A Kindergarten Teacher & Mother Of Three, Whose Body Was Discovered In A Shallow Grave, Was Killed By A Fugitive

NEW JERSEY: After getting extradited from Colombia, the second suspect in the beating & strangling death of a kindergarten teacher as well as a mother of three from New Jersey, whose body was discovered in a shallow grave, is currently being held in American custody. Esther Suarez, the Hudson County Prosecutor, released a news release on Wednesday, announcing the arrest of Leiner Miranda Lopez, 28, who is wanted in connection with the 2023 death of Luz Hernandez, 33.

Lopez Was Extradited To The United States

After being detained by Colombian authorities on June 14, 2023, in response to a request for a provisional arrest by the United States, Lopez was extradited to the United States, according to prosecutors. He is being imprisoned at the Hudson County Correctional Facility after being turned over to American authorities at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Prosecutors added that in 2023, he was accused of murder, obstruction, failing to get rid of human remains legally, manipulating evidence, and desecrating or hiding human remains. Cesar Santana, 38, Hernandez’s divorced spouse and the mother of her children, is also accused in this case, according to Law&Crime. When Hernandez failed to show up for work on February 6, 2023, in her employment as a kindergarten teacher at Jersey City’s BelovED Community Charter School, her family filed the first report of her about missing.

The affidavit, which Law&Crime previously reported on, states that while searching her flat, the police discovered “apparent stains of blood in the bedroom, a mop, cleaning supplies, and a faint odor of bleach.” Three miles from her Jersey City residence, in an industrial area, Hernandez’s body was discovered the next day, on February 7, 2023, in a shallow grave. As to the medical examiner’s ruling, she sustained compressions to her neck and blunt force damage to her skull.

Santana’s Car Was Examined By Police

Records uncovered during the investigation revealed that Santana’s Honda had been seized due to an expired registration the day prior to Hernandez disappearing. After citing Santana, the officers seized the car after witnessing him and another guy load a black & yellow bin inside. Santana’s car was examined by police, and the affidavit indicates that what they found was “a large black and yellow bin having wheels, a shovel with visible black hair, a pick axe, a rope with obvious black hair as well as blood stains, along with transparent plastic sheeting having apparent bloodstains and soil.” “The rope was the same as the one by the grave.”

A cousin told New York’s WNBC that Santana took their kids to church the day following when Hernandez was reported missing. “He attended church with children as if nothing had happened,” the relative said to the publication. He was apprehended after being discovered in a Miami motel a few days later. The victim’s friends, coworkers, family, and younger pupils struggled to deal with their loss. One of her six-year-old children, during a candlelight vigil, paid tribute to her teacher, sobbing and clutching a handwritten message. Interviewing with WNBC, the youngster read her card and declared, “I love you,” tears streaming down her cheeks.