LUMBERTON — A major who ran the county jail and a sheriff’s detective are no longer with the Sheriff’s Office following an internal probe of the handling of a 2016 rape investigation that the alleged killer of Hania Aguilar is now charged with.
Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said in a statement today that Maj. Anthony Thompson, who had worked with the department for more than 34 years and was managing the jail, resigned on Jan. 9 and has retired.
Darryl Ray McPhatter, who worked in the Criminal Investigations unit, was terminated Thursday morning. He had worked at the Sheriff’s Office since 2008, and served as a Lumberton police officer previously.
The matter is personnel, which limits what Wilkins can say publicly, but the statement said the men departed following the internal investigation, which began in mid-December. They had both been suspended with pay when the internal investigation began.
The investigation began when it was learned that McLellan, who is accused of multiple crimes in the kidnapping, rape and murder of 13-year-old Aguilar, had been connected to a 2016 rape near Lumberton through DNA evidence. McLellan had spent about a decade in prison for a 2007 conviction for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, so the state had his DNA on file.
The DNA was sent to the District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office, but was never followed up on, according to Wilkins. Wilkins, who became sheriff in December, has said the fault appeared to be with the Sheriff’s Office and expressed his outrage on multiple occasions in interviews.
Johnson Britt, the district attorney, did not seek re-election and left that office earlier this month after holding it for 24 years.
“The dedicated men and women of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office are proud public servants,” Wilkins said. “My expectations of them are to serve the public with the utmost respect and to the best of their ability as trained law enforcement professionals.”
Wilkins said Capt. Susan Green, a jail employee for 29 years, would serve as the interim supervisor of the facility. He said he would advertise for a detective to replace McPhatter.
