2 Robeson Co. deputies suspended in case linked to NC teen’s death
ROBESON COUNTY, NC (AP/WWAY) — Two Robeson COunty sheriff’s deputies have been suspended for not following up on evidence linking a 2016 rape to a released felon now accused in the death of a teenage girl.
News outlets report the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday that Maj. Anthony Thompson and Sgt. Darryl McPhatter were suspended pending an internal investigation.
Hania Aguilar, 13, was kidnapped from outside her home Nov. 5 as she waited to go to school. Twenty-two days later, she was found dead in Robeson County.
Michael Ray McLellan faces charges of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, kidnapping, and more in connection to Aguilar’s case.
Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt said McLellan should have been behind bars in 2018 and never had a chance to harm Aguilar.
Michael Ray McLellan is charged in the murder for Hania Aguilar. (Photo: WWAY/FBI)
District Attorney Johnson Britt said deputies didn’t follow up after DNA evidence from the 2016 rape matched 34-year-old Michael Ray McLellan. Only after McLellan’s DNA was again found, this time in a vehicle involved in Hania Aguilar’s kidnapping, did authorities connect the cases.
“That would’ve given them probable cause to get a search warrant to obtain a known DNA sample from McLellan,” Britt said.
That never happened.
“In all likelihood, had (the 2016 rape investigation) gone forward and we established a case against (McLellan) at that time, Hania would not have died,” Britt said.
Newly elected Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said in a statement on Dec. 13 that an investigation had begun within the Internal Affairs Division “regarding this serious matter brought forth by the Robeson County District Attorney’s Office.”
Now, two Robeson County deputies are suspended.
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