MANILA, Philippines??Horrifying, indescribable, unthinkable.?

The murder of Ruby Rose Barrameda-Jimenez, whose body was stuffed and cemented into a steel container and then thrown into the murky waters off Navotas, was so chilling even a seasoned police investigator found it hard to describe what happened.

?The crime was really horrifying. It?s indescribable and unthinkable,? said Chief Supt. Roberto Rosales, head of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

In his 32 years in the military and police service, Rosales said the killing of Ruby Rose was probably one of the worst he had seen.

He had heard of this method of killing during the dark period of the Marcos dictatorship, he said but this was the first time a woman was made to suffer such an unspeakable death.

Ruby Rose, sister of actress and former beauty queen, Rochelle Barrameda, disappeared on March 14, 2007, after a bitter custody dispute with her estranged husband, Manuel Jimenez III, for their two children.

Police on Thursday filed murder charges against seven men including some of Ruby Rose?s in-laws and alleged accomplices.

?That crime was done to the nth degree. How can somebody kill a woman who cannot even defend herself against five men? If they want to kill Ruby Rose, they could have just taken her, shot her and buried the body elsewhere,? Rosales said.

Feared, not respected

?The way they killed her was really beyond imagination. I cannot understand what moved the suspects to do this to her,? he said. ?Whoever committed this crime must pay for it. The people could never forgive this horrendous act.?

Rosales said he was told that Ruby Rose?s father-in-law, Manuel Jimenez II, and uncle-in-law, Lope Jimenez, who had been charged for the grisly murder, were dreaded by people who knew them.

Even residents of the coastal towns of Cavite, where carrying firearms was common, did not dare cross paths with the Jimenezes, he said.

?They are feared, not respected, in Cavite,? Rosales, a seasoned police investigator, said.

No relation

Anti-crime advocate Dante Jimenez, who vehemently denied any relationship with the suspects in Ruby Rose?s death, said it was the most horrible and heinous crime that his group, Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), had encountered.

?In my 19 years as an anticrime crusader, this was the worst killing I had ever seen,? Jimenez said.

Shocking, not surprising

?I was with the family at the morgue when the body of Ruby Rose was taken out of the steel casing. I just could not imagine what the victim endured before she was killed,? he said.

It was shocking, gruesome but not surprising.

Some of those who heard about what happened to Ruby Rose were appalled by the way her body was disposed. What?s even sadder was that stories like this seemed commonplace.

Lawyer Jimmy Funtador, 50, lamented how crimes like this could happen in a supposedly predominantly Catholic country. He added that the killing reminded him of how publicist Salvador ?Bubby? Dacer was disposed of?his body was burned.

Medical student AJ Ang, 22, said poverty could be driving criminals to be bolder in their crimes, noting that the suspects were said to be killers for hire. ?Because of poverty, people are becoming desperate.?

Police Officer 3 Robert Vecida said the manner of killing showed that those who plotted it ?are very angry.? He said he had come across other crimes where victims were even burned to leave no trace.

Restore death penalty

For taxi driver Rolly Cuntapay, 39, those responsible for the killing should also be made to suffer Ruby Rose?s fate.

The incident must serve as a signal to lawmakers and the government to think about the restoration of capital punishment for heinous crimes, he said.

For vendor Luiza Virador, the incident made her fear for the safety of her family.

?If moneyed people can be killed just like chickens, how can the government protect poor people like us?? she lamented.

For 35-year-old Troy Lacsamana, a librarian and father of a baby girl, the gruesome end of Ruby Rose was something ?a normal person would not do.?

On the other hand, Gus Agustin, a former call center team leader, described the killing as ?sadistic? and ?savage.?

Driver for hire, Roland Liquiran, said the killers had no conscience.

Beyond evil

Lourdes Barrameda, Globe Telecom employee from Quezon City, said the act was scary and beyond evil.

Sixteen-year-old student Christine Chico said she could not understand how anyone could do that to a woman.

Rusty Dagoc, a teacher of Talipapa High School, had stronger words: ?It was barbaric and the work of an evil monster and uneducated men.? With reports from Edson C. Tandoc Jr., Julie M. Aurelio and Nancy Carvajal