Miss Honduras Laid To Rest After Brutal Murder

Maria Jose Alvarado

Honduran beauty queen Maria Jose Alvarado and her sister Sofia were laid to rest near their hometown of Santa Barbara today. The tragic story of jealousy and murder has caught the attention of many Belizeans who watched nineteen year old Maria take to the stage for the Costa Maya pageant in San Pedro in August. On social media, the island’s residents have been posting messages about the beauty queen that charmed them. But in Honduras, police say that Maria Jose and her sister were shot and killed by Plutarco Antonio Ruiz, who allegedly flew into a rage when he saw his girlfriend, Sofia, dancing with another man at the party. They say he has confessed that he killed Sofia first, and then shot a fleeing Maria in the back. Ruiz and another man, Aris Maldonado, then allegedly buried the bodies of the two women in a shallow grave near a river bank, near to the spa where they were last seen one week ago, on Thursday. The brutal murders of the two women have rocked the country, which has the highest murder rate per capita in the world. Miss Honduras, Maria Jose Alvarado, was scheduled to leave Honduras on Friday to participate in the Miss World pageant in London.