Police found the bodies of Miss Honduras winner Maria Alvarado and her 23-year-old sister Sofia Trinidad. Trinidad’s boyfriend confessed to the murders and is now in custody.
On Nov. 13, Alvarado, 19, attended a birthday party for Trinidad’s boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, at a spa in Honduras. That was the last time the sisters were seen alive. The girls’ mother, Teresa Muñoz, said she tried calling her daughters’ cell phones, but to no avail. She said she suspected something was wrong when Ruiz appeared to be nervous the next day.
Ruiz later admitted to shooting and killing both the beauty queen and her sister. One of the three accomplices told Honduras law enforcement that Ruiz shot Trinidad after an argument about her dancing with another man. He then shot Alvarado in the back when she tried to escape.
The boyfriend led police to a bank near the spa where the birthday party was held, and the sisters’ bodies were buried there.
“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,” said former presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla.
Alvarado won the Miss Honduras crown in April. She was scheduled to leave for London on Sunday in preparation for the Miss World Pageant.
“I’m completely destroyed,” said Miss Honduras World organizer Eduardo Zablah during a TV interview. “She was like a daughter to me.”
There will be no contestant to represent Honduras in the Miss World Pageant this year.
With approximately 100 killings to 100,000 people, Honduras has the world’s highest murder rate. Gang violence and abuse against women and girls have caused many children of the region to seek entry into US territory.