LUMBERTON — People who live near where a 13-year-old girl was kidnapped on Nov. 5 and where the SUV used in the kidnapping was found on Thursday are being urged to call law enforcement if any of their neighbors have altered their routines since the kidnapping.
If someone knows of anyone in or around Rosewood Mobile Home Park or around the intersection of Quincey Drive Road and Alamac Road who is not acting normally they are asked to call the dedicated tip line at 910-272-5871 or the Lumberton Police Department at 910-671-3845, Police Chief Michael McNeill said Monday. This could be someone who has stopped going to work, has not come home or has stopped answering telephone calls since Hania Noelia Aguilar was kidnapped.
“Once again we ask for your help,” McNeill said.
Aguilar was kidnapped while she waited outside her home it the mobile home park at 3525 Elizabethtown Road in Lumberton to be driven to Lumberton Junior High School. A witness reported seeing a man dressed all in black and wearing a yellow bandana over his face force the teenager into an SUV and drive away with her. The green Ford Expedition was found Thursday off Quincey Drive Road near Alamac Road and has since been processed for evidence.
A tip about someone who is not behaving normally could lead to information that helps bring Aguilar home, C. Andrew de la Rocha, a FBI supervisory senior resident agent, said during the news conference at the East Lumberton Resource Center on East Fifth Street.
Several hundred leads have been called into the tip line, the agent said. People in and around the mobile home park and near where the SUV was found have approached investigators and offered more leads.
“We are following every lead to find Hania,” de la Rocha said.
Evidence collected during the investigation was flown Friday to the FBI labs in Quantico, Va., for analysis, he said. The agent would not discuss what sort of evidence has been gathered or what information the evidence has revealed. He did say the investigation will continue until Aguilar is found and investigators are approaching the case as if she is alive.
“We’re making progress every single day,” de la Rocha said. “We’re feeling much better than we did yesterday.”
People are asked to stop spreading rumors, speculation and false information on social media, the agent said. These postings only spread fear and pull investigators and other resources away from the search for Aguilar.
“We know you want to help us, but spreading false information does not help the investigation, it hurts it,” de la Rocha said.
Investigators still have not identified the man seen in a video recording taken Thursday from a security system, de la Rocha said. Anyone who has seen the recording, released by the FBI, and can identify the man or can provide information that leads to the man’s identity is asked to call. The man is not being called a suspect, but he may have information that leads investigators to Aguilar because he is seen walking along Lambeth Street and then turning left on Elizabethtown Road and walking toward Rosewood Mobile Home Park about one hour before Aguilar’s abduction.
The video can be viewed online at www.fbi.gov.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information that leads to the finding of Aguilar, and the state of North Carolina is offering up to $5,000.
“We all want the same thing, to find Hania and to bring Hania home,” said Shelley Lynch, an FBI Public Affairs specialist.
