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Miss Honduras winner and sister found dead Miss Honduras winner and sister found dead
(35 minutes later)
Honduran authorities say they have found the bodies of Miss Honduras, María José Alvarado, and her sister Sofía near the spa where they were last seen six days ago. A Honduran beauty queen has been found murdered days before she was due to compete in the Miss World pageant in London, police said on Wednesday.
“We are 100% sure that it’s them,” police chief Leando Osorio said. The bodies of María José Alvarado, 19, and her sister Sofía were found buried near a river in the mountainous region of Santa Barbara, about 110 miles from the capital Tegucigalpa, said Leandro Osorio, head of the criminal investigation unit.
Early on Wednesday national police director Ramon Sabillon said that Plutarco Ruiz, Sofía’s boyfriend, and another man, Aris Maldonado, had been arrested. Alvarado, a student who aspired to become a career diplomat, had been due to take part in the Miss World events that start on Thursday and culminate in the final in London on 14 December.
The sisters went missing after attending a birthday party for Ruiz last Thursday. She and her sister had been missing since Thursday, when they were seen leaving a party in a car without a license plate.
Alvarado had been scheduled to leave for London on Sunday to compete in the Miss World 2014 pageant. “I can confirm that the Alvarado sisters were found … We also have the murder weapon and the vehicle in which they were transported to the site where they were buried,” Osorio told local television.
Interior minister Arturo Corrales told Honduran media that Plutarco Ruiz, the boyfriend of the beauty queen’s sister, was responsible for the crime. Police arrested Ruiz and another man on Tuesday, confiscating two pistols.
Alvarado was crowned Miss Honduras 2014 in April, beating 18 other contestants to the top spot.
Organisers of the Miss World event, which began in the United Kingdom in the 1950s, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Honduras is the world’s most violent country, with a murder rate above 90 people per 100,000.
Mexico’s drug cartels have expanded into Honduras in recent years, making the Central American nation a major thoroughfare for trafficking South America cocaine to the United States and driving a surge in violence.