The daughter of a woman who is accused of killing her four children and husband in suburban Atlanta revealed what her mother said.
Diana Romero, 9, who was also stabbed by her mother but survived, said that her mother, Isabel Martinez, told her she loved her. Martinez told the girl she “going to the sky to see Jesus” before the attack earlier this month, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Thursday, July 20.
The girl’s statement was noted in a report from the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services. The document stated that the girl told her mother that she didn’t want to go up in the sky.
Martinez behaved strangely in her first court appearance, smiling, waving her arms, praying, and giving the thumbs-up sign. She also told a judge that she doesn’t need an attorney. The court appointed attorney Robert Greenwald filed a motion for a psychiatric evaluation but later withdrew the request.
The victims of the stabbing were identified as Isabela Martinez, 10; Dacota Romero, 7; Dillan Romero, 4; Alex Romero, 2; and Martin Romero, 33.
On the day of the killings, the girl said she saw her mother go into the kitchen and grab a knife before the attack, the newspaper reported.
And Martinez never admitted to harming her family members. “She knows she is not guilty because she wouldn’t be this calm about it,” Martinez told a caseworker at the Gwinnett County Jail, adding that a “family friend” performed the murders. She cut her wrist while trying to stop him, Martinez claimed.
She also put all of the bodies in the same room before officers came “so everyone could be together,” she said, according to the report.
Investigators said Martinez, 33, called police to report the crime, according to WSB-TV.
Martinez, who entered the United States illegally, was charged with five counts of murder, five counts of malice murder, and six counts of aggravated assault.
Family members of Diana said she was stabbed several times and had to undergo a surgical procedure, according to a GoFundMe page.