Miss Honduras Winner & Sister Found Dead A Day Before Miss World Pageant

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. 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.

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. She and her sister had been missing since Thursday, when they were seen leaving a party in a car without a license plate.
“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. “Both are being questioned as part of the investigation into the disappearance of [María José Alvarado] and her sister. We hope to establish what role they may have played,”.

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.

Source: The Guardian