Arrest after teacher found dead in shallow grave

An arrest has been made following the death of a teacher who was found dead in a shallow grave after she was beaten and strangled.

Teacher Luz Hernandez was found dead. Picture: Facebook

An arrest has been made following the death of a kindergarten teacher who was found dead in a shallow grave after she was beaten and strangled.

Prosecutors did not identify the suspect or mention charges in their announcement on Friday, saying only that there would be “more to follow” in “the death investigation of Luz Hernandez”, the New York Post reported.

Hernandez, 33, a mother of three, died of blunt force trauma to the head and compressions to the neck, according to autopsy results released earlier by the prosecutor’s office in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Teacher Luz Hernandez was found dead. Picture: Facebook

The teacher’s employer, BelovED Charter School, reported her missing on Monday after she failed to show up for work that day.

Jersey City police conducted a welfare check at her Van Horne Street home on Tuesday, apparently found evidence of a crime, and contacted the prosecutor’s office for assistance.

They discovered Hernandez’s body at about 4.50pm, lying in “what appeared to be a shallow grave” near Central Avenue and Third Street in Kearny, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said in a statement.

Hernandez was last seen on Saturday when she went to visit a relative with her children, who spent the following day with their dad, WNBC reported.

A suspect has been arrested following Ms Hernandez's death. Picture: Facebook

Hernandez was separated from Junior Santana, ABC 7 reported.

“We can’t live without her, I’ll never fill this void,” her sister, Jenny Taveras, told WNBC in Spanish.

Hernandez’s cousin Yajaira Germosen said: “She was a really good mother. She was kind, oh my God. She was a beautiful person. We are going to miss her so much. I cannot speak, it’s unbelievable.”

This story was originally published by the New York Post and was reproduced with permission