A man wanted in the 2023 murder of a Jersey City schoolteacher, whose body was discovered in South Kearny thanks to the alert work of three Kearny police officers, including the Police Officer of the Year in 2023, has been arrested and is now in custody at the Hudson County Jail, South Kearny, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said.
According to Suarez:
On Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, the marshals and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit arrested a Leiner Miranda Lopez, 28, of Jersey City, in connection with the death of Luz Hernandez.
Miranda Lopez was previously charged with murder, hindering, failing to dispose of human remains in a manner prescribed by law, tampering with physical evidence and desecrating/concealing human remains
Miranda Lopez was taken into custody at Newark Liberty International Airport and is being held at the Hudson County Correctional Facility, pending his first court appearance.
Colombian authorities arrested Miranda Lopez on June 14, 2023, pursuant to a U.S. provisional arrest request. On Sept. 11, 2024, Miranda Lopez was subsequently extradited from Bogota, Colombia, to the United States. Miranda Lopez and co-defendant Cesar Santana, 38, of Jersey City, were both indicted by a grand jury on in May 2023.
On Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, the body of a woman, later identified as Hernandez, 33, of Jersey, was recovered in a shallow grave in the area of Central Avenue and Third Street in South Kearny. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The Regional Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head and compressions to the neck and the manner of death to be homicide.
This crime is being investigated as an act of domestic violence.
Suarez credited the arrest to the Homicide Unit, United States 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, Colombia, who worked with Colombian authorities to secure the arrest and extradition of Miranda Lopez.
In 2023, none of this happens were it not for three alert Kearny police officers, including Jose Perez Fonseca, Kearny’s 2023 Cop of the Year.
During the course of the investigation last year, authorities determined Miranda Lopez and another defendant were involved in a motor-vehicle stop Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023 on Central Avenue in South Kearny, prior to Hernandez being reported missing.
The vehicle was unregistered and impounded by the Kearny Police Department. A court-authorized search of the vehicle was executed on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, and additional (apparently incriminating) evidence was recovered.
The Kearny Police Department, more specifically Officers Perez-Fonseca, Bryan San Martin and Anthony Oliveira — aware of the details of the traffic stop — led the Homicide Unit to the area of Central Avenue and Third Street in South Kearny, where investigators ultimately located what appeared to be a shallow grave.
The body of a woman — later identified as Hernandez — was recovered a short time later.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.