Murdered Miss Honduras Maria Jose Alvarado, Sister Buried
Reigning Miss Honduras title holder Maria Jose Alvarado and her 23-year-old elder sister, who were both murdered late last week, were laid to rest on Thursday. According to CTV News, over 300 people, which included friends, relatives, well-wishers and security forces, watched on as the two sisters were interred in two cement graves at a tiny cemetery in a village north of the city of Santa Barbara, where Maria Alvarado lived. Her friends and well wishers trudged along a muddy path to reach the small cemetery where the siblings were buried.
According to Today Online, it was a poignant atmosphere at the funeral where people sobbed and applauded as they reminisced about the short lives of the two sisters. Alvarado was to be in London, participating in this year’s Miss World pageant scheduled to be held next month. She had gained celebrity status in Honduras after she won the Miss Honduras title and was selected to represent her country for the Miss World pageant.
Earlier, the Inquisitr had reported about the arrest of Plutarco Ruiz, the boyfriend of Alavarado’s elder sister who has admitted to have killed the two for a trivial reason. Ruiz, enraged after seeing his girlfriend dance with another man, turned the gun on her first. Alvarado, who tried to flee, was shot and killed too. The bodies of the two sisters were then buried near a river bank in a mountainous region of Santa Barbara in western Honduras, police said on Wednesday. Police officials have since then recovered the gun used to kill Alvarado and two vehicles, which they say were used to transport the bodies to be dumped. Another person named Aris Maldonado, who is believed to be an employee of Ruiz, has been arrested as well. Meanwhile, Ruiz has been formally charged with the crime after he appeared before a judge on Thursday.
Meanwhile, family members of Maria Alvarado has still not been able to recover from the shock of their two young daughters. Their uncle, Claudio Munoz, told reporters of the family’s grief.
“The family is devastated. They killed two girls with such promise… They will be remembered as queens forever in Honduras and the world.”
The mother of Maria Alvarado, who had earlier made a desperate appeal to rescue her daughter, was inconsolable.
Alvarado’s coffin was placed inside a glass box draped with flowers. Also placed atop it was the Miss Honduras sash that she had won back in April.
The gruesome murder of Maria Alvarado has shocked Honduras and brought to light the severe law and order problem that the Central American nation faces. The country has consistently been ranked as one of the world’s most crime-prone countries. It also has the dubious distinction of having the highest homicide rate in the world, with 90.4 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
[Image via Esteban Felix/AP]
