway 41 towards the mobile home park where the girl lived with her family. Anyone who saw the person was asked to call the tip line.
The family's green SUV used in the abduction was located Nov. 9 in the woods off Quincey Drive, which is about about 10 miles from where the teenager was kidnapped. Authorities said they don't know if Aguilar and her kidnapper have crossed state lines, but they're investigating all possibilities.
Late Tuesday, there was a report of a possible sighting of Aguilar in Charlotte, but authorities said there is no reason to believe the report is accurate.
"We're following all logical leads, no matter what city or state they take us to, but we just don't know," said Andy de la Rocha with the FBI.
