Many of BelovEd Community Charter School’s staff members could be seen wiping away tears as a hearse bearing the body of Luz Hernandez pulled into the school’s parking lot this morning.
A lengthy cortege of cars following behind then stopped on Grand Street as the hearse’s driver parked, opened up the back, and allowed several people to lay flowers on Hernandez’s casket.
From one of the cars the song “Ahora Que Te Vas” (Now that you are leaving) could be heard playing above the street noise.
The 33-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of three was found dead last week in a shallow grave in Kearny. Hernandez’s estranged husband was arrested in Florida and charged with Desecrating/Concealing Human Remains. Another man, also charged, remains at large.
Asked how the students at BelovEd were coping with Hernandez’s murder, school founder and former Jersey City Mayor Brett Schundler said “we are taking advantage of all the counselors we’ve been sent.” Today, Bayonne schools sent ten to pitch in.
Schundler said they are holding off on holding a school-wide ceremony to remember Hernandez. “We want to give the students some more time” he said.
After the flowers had been placed on the casket, the door to the hearse was closed, and with the school staff looking on under an incongruously bright sun, it continued slowly down Grand Street to Bayview Cemetery where Hernandez will be laid to rest.
A GoFundMe page has been established for Hernandez’s children at https://gofund.me/f94d75be.