Ex-Puerto Rico beauty queen’s mother shot to death

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A former Puerto Rican beauty queen is calling on the public to help police find those responsible for the shooting death of her mother.

Police said that Elena Santos Agosto, a 59-year-old nurse, died Friday night in her living room in Puerto Rico after being struck by gunshots to the head and chest that were fired into her residence from a passing vehicle.

“This crime cannot go unpunished, a crime without cause, without reason. Those responsible have to pay,” ex-Miss Puerto Rico Alba Reyes said in a statement Saturday. “They killed an angel in life, and they killed me with her.”

The 34-year-old represented Puerto Rico in the 2004 Miss Universe pageant, finishing 2nd runner up and winning the Miss Photogenic award. She said her family was “not involved in anything negative” and called on anybody with information to contact police.

Reyes was at home with her mother at the time of the shooting, according to local media reports.

Reyes did some acting and modeling following her Miss Universe experience but also earned a law degree in 2011. She lives in Los Angeles and travelled to her hometown this week because a family pet was undergoing an operation, according to her Facebook page.