Four detained in case of missing Miss Honduras pageant queen

UPDATE (11-19-14): Miss Honduras Mundo 2014, Maria Jose Alvarado Muñoz and her sister were found dead after vanishing last week. Two arrested. Story is developing.

Honduran national police have detained four persons in connection to the disappearance of Miss Honduras Mundo 2014, Maria Jose Alvarado Muñoz.

The 19-year-old pageant queen and her sister Sofia Trinidad have not been heard from since they went missing on November 13 from outside the northern city of Santa Barbara. Authorities say all signs point to a kidnapping of the siblings, and among the men detained is the sister’s boyfriend as well as the owner of the spa where the three had spent their last hours before disappearing.

SEE ALSO: Beauty queen Genesis Carmona dies in Venezuela

Erick Mauricio Hidalgo, a police spokesperson confirmed to the daily paper “El Heraldo,” that Plutarco Ruiz, Sofia’s boyfriend, “has been detained as a preventative measure, because he was one of the last persons to be seen with her.”

He went on to say that after receiving the information from the young women’s mother as to where they had been last celebrating they assigned a task force to search for them.

The mother of the young women made a tearful plea on a TV report aired by Univision.

“Imagine four days, five days today, of not being able to see them, of anguish, of not being able to sleep, not being able to eat,” said Teresa de Jesus Muñoz. “I ask those who have them to reach for their conscience and look at my pain, because I know I have a heart, and if they don’t then please just give me my daughters.”

French news agency AFP reports the sisters disappeared after attending a birthday party for Sofia’s boyfriend.

Despite their efforts the victims’ older sister, Cori Alvarado, expressed her discontent with police’s handling of the case.

“The authorities just have to do their job better,” she told local media.

Statistically Honduras is considered the most violent country in the Americas, rife with gang and drug violence that has grown out of the control of law enforcement.

Early Tuesday morning, however, the victims’ mother responded to reports of the men they had last seen with, saying Maria Jose Alvarado and her sister Sofia Trinidad “had just met the men,” when they disappeared. They were apparently seen leaving the La Aguaga spa resort in a van with three unknown men before vanishing.

Maria Jose was supposed to be flying to London for the Miss World pageant. She’s also part of a Honduran modeling reality show.

SEE ALSO: Drug violence escalating in Honduras