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Ecoley

Police arrest 9th suspect in murder of ex-Miss Venezuela


    Caracas, Jan 13 (EFE).- A ninth suspect has been arrested in connection with last week's slaying of actress and former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear and her husband, the head of the CICPC investigative police said Monday.

    "Arrested by Poliyaracuy another of the individuals sought for the Murder of Monica Spear and Thomas Henry Berry #CICPC," Jose Sierralta said on Twitter.

    He identified the suspect as Franklin Daniel Cordero Alvarez, 28, and said he is linked to three other murders in the area.

    Authorities over the weekend announced the arrest of Jose Gregorio Ferreira Herrera, 18, in the same case.

    With these arrests the number of suspects taken into custody for the murders of Spear, 29, and Berry, 39, has risen to nine.

    The couple were fatally shot by robbers last Monday night after their vehicle suffered mechanical problems on a highway in Carabobo state and they pulled over to await help.

    Their 5-year-old daughter was wounded.

    President Nicolas Maduro proposed in a meeting with governors and mayors a couple of days after the murders that they work jointly so that "in a month we may have concrete results in practice and in the formulation of a policy" to combat crime.

    Venezuela had more than 11,000 homicides last year, down from roughly 16,000 in 2012, according to official figures.

    But the independent Venezuelan Violence Observatory says that the number of murders nationwide was more on the order of 25,000 during the course of 2013.