Mourners pack church to remember Gwinnett stabbing victims

Mourners packed a Lawrenceville church Thursday evening to remember four children and their father killed last week in a crime that's shaken Gwinnett County and its tight-knit Hispanic community.

Axel, Dillon and Dacota Romero and oldest sister Isabela Martinez, who ranged in age from 23 months to 10 years, were buried alongside their father, Martin Romero.

PHOTO GALLERY: Hundreds of mourners say goodbye to Gwinnett family

Isabel Martinez, Romero’s wife and and the mother to each of the children, has been charged with fatally stabbing them in the early morning hours of July 6. A fifth sibling, 9-year-old Diana Romero, survived the bloody rampage and is “steadily improving” but faces a “long road to recovery both physically and mentally,” the Romero family said in a statement released to the media before Thursday’s funeral mass at St. Lawrence Catholic Church.

“First, we would like to thank you all for the outpouring of support and the continuous prayers that have been given to our family through this unimaginable circumstance,” the statement read. “The love and kindness we have received from many has been a comfort for us in our time of grief.”