Refresher from April 25, 2019 -- this family still awaiting justice 
Three separate law enforcement agencies had the power to arrest and detain McLellan for crimes committed weeks before Hania’s abduction. Had they followed up, he could have been behind bars on Nov. 5 rather than walking to Hania’s yard in the Rosewood Mobile Home Park.
In September 2017, more than a year before Hania’s abduction, the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office received evidence from the state crime lab connecting McLellan’s DNA to a 2016 rape case. No one acted on that evidence until December 2018, after Hania had been found dead.
On Oct. 16, three weeks before Hania’s kidnapping, police in the neighboring town of Fairmont put out a warrant for McLellan’s arrest, accusing him of attempted robbery and second-degree kidnapping in a carjacking gone wrong. That warrant went unserved until Nov. 13, eight days after Hania disappeared.
And on Oct. 17, the state’s Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission issued a second warrant for McLellan’s arrest, noting he had violated the terms of his recent release from prison. Nothing happened until Nov. 13, while pleas from Hania’s mother grew increasingly desperate.
The failure to arrest McLellan prior to the slaying of a 13-year-old represents a breakdown in the criminal justice system that few working within it are willing to explain or discuss.
Former Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt said Hania
“might be alive” had deputies acted on the DNA evidence. Sheriff Burnis Wilkins, who moved into his job days after Hania’s body was found, said “it angers me, and I’ve got to deal with it.”
But Wilkins has declined interviews with The News & Observer, referring questions to his head of major crimes, who promised a statement but has not yet produced any information.
Fairmont Police Chief Jon Edwards did not return multiple calls from The N&O since December, when he described the details of the attempted carjacking but not McLellan’s outstanding warrant.
When The N&O asked about the pair of unserved warrants, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety said parole officers were “cooperating with the local police department,” citing a statute that keeps
parolee information confidential. The state expected Fairmont police to serve their warrant and believed they were actively searching for him.
A spokesman for N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper said in an email to The N&O, “This is a tragic case and it’s in the best interest of public safety for all law enforcement agencies involved to review it carefully and apply any lessons that can be learned from it.”
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article229573309.html
