Fugitive accused of helping murder NJ teacher nabbed at Newark Airport

A 28-year-old fugitive wanted in connection with the killing of a beloved kindergarten teacher was taken into custody shortly after touching down at Newark Liberty International Airport.

On Wednesday, members of the U.S. Marshals Service and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit arrested Leiner Miranda Lopez.

He was previously charged with the February 2023 murder of Luz Hernandez.

Police found the 33-year-old mother of three in a shallow grave in Kearny shortly after she was reported missing.

SEE ALSO: 2nd Jersey City man accused in murder of NJ teacher 

Cesar Santana, the victim’s ex, has remained in jail since his arrest in Florida days after the grim discovery.

Both men were initially charged with second-degree desecrating/concealing human remains.

Counts of murder, hindering and failing to dispose of human remains in a manner prescribed by law and tampering with physical evidence were later filed against the duo, who are both residents of Jersey City.

Colombian authorities arrested Miranda Lopez on June 14, 2023, based on a U.S. provisional arrest request.

On Wednesday, he was finally extradited from Bogota to the U.S., Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said.

RELATED: Police find body of missing Jersey City teacher Luz Hernandez 

Gravesite found after police connect traffic stop involving both men

Suarez previously said that Santana became a person of interest after Jersey City police did a welfare check at Hernandez’s home and found a “crime scene.”

At that point, investigators found that he and Miranda Lopez had been pulled over in Kearny the day before Hernandez was reported missing.

The victim was strangled and suffered blunt force head trauma in a domestic violence homicide, according to autopsy results confirmed by Suarez.

Suarez credited the arrest to her office’s homicide unit, along with the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Judicial Attaché’s Office in Bogota.

There, agents worked with Colombian authorities to secure the arrest and extradition.

Miranda Lopez was being held at Hudson County Jail, pending his first court appearance.