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Miss Honduras 2014 and sister killed in world murder capital

 Miss Honduras 2014 Maria Jose Alvarado was crowned Miss Honduras in April and was expected to compete in the Miss World Pageant in London next month

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(AP Photo)
Maria Jose Alvarado is crowned the new Miss Honduras in San Pedro, Sula, Honduras. Alvarado, and her sister Sofia disappeared after attending a birthday party in Western Honduras on Thursday Nov. 13, but authorities were not notified until the weekend. The 19-year-old beauty queen was expected to attend the Miss World pageant in Britain this December.
  • By Staff Associated Press

| Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Two bodies authorities believe to belong 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 are awaiting confirmation from forensic officials that the bodies are Maria Jose Alvarado, 19, and her sister, Sofia, 23, said Gen. Ramon Sabiillon. Plutarco Ruiz, boyfriend of Sofia, and an accomplice, Aris Maldonado, have been arrested, Sabillon said.

Both women were shot to death.

The sisters were last seen Thursday in a spa in Santa Barbara, about 240 miles (400 kilometers) west of Tegucigalpa, where they had gone to celebrate Ruiz's birthday.

Alvarado, 19, 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 on Sunday.

Sabillon said Ruiz led authorities to the bodies.

United Nation statistics show that Honduras has the world's highest murder rate, largely due to the rise of drug trafficking, reports The Christian Science Monitor. 

Honduras leads the UN list with 82.1 homicides per 100,000 (2010 figures), making it the most dangerous country in the world in terms of murders. This prompted the US to pull its Peace Corps volunteers from the country due tosafety concerns. As InSight Crime has reported , Honduras has been particularly affected by the growth of transnational drug trafficking in Central America. In September 2011, Honduran Defense Minister Marlon Pascua claimed that 87 percent of cocaine which is sent from South America to the United States passes through Honduras. If this is accurate, then, taken with the United Nations’ latest estimates of the size of the US cocaine market, it suggests that an incredible 143.55 tons of the drug pass through Honduras annually

Other sources put the Honduran homicide rate at 90 homicides per 100,000 in 2012, which compares to 5 murders per 100,000 people in New York City in 2012..

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