Ex-husband charged with kindergarten teacher’s murder after bloody rope and shovel found in car
The ex-husband of a New Jersey kindergarten teacher was charged with her murder, weeks after being arrested for burying her in a shallow grave.
Cesar Santana, 36, was charged with murder for the death of Luz Hernandez, a 33-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of three.
Hernandez was reported missing on Monday, February 6 after she failed to show up for work at BelovED Charter School.
Police performed a wellness check at her home in Jersey City the next day, where they discovered the remains of blood splatters in her bedroom and the faint smell of bleach.
Santana, who was Hernandez’s ex-husband and the father of her children, was immediately identified as a person of interest. After an alert was sent out for his car, police in the nearby town of Kearny alerted Jersey City detectives that they had Santana’s vehicle impounded.
Kearny police had seized the car the Sunday before Hernandez’s disappearance after a traffic stop. The car was impounded because it was unregistered.
Hernandez’s body was found buried in a shallow grave in an industrial area of Kearny not far from where the traffic stop occurred. Days later, an autopsy revealed that Hernandez died from blunt force trauma to the head and compression to the neck.
Police also obtained a search warrant for the car, where they found a bloody rope, a shovel, and a pickaxe, according to an affidavit obtained by NBC News.
According to the partially-redacted affidavit, a witness also saw Santana dragging a large plastic bin out of Hernandez’s home the night of Saturday, February 4.
Police immediately began searching for Santana, who had fled the state for Florida. He was arrested by US Marshals at a motel in Miami and extradited back to New Jersey.
He was first only charged with desecrating and concealing human remains. His charges were upgraded to murder on Wednesday.
Santana’s friend, Leiner Miranda Lopez, 26, was also charged with concealing human remains. Miranda Lopez currently remains at large.
The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office said additional charges may be expected for the suspects, as the investigation remains ongoing.
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