Suspect in Barrameda slay nabbed after 2-year manhunt

A SUSPECT in the murder of Ruby Rose Barrameda-Jimenez, whose body was found in a steel drum encased in concrete off the waters of Navotas City  two years ago, was arrested by police early Friday in Mariveles, Bataan province.

The arrest of Leonard Descalso,  “alias Spyke,” 36, ended almost two years of pursuit operations, said Senior Supt. Arnold Gunnacao, Bataan police director.

Descalso, who was   arrested on the strength of a warrant issued by Judge Hector Almeyda of Malabon City’s Regional Trial Court 170,  will be transferred to the Malabon City Jail.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group director, Chief Supt. Samuel D. Pagdilao Jr., said Descalso was a former member of the Bataan police who was dismissed from the service in 2001.

The remains of Barrameda-Jimenez, sister of former beauty queen and actress Rochelle Barrameda, were found  after she was reported missing in 2007.

Police arrested Descalso in Barangay Mountain View, where his family lives, at 12:20 a.m. on Friday.

Good timing

“He’s been coming and going home to his family. This time, the timing was good,” Gunnacao said.

Descalso, who was unarmed and did not resist arrest, is one of seven suspects  the Department of Justice subpoenaed in June 2009, and  included

Barrameda-Jimenez’s husband, Manuel Jimenez III; father-in-law, Manuel  J. Jimenez  Jr. and uncle-in-law Lope J. Jimenez  as “principals by instigation and inducement.”

Supt. Allan Macapagal,  Bataan police investigation branch chief, said Descalso was identified by a witness as the one who strangled Barrameda-Jimenez before her body was placed in a drum.

Macapagal said Descalso was a former warehouse officer of  BSJ Fishing and Trading Co., a firm owned by Lope Jimenez, uncle of the victim’s husband.

The respondents have been  on the Bureau of Immigration watch list after the victim’s family filed a murder complaint.

Barrameda-Jimenez went missing amid a child custody dispute with her husband. She disappeared two days before a March 16, 2007, hearing for her cross-examination.

Bataan intelligence and investigation operatives, the Bataan Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the Bataan Public Safety Company and Mariveles police joined hands in the operation to get the suspect.

Police said Descalso went to his father’s house at  Polaris Subdivision in Mariveles town on Wednesday night after “hiding all over the towns of Zambales since he learned of the warrant  issued for his arrest.”

“Armed with this information, the police tracker team of police units based in the province conducted further surveillance operations leading to his arrest,” police said.

Records showed that Manuel Montero, a self-confessed participant in the murder, implicated Descalso in the crime, saying the latter was the one who had strangled the victim.

Montero, a former operations manager at Jimenez’s company, led authorities to  her body stored in a  sealed steel drum that was dumped in a river in Navotas.