Police say bodies of María José Alvarado and her sister Sofía, who went missing last week, found near river

Police in Honduras have found the bodies of a beauty queen and her sister, six days after the two young women disappeared from a party.

María José Alvarado, 19, had been due to travel to London in preparation for the Miss World pageant in December. Her body was found buried near a river near the northern city of Santa Bárbara, alongside that of her 23-year-old sister Sofía, police said on Wednesday.

“I can confirm that the Alvarado sisters have been found,” Leandro Osorio, head of the criminal investigation unit told Honduran TV.

María José and Sofía went missing on Thursday night after attending Sofía’s boyfriend’s birthday party in a spa on the outskirts of Santa Bárbara, where the family home is also located.

Police said the boyfriend, Plutarco Ruíz, is the prime suspect in the murder and has been arrested along with another man identified as Valentín Maldonado.

“We have the author of this abominable act, Mr Plutarco Ruíz,” Osorio said. “We also have the murder weapon and the vehicle used to transport the victims.”

Local media reported that police had confiscated two pistols from the detainees. There were also reports that they had led police to the graves.

The disappearance and subsequent murder of the Alvarado sisters has shocked Honduras, a country already struggling with a deep security crisis and the worst murder rates in the world for several years.

The national homicide rate in Honduras 2013 stood at 83 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, about double the rates in Venezuela, Belize and El Salvador – Latin America’s other most violent countries.

The murder of the Alvarado sisters stands out both because of María José’s position as a representative of the country, as well as because of the absence of any suggestion that the two women were in any way linked to the turf battles between street gangs that is usually blamed for the majority of the country’s violence.