Prosecutor: Body of Missing Jersey City, NJ, Teacher Found in Shallow Grave

JERSEY CITY — The body of a woman was found in a shallow grave in Hudson County, a day after police were alerted to the disappearance of a female kindergarten teacher in the city.

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Luz Hernandez, 33, of Jersey City, was reported missing on Monday, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez confirmed.

Police did a welfare check at a home on Van Horne Street and then contacted the prosecutor’s office for support.

By late Tuesday afternoon, law enforcement found what appeared to be a fresh grave in Kearny in the industrial area of Central Avenue and Third Street.

From it, officers recovered a female tentatively identified as Hernandez, who was pronounced dead at the scene before 5 p.m.

The death was considered suspicious with further details pending an autopsy, according to Suarez.

Hernandez was a teacher at BeLoved Charter School and was being mourned by members of the school community online.

Second Jersey City teacher found dead in two weeks

Just two weeks earlier, 35-year-old Jersey City teacher Temara King was killed, shot to death by her husband on Jan. 24.

Lucas Cooper, 39, was arrested in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and charged with first-degree murder.

The couple’s teenage daughter had called 911 at the time of her mother’s shooting.

King had taught special education in the Jersey City Public School District and worked primarily with students with Autism Spectrum Disorder, according to her obituary.

Murder charge filed in separate Hudson County woman’s killing

Separately, a 24-year-old woman was found stabbed to death in West New York in what the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office was investigating as a domestic violence killing.

Daniela Garcia-Murillo was pronounced dead shortly after police were called to a residence at 4914 Murphy Place before 6 a.m. Tuesday, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez.

A 40-year-old West New York resident, Jimmy Elvira-Quintero has been charged with first-degree murder and weapons offenses stemming from the young woman’s death, according to the prosecutor.

Elvira-Quintero was in custody at Hackensack University Medical Center and would be taken to Hudson County Jail when medically cleared.

Anyone with potential information on either Hudson County case was asked to contact the prosecutor’s office at 201-915-1345 or submit anonymous tips online.