Former Miss Venezuela Monica Spears and her ex-husband Henry Berry were both shot to death on a highway in central Venezuela between Puerto Cabello and Valencia on Monday night during an attempted robbery, according to Reuters.
Spears, 29, was vacationing with her ex-husband and Irishmen Berry, 39, and their 5-year-old daughter when their car hit a sharp object placed on the road, Reuters reported. The daughter suffered minor bullet injuries on her leg and is being cared for by relatives in Venezuela.
According to Jose Sierralta, director of the investigative police, "a sharp object that had been placed on the highway," made the couple pull the vehicle to the side of the road, leading the assailants to attack. He added five suspects, some under the age of 18, have been arrested by the police in Puerto Cabello as the investigation continues, the Associate Press reported.
Officials say their car had already been lifted onto a tow truck when the couple saw the attackers coming and locked themselves inside their car, according to the AP.
The high-profile robbery and killing of Spears, who was crowned Miss Venezuela in 2004 and was a well-known soap opera actress, is shedding light on the normality of robberies and kidnappings in Venezuela, where most residents don't even leave their homes after nightfall, according to the AP.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has made lowering crime rates his number one priority since becoming president, expressed his condolences for "the loss of a very spiritual young woman," according to the AP.
Armed robberies and killings are a common occurrence in Venezuela where even foreign ambassadors and famous baseball players have fallen victim, the AP reported.
Critics claim the government is not fighting the root causes of the extreme crime rates like the lack of proper sentencing for criminals, corrupt courts and police complicity, Reuters reported.
Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, a nonprofit group which analyzes crime rates in the country, said the murder rate last year was 79 per 100,000 inhabitants, but government statistics places the rate lower, according to the AP.
