News: 32-year-old Ruiz denies murdering Miss Honduras & her sister

The 'confessed' killer of beauty queen Miss Honduras Maria Jose Alvarado and her sister Sofia has spoken for the first time about the double murders to protest his innocence. 

Plutarco Antonio Ruiz, who was reportedly Sofia's boyfriend, is accused of shooting dead the two sisters then burying their bodies in a river bank in a barbarous crime which has shocked the world.

Beauty queen Maria, 19, was due to have been in London this week competing in the Miss World competition, which starts today.

Speak exclusively with MailOnline from the jail in Santa Barbara, 32-year-old Ruiz denied murdering the sisters and claimed he had been scapegoated by military police commanders desperate to find a culprit for their killings.  

'I will not declare myself guilty.This is all a lie,' he said. 

'I am also feeling pain, just like anyone would who loses someone they have spent time with. I'm also in mourning for Sofia.'

Police revealed they are investigating other crimes believed to have been committed by the man described as a 'dangerous narcotrafficker'. Allegations include rape, murder and dozens of disappearances.

It comes as MailOnline can reveal 22 bullets were fired at Miss Alvarado and her sister in the brutal attack. 

Maria Jose was shot ten times while 23-year-old Sofia was struck by 12. 

Wearing a green and yellow baseball cap, red T-shirt and a pair of green Crocs, Ruiz seemed relaxed as he sauntered from his cell in the northern Honduras prison, through busy communal areas. Police claim he has already admitted killing the sisters and even led investigators to the muddy grave where he and three other alleged accomplices had buried their bodies.

But Ruiz insisted: 'This is all a lie. I have kept my mouth shut since they arrested me. I never confessed or said anything about the murders.

'This is the first time I have made any comment about what happened. I don't know where all these stories are coming from because I haven't said anything to any policeman.

'I will not declare myself guilty. The police needed to find someone to blame so they came after me. I don't know why. 

'They arrived at my house with 100 men to arrest me and had no respect for me or my family in our home.

'Now I'm only distraught for my mother who is hearing all these stories about me.'

Ruiz admitted he was romantically involved with 23-year-old Sofia, but said the Miss Honduras winner's sister was just his 'mistress'.

'I have a common-law wife back in my village, and we have a young son together. Sofia was my mistress, it's normal here. My wife and my mother didn't know about her. 

When asked when he last saw the two sisters, who went missing on November 13 after attending Ruiz' birthday party at a spa resort in the hills outside Santa Barbara, he declined to comment.

'I don't want police to find out what I am going to say at my court appearance,' he claimed.

But he said: 'I consider myself a quiet, hardworking man. I'm a farmer, I spend my day looking after my cows. What they are saying about me is not true.

'I'm worried for my mother, I was the one paying the bills and buying the food. Now she's living on her own with no-one, I don't know what she will do if I stay here.'

At his family home, in the village of San Vicente, ten miles outside Santa Barbara, Ruiz's mother Lucia Rodrigues said her son was a 'daddy's boy' who took care of her after his own father was shot dead six years ago.

His elder brother David was also gunned down in February this year, leaving just the two living alone in the large detached home.

Culled From DailyMailOnline