A kindergarten teacher at a Jersey City charter school has been found dead in a shallow grave, authorities said Wednesday.
The body of Luz Hernandez, 33, a mother of three, was located Tuesday in the area of Central Avenue and Third Street in Kearny, a semi-desolate industrial area north of the Pulaski Skyway, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said.
Hernandez was reported missing by school officials Monday when she didn’t show up for work at the BelovED Charter School. It is believed that she may have been missing since Saturday.
Jersey City Police Department conducted a welfare check on Van Horne Street Tuesday just before 1 p.m. and found “blood splatters” on the door of the apartment, police said in radio transmissions.
Police then “froze the scene” and reached out to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office to get a search warrant, the transmission continued.
The findings at the apartment, inside a neat 2-.5-story brick building near Lafayette Park, led authorities to the location in Kearny Tuesday afternoon, the prosecutor said. Hernandez ‘s body was recovered a short time later and she was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:53 p.m.
The cause and manner of death are pending the findings of the state Regional Medical Examiner’s Office.
BelovED Charter School was closed Wednesday as a show of respect. BelovED founder Bret Schunder said counselors are available for teachers and students.
“People loved her. She was a wonderful co-worker,” Schundler said of Hernandez, who started at the school as a teacher’s assistant in 2017 after graduating from Saint Peter’s University that year. “She was a beloved member of the BelovED family. People are feeling devastated by this.”
Schundler said he expects the school will pay tribute to the slain teacher.
“There is going to be a desire to commemorate her and there’s going to be a desire to support her family,” Schundler said. “Her whole family was involved, was part of the BelovED community.”
A friend said in a Facebook post “R.I.P. my beautiful friend. I am lost for words, I still do not believe that she is gone.”
The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit is actively investigating this case with assistance from the Jersey City Police Department and the Kearny Police Department. No arrests have been made at this time.
If deemed a homicide, Hernandez would be the fifth homicide in Hudson County in 2023. A Jersey City public school teacher was shot to death last month in a case described by authorities as domestic violence.
Hernandez’s block, lined with apartment buildings next to Lafayette Park, was free of police vehicles Wednesday afternoon. Her building appeared to have just a couple of units, and residents of a neighboring apartment building said they hadn’t yet learned about her death.
Residents of the block are friendly, but generally keep to themselves, one neighbor said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Office of the Hudson County Prosecutor at 201-915-1345 or to leave an anonymous tip at: http://www.hudsoncountyprosecutorsofficenj.org/homicide-tip/. All information will be kept confidential.
Jersey Journal Staff Writers Teri West and Joshua Rosario contributed to this report.
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