Police in Honduras are hunting for a missing beauty queen due to fly to London later this week for Miss World 2014. 
 
 Reigning Miss Honduras, Maria Jose Alvarado, vanished with her sister, Sofia Trinidad, after a party last Thursday. 
 
 The pair had been celebrating a friend's birthday near their home town of Santa Barbara, where student Alvarado, 19, was spending time with her parents before flying to Britain to represent her country. 
 
 The missing women were last seen getting into a vehicle as they left the party. 
 
 Police chief Jose Coello originally said they were not treating the pair's disappearance as a crime. 
 
 But it emerged on Monday four people including Trinidad's boyfriend had been arrested and were being questioned as the last-known people to see them alive. 
 
 Mr Coello confirmed: "Four people are under arrest. They include the owner of the party venue and Sofia Trinidad's boyfriend. They are being investigated." 
 
 The case has caused consternation in the notoriously violent central American country, home to the most dangerous city on the planet. 
 
 San Pedro Sula, just over 30 miles from Santa Barbara, is the murder capital of the world with more than 1,200 killings a year among its nearly one million inhabitants. 
 
 Its murder rate of 169 per 100,000 people far surpasses anything in North America or much larger cities like Lagos or Sao Paulo. 
 
 Alvarado describes herself on a Miss World website profile as an aspiring diplomat who enjoys playing volleyball and football in her spare time. 
 
 She beat 18 contestants to win the Miss Honduras crown in April. 
 
 She missed an appointment on Sunday evening to try on the dress she hopes to win Miss World with. 
 
 The women's mother Teresa de Jesus pleaded last night: "Open your hearts and understand my pain. 
 
 "There is an all-powerful God that sees everything and I hope you set them free." 
 
 Miss World is due to start on Thursday, with 120 contestants competing for the crown. 
 
 The grand finale takes place on December 14 at ExCeL London. 
 
 Swiss-born medical student Carina Tyrrell, 24, a qualified ski instructor and competition level gymnast, is representing England. 
 
 Scotland is represented by media and marketing student Ellie McKeating, 20, from Glasgow. 
 
 Ireland's representative is business studies student Jessica Hayes, 20, from Cork. ||||| A reigning beauty queen and her sister went missing just days before she was scheduled to fly to London for the Miss World competition. 
 
 Miss Honduras, María José Alvarado, 19, and her sister, Sofia Trinidad, vanished after attending a friend’s birthday party late Thursday night near their hometown of Santa Barbara, according to several reports. 
 
 Police initially said the disappearance was not being treated as a crime but later confirmed that four people had been arrested and were under questioning, the Telegraph reported. 
 
 “They include the owner of the party venue and Sofia Trinidad's boyfriend. They are being investigated,” Police Chief Jose Coello said, according to the British news site. 
 
 Pageant director Eduardo Zablah told told CNN affiliate Televicentro that the young women were last seen stepping into a vehicle after the party. 
 
 Alvarado had been spending a few days with her parents before setting off for the United Kingdom. 
 
 "Open your hearts and understand my pain," her mother pleaded Sunday night, the Telegraph reported. "There is an all-powerful God that sees everything, and I hope you set them free." 
 
 Alvarado was crowned Miss Honduras on April 26 in San Pedro Sula after defeating 18 other contestants. 
 
 Her Miss World profile says she is a student who aspires to work as a diplomat for her country and enjoys playing sports in her spare time. 
 
 The Miss World contest is slated to start on Thursday and culminate in the crowning of a new winner on Dec. 14. ||||| 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.
– Honduran police have apprehended four people in the case of a beauty queen who went missing mere weeks before she was supposed to compete for the Miss World title, the Telegraph reports. Maria Jose Alvarado, the reigning Miss Honduras, hasn't been seen since attending a party in Honduras on Thursday. She went with her sister, Sofia, to celebrate the birthday of her sister's boyfriend at a spa near the town of Santa Barbara, the AP reports. The two women reportedly got in a vehicle afterward and disappeared. Among those under arrest are the sister's boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, and the owner of the venue where the party was held. "They are being investigated," says a police chief. The vanishing is a hot topic in Honduras, which the Telegraph calls "notoriously violent" and "home to the most dangerous city on the planet." That city is San Pedro Sula, which logs more than 1,200 murders annually among a population of 1 million. It's also about 30 miles away from Santa Barbara. "Open your hearts and understand my pain," says Alvarado's mother. "There is an all-powerful God that sees everything and I hope you set them free." Alvarado, who was supposed to fly to London Sunday and try on her Miss World dress, says on her pageant profile that she likes playing sports and hopes to be a Honduran diplomat one day, Yahoo reports. (This beauty queen was accused of stealing a $100,000 crown.)