LUMBERTON — A reward of up to $15,000 is being offered for information that leads to the finding of a 13-year-old girl abducted Monday as she waited for her ride to school.
The reward was announced Wednesday during a news conference at the Lumberton Police Department headquarters building on Godwin Avenue.
“We need to hear from you,” Police Chief Michael McNeill said. “We need to hear from you. We want to get Hania back to her family.”
Anyone with information is asked to call a dedicated tip line at 910-272-5871.
Just before 7 a.m. Monday, Hania Noelia Aguilar was forced by a man into a vehicle as she waited outside her home at Rosewood Mobile Home Park, located at 3525 Elizabethtown Road in Lumberton. She was abducted while waiting for the rest of her family to come out and drive to Lumberton Junior High School, where she is a student.
During the news conference McNeill and C. Andrew de la Rocha, a FBI supervisory senior resident agent, showed images of a vehicle suspected of being the SUV used to abduct Aguilar. The images show the SUV as it was driven along a road near the mobile home park shortly after the kidnapping. The FBI and Lumberton police are asking anyone with a still image or a video recording of what may be the SUV to call the tip line.
“These pictures help us,” McNeill said.
Any image might reveal information that leads law enforcement to Aguilar, he said.
“We will come out and get them,” McNeill said.
Agent de la Rocha declined to say from where the images were recovered for fear of making other image sources hesitant to cooperate with law enforcement.
“We’d rather show the images without them being attributed,” de la Rocha said.
The agent also declined to say if it was possible Aguilar knew the person who abducted her.
“We don’t have any reason to believe Honia knows her abductor,” he said.
Investigators are exploring all possibilities.
“We’re not excluding anyone in this investigation,” he said.
Tips and leads are being received from members of the community, de la Rocha said. The teenager’s family members are cooperating with investigators. They are providing a family perspective and information not available from other sources.
Investigators are going door to door to speak with community members, de la Rocha said. Spanish-speaking personnel from Fort Bragg have been brought in to assist the investigation.
The FBI reports that the vehicle used to abduct Aguilar is a green, 2002/2003 Ford Expedition with South Carolina license plate NWS-984. The paint on the hood is peeling and there is a Clemson University sticker on the rear window. A witness said the man who abducted Aguilar was dressed in all black and wore a yellow bandana over his face.
Aguilar is a Hispanic female, 5 feet tall and weighs about 126 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes and was wearing a blue shirt with flowers and blue jeans when she went missing.
Lumberton police Chief Michael McNeill speaks Wednesday during news conference during which it was announced that a reward of up to $15,000 is being offered for information that leads to the finding of 13-year-old Hania Noelia Aguilar, who was kidnapped Monday.
Shown is the 2002/2003 Ford Expedition believed to have been used in the kidnapping Monday of Hania Noelia Aguilar, 13, from a mobile home park in Lumberton. The vehicle has South Carolina license plate NWS-984.