Second suspect in Jersey City teacher murder extradited from Colombia

A second man wanted in the murder of a New Jersey kindergarten teacher arrived in the United States on Wednesday after being extradited from Colombia.

Leiner Miranda Lopez, 28, has been charged with murder in the death of Luz Hernandez, who died in Jersey City last year. Authorities handcuffed Miranda Lopez at Newark Liberty International Airport as he arrived from Bogota, the Hudson County District Attorney's Office said Thursday.

Authorities say Miranda Lopez and Cesar Santana, 38, planned to kill Hernandez and hide her body. Santana and Hernandez were married.

Colombian authorities arrested Miranda Lopez in June 2023, but he did not arrive in the United States until Wednesday.

Hernandez, a 33-year-old kindergarten teacher at BelovED Charter School in Jersey City, was first reported missing on February 6, 2023, when she failed to show up for work. The next day, her body was found in a shallow roadside grave in Kearny.

According to police, investigators found a pickaxe, a bloody shovel and a blood-stained rope in Hernandez's Jersey City home. The cause of death was later determined to be blunt force trauma and compression of the neck.

Three days later, authorities arrested Santana at a Miami hotel and charged him with concealing human remains. A grand jury later indicted him on murder charges.

But Miranda Lopez left the country before police could catch him. The grand jury indictment was filed on May 15, 2023, but Miranda Lopez was not arrested until about a month later, on June 14, in Colombia, according to the Hudson County District Attorney's Office.

Following his extradition, Miranda Lopez was held at the Hudson County Jail in Kearny. His first court appearance was scheduled for Thursday.