A few days ago, the media was filled with the story of Maria Jose Alvarado, the current Miss Honduras, who was missing at the time she was scheduled for a trip to London for the Miss World beauty pagent. Investigation reports today that she and her sister were murdered by her sister's boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz.
Maria Jose Alvarado, Miss Honduras 2014
A few days ago, the media was filled with the story of Maria Jose Alvarado, the current Miss Honduras, who was missing at the time she was scheduled for a trip to London for the Miss World beauty pagent. Investigation reports today that she and her sister were murdered by her sister's boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz.
The bodies of Maria Jose Alvarado, 19, and her sister Sofia, 23, were discovered yesterday buried near a spa in Santa Barbara where they disappeared a week earlier while celebrating Sofia's boyfriend's birthday.
Independenc.ie reports that at some point during the night of November 13, a heated argument broke out and Ruiz pulled a gun, firing first at his girlfriend and then at Miss Alvarado as she tried to flee, said national police director General Ramon Sabillon. Miss Alvarado was shot twice in the back.
Plutarco Ruiz, the alleged murderer
Police said her sister's boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, confessed to the killing and led investigators to the remote grave site where he and an accomplice buried them in a mountainous area of Santa Barbara, about 240 miles west of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. The alleged accomplice, Aris Maldonado, is in custody and authorities are searching for other suspects.
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 her daughters were trusting and naive. "They were not very astute about assessing the people around them. They were just friendly," Ms Munoz said. "They were going out with people they hadn't known very long."
Violence against women is a huge problem in Honduras.The Centre for Women's Rights, based in Tegucigalpa condemned the sisters' killing and noted 328 women had been murdered in the country this year. "The case of Mary Jose and Sofia show clearly the situation of generalised violence against women and the non-existent response of the Honduran government to prevent, investigate or punish it," the centre said.