Miss Honduras beauty queen 'shot dead by sister's boyfriend in jealous rage'

 
Confession: police detaining Plutarco Antonio Ruiz Rodriguez (Picture: EPA)
Alexandra Rucki20 November 2014

The boyfriend of Miss Honduras’ sister has admitted to killing her and the beauty pageant queen in a fit of jealousy, police said.

Maria Jose Alvarado, 19, and sister Sofia, 23, were buried near a spa in Santa Barbara where they disappeared a week earlier while celebrating Sofia’s boyfriend’s birthday.

The beauty queen was due to fly out to London this week to compete in the Miss World pageant but was reported missing.

Police said her sister’s boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, confessed to the killing and led police to the grave site where he said he buried them with an accomplice.

Murdered: Maria Jose Alvarado, Miss Honduras World 2014

He reportedly shot the sisters after he saw his girlfriend dance with another man. A heated argument was said to have broken out and and Ruiz pulled a gun, firing first at his girlfriend and then at Miss Alvarado as she tried to flee. Miss Alvarado was shot twice in the back.

The alleged accomplice, Aris Maldonado, is in custody and authorities are searching for other suspects.

Miss Alvarado's body, wrapped in brown plastic, was loaded into the back of a pick-up truck hours before she was to have boarded the flight to London.

Salvador Nasrallah, who employed Miss Alvarado as a model on his TV game show X-O Da Dinero, said: “We had her gown ready and her traditional dress costumes. This is not a crime of passion – this is machismo.”

Honduras pageant organiser Eduardo Zablah said the country would not compete this year because of the death of Miss Alvarado, who, according to her pageant profile, played volleyball and football and wanted to be a diplomat after graduating from university.

The sisters' mother, Teresa Munoz, told Televicentro that Ruiz called her the morning after her daughters disappeared, acting nervously and claiming the women had left the party in a car with other people.

She said: "They were not very astute about assessing the people around them. They were just friendly.They were going out with people they hadn't known very long."

Dozens of relatives and friends of the beauty queen gathered for a candlelight vigil at the college Miss Alvarado attended.

"She was simple, humble, a total innocent smiling and without malice," said Ludin Reyes, a fellow student at the Technical University of Honduras.

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