THE ex-boyfriend of a kindergarten teacher found dead in a shallow grave has been arrested 1,200 miles from the gruesome crime scene.
The teacher and mom-of-three, Luz Hernandez, 33, was found in a desolate industrial area with blunt force trauma and injuries to the neck a day after she was reported missing.
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Panicked family members called cops on Monday after the mom of three didn’t show up to work at the BelovED Charter School in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Cops went to an address for the mother and found blood spatters – with Hernandez nowhere to be found.
Hernandez had last been seen on Saturday, when she and her kids visited a relative.
Her children never saw her again, as they went to their father’s house on Sunday.
The investigation into her whereabouts eventually led cops to find her body in a shallow grave in a remote area.
The mom was beaten and strangled, authorities said.
Authorities have now arrested Hernandez’s ex, Cesar Santana, 36, in connection with her death.
US Marshals nabbed him in Miami, Florida and he’s being held on a charge of desecrating human remains, NBC New York reported.
Cops are still searching for another man allegedly connected with Hernandez’s death, 26-year-old Leiner Miranda Lopez.
Neither man has been formally accused of her murder.
“We can’t live without her, I’ll never fill this void,” her heartbroken sister Jenny Taveras told NBC New York.
“She was a really good mother,” her cousin Yajaira Germosen said.
“She was kind. She was a beautiful person. We are going to miss her so much. I cannot speak, it’s unbelievable.”
Family said that Santana was the father of Hernandez’s three kids.
The pair had been together since high school but separated last year, NJ.com reported.
Family members said that Santana brought their kids to church on Sunday, the day after family members lost contact with her and began to worry.
“He went to the church with kids, like nothing happened,” Germosen said.
The school where Hernandez was a beloved teacher closed for a day this week to allow people that knew her time to grieve.
Flowers and cards fill the stairs outside her home as a makeshift memorial was created to commemorate her.
A GoFundMe was launched to raise money for a scholarship fund for Hernandez’s children.
“I hope that animal pays for what he did,” family member Jose Luna said.
“I’m sorry, I won’t call him anything better than an animal. She didn’t deserve that.”
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