Authorities ID body As Kidnapped North Carolina Teen Girl

LUMBERTON, N.C. (AP) A body found in North Carolina has been previously identified as a 13-year-old girl abducted outside her home, investigators said Wednesday, ending a three-week search involving hundreds of researchers.

Lumberton police chief Michael McNeill told reporters at a press conference that the state-of-the-crime laboratory tests indicate that the body found Tuesday night is Hania Aguilar's body. While the final decision will be made with the dental records, the researchers believe that the body is yours.

"This is the result we all fear," he said. "We did not want to hear that, we wanted to bring Hania home and bring her back alive in our community."

He promised to bring the perpetrator to justice. Investigators said they currently have no suspects or people of interest.

The leader stated that Hania's body was found in a body of water in Robeson County about 16 km south of the mobile home park where she was kidnapped on November 5, after turning on the utility vehicle. a relative before going to school.

The authorities did not explain whether the body had been hidden, but said that it was not visible from the road or obvious to passers-by. The researchers spent Wednesday painting the area in broad daylight after finding the body the night before.

The cause of death was not revealed, pending an autopsy. The researchers would not describe the state of the body. An FBI official said he did not know if Hania had been murdered in the place where she was found or elsewhere.

Police say a man forced Hania into a pickup truck and left. The SUV was found several kilometers south of its mobile home park. The body was found a few kilometers further.

McNeill said earlier that a witness had seen a man dressed in black with a yellow handkerchief seize Hania at the Rosewood Mobile Home Park in Lumberton. Police said that the eighth grade student took his aunt's keys to start the vehicle and was preparing to go to the bus stop. They say the man forced her into the green Ford Expedition and left.

The FBI quickly joined the research, offering rewards and transmitting their photo to the entire country. The truck was found abandoned a few days later, but the researchers did not see the signs of the girl or her remains for several weeks.

Drones, dogs and dozens of walking researchers spent the next few weeks traveling the county about 100 miles south of Raleigh.

A reward of $ 30,000 is being kept for kidnapping information, the FBI announced.