GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The lone survivor of a heartbreaking attack, 9-year-old Diana Romero, described the moments she said her father tried to defend her family from their knife-wielding mother at their Gwinnett County home on July 6.
A child welfare report obtained by our partners at the Atlanta Journal Constitution details the account of Diana, who has been recovering from her wounds in the hospital over the past few weeks.
According to the report by the state Division of Family and Children Services, Diana said she saw her mother stab her brother and sisters first, and when her dad tried to stop her, she stabbed him too.
The report said Isabel Martinez, 33, told the young victim, “You going to the sky to see Jesus,” and wanted her forgiveness during the attack that left her father and four siblings dead.
Channel 2's Darryn Moore was live on Channel 2 Action News This Morning in Lawrenceville at the Gwinnett County jail where the girl's mother is being held without bond.
Martinez initially tried to pin the murders on a family friend and when investigators tried to get a name, she told them, “You’ll find the answers,” according to a report.
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She said that the family friend came into their home and killed her husband and four kids while they slept and said the friend then stabbed her in the arm and he left.
Police said that’s when she placed their bodies into a room together and called 911 at 4:47 a.m. requesting help.
Diana’s father, who was 33, and her four siblings, 2-year-old Axel, 4-year-old Dillan, 7-year-old Dacota and 10-year-old Isabela, were already dead when police arrived at the home.
At Martinez’s court hearing, she said that she didn’t need a lawyer, but the judge told her, “I don’t think you are well equipped to handle… representing yourself.”
In that same court appearance, Martinez also exhibited bizarre behavior, smiling, giving cameras the thumbs up sign, and bowing with praying hands in the air.
Martinez was charged with multiple counts of malice murder, murder and aggravated assault, said authorities.
Moore said that the Department of Family and Children’s Services visited the home in Loganville prior to the murders on allegations of abuse.
The case worker told Moore that no evidence of physical abuse or neglect was present although the dad apparently spanked the kids for not going to bed.
No one could predict what would happen later.
Cox Media Group
