Maria Jose Alvarado is crowned the new Miss Honduras on April 26. (Photo: AP) 
 
 Miss Honduras and her sister were shot to death in an "act of passion" by a jealous boyfriend at a birthday party and buried in a river bank in the mountains, police said Wednesday. 
 
 Maria Jose Alvarado, 19, who won her title in April, and her sister, Sofia Trinidad Hernandez, 23, went missing last week only three days before they were to leave for London for the Miss World competition. 
 
 Gen. Ramon Sabillon, the Honduras National Police director, said Sofia's boyfriend, Plutarco Antonio Ruiz, 26, had confessed to the killings and led authorities to the bodies. 
 
 They were found near a river in the mountainous region of Santa Barbara, in northwest Honduras, where Alvarado had grown up and had worked as a department store model. 
 
 Ruiz and an alleged accomplice, Aris Valentin Maldonado, were arrested in connection with the killings, police said, according to the newspaper La Prensa. 
 
 Police agents detained Plutarco Antonio Ruiz, the boyfriend of Miss Honduras Maria Jose Alvarado's sister, in Santa Barbara, Honduras, on Nov. 18, 2014, in connection with the shooting death of the beauty queen and her sister, Sofia Trinidad. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 Alvarado and her sister were attending a birthday party for Ruiz Thursday night at a local spa when he allegedly became angry that Sofia was dancing with another man, according to witness statements, Sabillon said. 
 
 He allegedly shot Sofia to death then killed Alvarado when she tried to flee. Sabillon called the killings an "act of passion" inflamed by jealousy. 
 
 The police official said Ruiz and the alleged accomplice, Aris Maldonado, admitted burying the bodies near the river so they would decompose quickly. Police said the killers then went back and tried to clean up the crime scene, according to La Prensa . 
 
 Leandro Osorio, head of the National Directorate of Criminal Investigation, said two firearms and a pickup allegedly used to transport the bodies were confiscated, the newspaper La Tribuna reports. 
 
 Teresa Munoz, mother of the victims, said Ruiz, acting nervous, had called her the morning after the two women disappeared and claimed they had left the party in a car with some other people. 
 
 "They were not very astute about assessing the people around them. They were just friendly," Munoz told Televicentro. "They were taken out by people they hadn't known very long." 
 
 Julia Morley, chairman of the Miss World Organization, said the group was "devastated by this terrible loss of two young women, who were so full of life," Reuters reports. 
 
 Police stand on the site where the bodies of Miss Honduras, Maria Jose Alvarado, and her sister, were found in northwest Honduras Nov. 19. 2014. (Photo: Red Informativa de Honduras/EPA) 
 
 The organization would say prayers for the dead women in a service on Sunday and hold a fundraiser to donate money for a children's home in Honduras chosen by their mother, she added. Because of the tragedy, there will be no entrant from Honduras at the pageant. 
 
 Honduras, overrun with streets gangs and drug-trafficking, has the highest murder rate in the world for a country not in war, with an estimated 90 to 95 killings per 100,000 people. 
 
 It is one of Latin America's poorest countries and earlier this year was the main source of a surge in unaccompanied minors migrating to the United States, many to escape the violence. 
 
 Contributing: Associated Press 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1uQ4QjD 

 The boyfriend of Miss Honduras 2014’s sister has confessed to killing her and the beauty queen after the two disappeared at a spa six days ago while they were celebrating his birthday, Honduran police announced Wednesday. 
 
 Authorities are awaiting confirmation from forensic officials that the bodies found buried in a river bank in mountainous Santa Barbara, about 240 miles west of Tegucigalpa, are Maria Jose Alvarado, 19, and her sister, Sofia, 23. 
 
 Plutarco Ruiz, boyfriend of Sofia, and an accomplice, Aris Maldonado, have been arrested, said Gen. Ramon Sabiillon, who is Honduras’ National Police director. 
 
 Sabillon said Ruiz confessed and led authorities to the bodies near La Aguagua spa, where they had gone Thursday to celebrate Ruiz's birthday. 
 
 Both women, who grew up in the area, were shot to death and appeared to have been killed the night they disappeared, Sabillon said. 
 
 "They were not very astute about assessing the people around them. They were just friendly," the sisters' mother Teresa Munoz told Televicentro. "They were taken out by people they hadn't known very long." 
 
 Ruiz and Maldonado said they buried the bodies near the river so they would decompose quickly, according to Sabillon. 
 
 "I can confirm that the Alvarado sisters were found ... We also have the murder weapon and the vehicle in which they were transported to the site where they were buried," Leandro Osorio, head of the criminal investigation unit, told local television, according to Reuters. 
 
 Sabillon said Ruiz allegedly shot his girlfriend, Sofia, because she was dancing with another man. After a fierce argument, he pulled out a pistol and fired at Sofia first, then Miss Honduras as she tried to flee. 
 
 Alvarado 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 this week. A pageant representative said Honduras would not compete in the contest this year, given the tragedy. 
 
 Alvarado’s Miss World profile page said she aspired to become a diplomat for Honduras and that she enjoyed playing sports and “performing the Punta Dance, a Garifuna music and dance style performed at celebrations and festivities.” 
 
 Teresa Munoz said Maria winning Miss Honduras was a dream come true for her. 
 
 “Ever since she was a little girl, she loved watching the beauty parades and I always sat down with my three daughters to watch competitions on television,” the mom told Honduran newspaper El Tiempo, according to the New York Post. “She (Maria) told me, 'One day, I will be Miss Honduras.’” 
 
 Honduras, overrun with streets gangs and drug-trafficking, has the highest murder rate in the world for a country not in war, with an estimated 90 to 95 killings per 100,000 people. It is one of Latin America's poorest countries and earlier this year was the main source of a surge in unaccompanied minors migrating to the United States, many to escape the violence. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
– Police say they've solved the murders of Miss Honduras and her sister, and the alleged motive is a boyfriend's jealousy. Authorities say that the reigning beauty queen, Maria Jose Alvarado, 19, and her sister Sofia, 23, were shot to death by Sofia's boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, 26, reports USA Today, which rounds up accounts in two Spanish-language newspapers. Ruiz reportedly got angry when he saw Sofia dancing with another man at a party and shot her during the subsequent argument. He then killed Alvarado when she tried to flee the scene, says the director of the Honduras National Police. "They were not very astute about assessing the people around them," the women's mother tells Televicentro, reports Fox News. "They were just friendly." The sisters were headed to London this week for the Miss World competition. Ruiz and a friend accused of helping him bury the bodies near a river have reportedly confessed and remain in custody.