Heather Fernandez-Hoefer: Elementary school teacher arrested for 2020 stabbing death of her husband
She told police the wounds were self-inflicted but blood evidence indicated otherwise
An elementary school teacher from Farmington, New Mexico has been arrested in connection with the 2020 death of her husband despite telling police he allegedly stabbed himself.
In a press release, the Farmington Police Department (FPD) announced the arrest of 51-year-old Heather Fernandez-Hoefer, charging her with second degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Police responded to a 911 call at 5:39 a.m. on Nov. 20, 2020 which took them to a residence on the 700 block of South Ivie Avenue to tend to an unresponsive person. They found 49-year-old Robert Hoefer, deceased from “three apparent stab wounds,” according to the press release.
Police allege that Fernandez-Hoefer made conflicting statements, outlined in the affidavit obtained by KRQE. Fernandez-Hoefer maintains throughout that her husband stabbed himself in their computer room while she was elsewhere in the home. She said that when she found out about the injuries, she helped him clean it up and they went to bed in separate rooms.
Later, she said, she found him face-down on the floor of their bedroom.
The affidavit notes that the majority of the blood evidence police found was on the bed, not the floor, and they found no blood outside of the bedroom, aside from the wash cloth Fernandez-Hoefer claimed she used to clean her husband’s wounds.
An autopsy revealed that the three stab wounds on Hoefer’s chest went deep enough to puncture his lungs and sever his coronary artery; injuries that would have killed him within minutes.
Hoefer also suffered from “an abrasion and underlying hemorrhage on the scalp of his forehead,” according to the affidavit.
The Tri-City Record says that Fernandez-Hoefer, according to the affidavit, told police that Hoefer may have “may have cut himself or overdosed on pills.”
Cell phone evidence revealed an argument the couple had that same night about money and Hoefer’s previous relationship. A next door neighbor reportedly heard a man and woman arguing between 3 and 4 a.m. on the morning of Hoefer’s death.
At first, Fernandez-Hoefer allegedly told police she noticed her husband’s wounds at about midnight, then said it was closer to 3 a.m. when she saw them, according to the affidavit. She allegedly told police she didn’t know the wounds were that deep.
She allegedly admitted to police that she was “angry” at Hoefer for “wetting” the bed, then reportedly “laughed and raised her voice” when she told them about it, the affidavit says.
Police apparently found blood on the inside of her palms, and her “shirt had a stain consistent with blood on it.”. They said they found more blood on a knife in the knife block in the kitchen.
Fernandez-Hoefer is a third-grade teacher at McCormick Elementary School, though school officials told the Tri-City Record that she has been placed on administrative leave.
Police arrested Fernandez-Hoefer on April 1, 2025 after what the press release calls “ a thorough and ongoing investigation by detectives and working with the district attorney's office.”
Robert Hoefer, according to his obituary, was born in 1971 in Fullerton, California, but spent most of his life in Farmington, New Mexico. In the nine years following high school, Robert served in the Navy as a nuclear reactor operator, then earned his Bachelor of Science degree from ENMU in Portales in 2012.
The obituary calls Heather “the love of his life” who he met in Sept. 2019 and married in Sept. 2020. He was “so very proud” of his wife and of becoming a stepdad to Heather’s three kids. Robert was known for his vast knowledge on history and his love for reading. He had planned on becoming a history teacher so he could pass down his knowledge.