Nov. 28 (UPI) -- The North Carolina Medical Examiner's Office on Wednesday tentatively identified a body as middle school student Hania Aguilar, who vanished three weeks ago in the same county where the remains were found by searchers.
A final confirmation will be done with an official dental record comparison, the FBI said in a news release.
"We are absolutely devastated," said Michael McNeill, the police chief in Lumberton, which is 35 miles south of Fayettesville. "I wish we had a different outcome for Hania's family, for the community, and for the hundreds of law enforcement officers and searchers who put everything they had into finding her alive."
The body was found off a road in Robeson County. Investigators had checked the area based upon leads.
Just before 7 a.m. Nov. 5, Hania, 13, was abducted by a man dressed in black and wearing a yellow bandana while she was standing outside her family's home in the Rosewood Mobile Home Park in Lumberton, the FBI said in a news release.
She was outside her home waiting to get a ride to school from her family. She was forced into a relative's running SUV parked in the driveway, police said.
"We believe we found Hania, but our work is far from over," FBI Supervisory Resident Agent Andy de la Rocha said. "We have to find out how she died and who did this to her. We have to bring the person responsible to justice."
Agents and local law enforcement from the county and city have followed close to 800 leads and completed at least 400 interviews during the search, the FBI said.
