Honduras’ reigning beauty queen and her sister have been found dead just days before she was scheduled to fly to London for the Miss World competition.
Miss Honduras, María José Alvarado, 19, an IT personnel, and her sister, Sofia Trinidad, a school teacher, vanished on Thursday, November 13 after leaving a party in a car without a licence plate at a resort near the northern city.
Two men have been arrested in connection with the women’s disappearance, one of whom was named as Sofia’s boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, whose birthday party they were attending along with another man, Aris Maldonado. Ruiz was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.
Jose Coello, police spokesman, said that police seized a pistol and two vehicles as part of their investigation.
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The bodies of Maria Jose Alvarado and Sofia Trinidad were found buried a river in the mountainous region of Santa Barbara, not far from where the two women were last seen and about 110 miles from the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Alvarado had been spending a few days with her parents before her scheduled trip to the United Kingdom. She was crowned Miss Honduras on April 26 in San Pedro Sula after defeating 18 other contestants.
Her Miss World profile says she is a student who aspires to work as a diplomat for her country and enjoys playing sports in her spare time. The Miss World contest is slated to start on Thursday and wind up in the crowning of a new winner on December 14.
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Honduras is statistically the most violent nation in the world.
A United Nations report released in April revealed that the central American nation, which has a population of eight million, has a murder rate of 90.4 people per 100,000.
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