 |
| Advertisement |
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) —
Two bodies believed to belong to Miss Honduras 2014 and her sister have
been found buried near the spa where they disappeared six days ago, the
Honduras National Police director said Wednesday.
Authorities
were awaiting confirmation from forensic officials that the victims are
Maria Jose Alvarado, 19, and her sister, Sofia, 23, said Gen. Ramon
Sabillon.
Sabillon
said Sofia's boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, confessed to killing the sisters
and led authorities to the bodies buried in a river bank in a
mountainous area of Santa Barbara, about 240 miles (400 kilometers) west
of Tegucigalpa.
They were found near La Aguagua spa, where they had gone Thursday to celebrate Ruiz's birthday.
Both women,
who grew up in the area, were shot to death and appeared to have been
killed the night they disappeared, Sabillon said.
"They were
not very astute about assessing the people around them. They were just
friendly," the sisters' mother, Teresa Munoz, told Televicentro. "They
were taken out by people they hadn't known very long."
An alleged
accomplice, Aris Maldonado, was also being held. Sabillon said the two
men buried the bodies near the river in hopes that they would decompose
quickly.
He said Ruiz
apparently shot his girlfriend, Sofia, because she was dancing with
another man. After a fierce argument, he pulled out a pistol and fired
at Sofia first, then at Maria Jose as she tried to flee. The beauty
queen was shot at least twice in the back, Sabillon said.
Munoz said
Ruiz called her the following morning, acting nervous and claiming the
young women had left the party in a car with some other people.
Maria Jose
Alvarado was crowned Miss Honduras in April and was expected to compete
in the Miss World Pageant in London next month. She was supposed to have
left for London this week. A pageant representative said Honduras would
not compete in the contest this year, given the tragedy.
Honduras,
overrun with streets gangs and drug trafficking, has the highest murder
rate in the world for a country not at war, with an estimated 90 to 95
killings per 100,000 people. It is one of Latin America's poorest
countries and earlier this year was the main source of a surge in
unaccompanied minors migrating to the United States, many to escape the
violence.
Women and
girls are increasingly fleeing Honduras and other Central American
nations after being kidnapped or raped, with many of them seeking asylum
in the United States.
Alvarado had
also worked as a model on the game program "El Show X O da Dinero" of
television personality and former presidential candidate Salvador
Nasrallah. He said he was very saddened by the news.
"A lot of
girls die this way, but because they're not famous, it doesn't get the
attention and the crimes go unpunished," Nasrallah said. "She was a girl
of good principles who fell into a trap, a game with guns, and ended up
a victim of a violent system."
In the South
American nation of Venezuela, which also suffers from high crime, a
former Miss Venezuela and popular soap-opera actress, Monica Spear, was
killed along with her husband during a robbery in January while she was
visiting her homeland.
Beauty
queens are very popular in many parts of Latin America, where they are
viewed as celebrities and often go on to become entertainers.
0 Post a Comment: