US man arrested for allegedly killing three Honduran women on popular tourist island

Honduran authorities said Friday that a US national suspected of murdering three women on one of its Caribbean islands popular with tourists, had been captured in the Dominican Republic.

Gilbert Reyes is accused of "aggravated femicide and murder" and was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, the Honduran government said in a statement.

Evidence collected at the crime scene and witness testimony incriminated him in the triple murder on the island of Roatan, it said.

According to relatives, the young women had gone out with Reyes on 6 January, the day before he left the country.

The women were reported missing and later found dead in a vehicle with gunshot wounds.

Proceedings to extradite Reyes were under way, Honduran attorney general Johel Zelaya wrote on the social media platform X.

According to UN data, Honduras has the world's fifth highest femicide rate - 6.47 per 100 000 women - and is the most dangerous Latin American country for women.

Some 380 femicides were recorded in 2023, the Observatory of Violence of the National Autonomous University of Honduras says.