Zelaya, 56, a reporter for Radio Internacional, was found shot to death along a rural road near the northern city of San Pedro Sula, according to press reports. He had been shot twice in the head and once in the chest.
Zelaya was last seen earlier that day at a local gas station, where he was talking with a man in a taxi, the daily Tiempo reported. He had not mentioned receiving recent threats, but his home had been damaged in a fire of undetermined origin three months earlier, according to Radio Internacional colleagues. Zelaya reported on a range of local topics, including politics and crime, his colleagues told CPJ.
Honduran authorities did not immediately disclose possible motives or suspects. Zelaya's murder was part of a rash of journalist killings in Honduras. In July 2010, CPJ published a special report that found a pattern of botched and negligent investigative work in the killings.