Boxing star ‘wanted by authorities over missing woman who was last seen at his home telling him she was pregnant with his baby’

Boxer Felix Verdejo is "of interest" in the investigation of a missing woman whose body may have been found drowned in Puerto Rico, according to reports claiming that she disappeared after telling him she was carrying his child.

Keishla Marlen Rodriguez Ortiz has been missing since Thursday morning, causing local officials to issue a Pink Alert as part of a new bill passed in October to help speed up the process of finding missing women against a backdrop of increasing gender violence on the island.

The alert is for adult women whose disappearances are linked to domestic violence, hate crimes or crimes of a sexual nature, and Ortiz's sister, Bereliz Nichole, accompanied the move with a video on Facebook appealing for information.

Several local accounts on social media have alleged that the body of a pregnant woman whose blonde hair matched Ortiz's has since been found floating in a lake, with her family called to identify whether the body is hers.

Verdejo was contacted by criminal investigators on Thursday, according to Boxing Scene, which has said that he initially "shut down" an interview before agreeing to voluntarily meet them with his attorney.

The account also quoted a local news publication which said that Verdejo and Rodriguez were allegedly romantically linked in the past, and reported that Rodriguez's last location was at his home, where she is said to have arrived with a pregnancy test and the intention of telling him that he was the father.

According to the investigation, the last known location for Rodriguez was at Verdejo’s home where she allegedly arrived with a pregnancy test in tow and to inform the boxer that he was the father.

Ortiz was last officially seen in a car that was found abandoned in the municipality of Canovanas, ESPN said, adding that a police commissioner had told reporters that they were "still looking for [her] alive" and collaborating with the FBI.

“We are interviewing several people who are close to her," said Police Commissioner López Figueroa, announcing that their information suggested Verdejo had known Ortiz for "11 or 12 years".

"Countless people are going to be summoned. Anyone who had any contact with her, any romantic relationship, we are also interviewing." Verdejo's wife, Eliz Marie Santiago, is also said to have spoken to investigators on Friday.

Verdejo, 27, has scored 17 knockouts in an impressive 29-fight defeat that has only seen him beaten twice.

The most recent of those was in December, when he unsuccessfully challenged Masayoshi Nakatani for the WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title, suffering a ninth-round knockout in Las Vegas.

The former London 2012 Olympic Games competitor for his country had been on a run of four wins before his bid for the belt failed.