A young Birmingham mother abducted, tortured, and murdered was tough on the outside, but soft on the inside, said those who knew her best.

Nearly 100 family members and friends gathered Thursday at the apartment complex where 20-year-old Mahogany Jackson was held against her will. They cried, they prayed, and they remembered better times.

“Everybody that knew her knew she didn’t play, and they knew she was full of love behind all that toughness she had,’’ said Jackson’s older sister, Jazmyne Maddox. “She had a big heart.”

Maddox said her sister would be stunned at outpouring of emotion and support from the community following her death.

“She wouldn’t believe this,’’ Maddox said. “She would be like, ‘Really? This is for me?”

Seven people have been charged with an array of crimes – three of them charged with capital murder – in Jackson’s killing.

An eighth suspect – a 23-year-old woman – was booked into the Birmingham City Jail on a 48-hour hold pending the ongoing investigation. She has not been charged with any crime.

The investigation began when Jackson messaged her mother at 7:46 a.m. Sunday, saying, “Send the police apt 3 held hostage don’t call.’’ She also sent her location to her sister.

Police and family flocked to Serenity Apartments, but Jackson was nowhere to be found.

One of the charged suspects – Teja Lewis – told police Jackson had been there but had left at 2 a.m.

Police spent all day and night searching for Jackson, interviewing witnesses and potential suspects, and tracking other leads before her body was found in Monday’s predawn hours under a mattress in an illegal dumping site in the 1700 block of Laurel Avenue in southwest Birmingham. She had been shot at least one time.

Parts of Jackson’s time in captivity was video recorded, including both physical and sexual assaults.

Some of those videos have made their way onto social media, prompting Jackson’s mother, Gail Maddox, to issue a plea on Facebook for people to stop sending them to the family.

“That’s my child. Please stop. I can’t take it,’’ she wrote.

Birmingham police Chief Scott Thurmond called Jackson’s murder one of the worst he’s seen in his law enforcement career.

“It was absolutely disgusting,” Thurmond said.

Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr described it as heinous and unimaginable.

“”The actions displayed by these defendants were barbaric and have no place in society,’’ Carr said. “The senseless and inhumane treatment perpetuated on young Mahogany Jackson was very disturbing and violent.”

Jackson’s uncle, the Rev. Otis Bates of Blessed Assembly in Hueytown, led Thursday’s vigil and balloon release.

“There has been a chain broken within our family, but love has replaced its link,’’ Bates said. “We stand united as a family. We love our Mahogany.”

Bates prayed with crowd and reminded them to each remember their own “precious moments” with Jackson. “Nothing can destroy that,’’ he said.

“She has been taken from our hands, but never our hearts,’’ he said. “We say to the world, ‘We’re still standing.’’’

“We have submitted the case to God, and we have bound ourselves together in love,’’ Bates said. “We ask that you pray for us as we go through this difficult. To God be the Glory.”