CNN
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An arrest has been made within the loss of life of a New Jersey kindergarten instructor discovered buried in a shallow grave, and a warrant has been issued for a second individual in connection together with her loss of life, prosecutors stated Friday.
Cesar Santana, 36, was arrested within the early hours of Friday morning at a motel in Miami, Florida, by US Marshals, stated the Hudson County Prosecutors Workplace, which had introduced the arrest on Twitter earlier Friday with out releasing the identify.
Santana is being held on the Miami-Dade Turner Guilford Evening Detention Middle as a fugitive pending extradition to New Jersey, the workplace stated in a information launch.
Police issued a warrant for Leiner Miranda Lopez, 26, who has not been apprehended, the workplace stated.
Each males, who’re from Jersey Metropolis, New Jersey, have been charged with one rely of desecrating/concealing human stays in reference to the loss of life of 33-year-old Luz Hernandez, whose physique was discovered on Tuesday, a day after she was reported lacking to police, the prosecutor’s workplace stated in a news release Wednesday.
Officers had carried out a welfare examine on Hernandez on Monday after she was reported lacking. “The findings resulted within the Jersey Metropolis Police Division contacting the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Workplace for help,” the discharge stated.
“Throughout the course of the investigation, the Murder Unit situated what seemed to be a shallow grave within the space of Central Avenue and Third Avenue in Kearny,” in accordance with the discharge. “The physique of a feminine was recovered a short while later and she or he was pronounced useless on the scene at 4:53 p.m.”
Hernandez died of blunt pressure trauma to the pinnacle and compressions to the neck, and her method of loss of life was dominated a murder, in accordance with prosecutors.
Santana and Lopez have been stopped by police on Sunday on Central Avenue in Kearny earlier than Hernandez was reported lacking, prosecutors stated.
Their car was unregistered and the Kearny Police Division impounded it, in accordance with the prosecutor’s workplace. A court-authorized search of the car on Tuesday resulted within the discovery of proof within the case.
Prosecutors didn’t say who reported Hernandez lacking to the police in Jersey Metropolis.
Hernandez was a preferred kindergarten instructor on the BelovED Neighborhood Constitution College in Jersey Metropolis, Bret Schundler, the college’s founder, advised CNN Thursday. She began as a instructor’s assistant in 2017 and had labored her method as much as turn into lead kindergarten instructor, he stated.
Hernandez was a “beloved member of the BelovED neighborhood” who was liked by college students and employees alike, Schundler stated.
“Everyone seems to be devastated,” Schundler stated. “She was a beautiful individual, and really a lot an necessary a part of the neighborhood.”
The college closed on Wednesday and reopened on Thursday with extra counselors on website, Schundler stated.
CNN is searching for remark from the Jersey Metropolis Police Division in addition to the Kearny Police Division, which is aiding with the investigation.
