One mourner, Direna Small, described the tragedy succinctly: “Seven at one time. Three generations. No goodbye.”

Killed in Sunday’s wreck were Jacob Nunez and Ana Julia Martinez, who were visiting from the Dominican Republic community of Manuel Bueno; their daughters, Maria Gonzalez and Maria Nunez; Gonzalez’s daughter, Jocelyn Gonzalez, 10; and Maria Nunez’s daughters Niely Rosario, 7, and Marly Rosario, 3.

Police say Maria Gonzalez was driving on the elevated Bronx River Parkway when the SUV clipped the median, then crossed three lanes of traffic and hit a curb that launched it over the guardrail and down to the grounds of the Bronx Zoo.

Hundreds of relatives and friends arrived for the funeral Friday morning, some in a long white limousine that bore paper signs with the names of the dead. A church bell tolled slowly and a dozen children from the parish elementary school — which Jocelyn attended — lined the church steps as a kind of honor guard.

The funeral came one day before what would have been Jocelyn’s First Holy Communion, Graham said.

Police closed off busy Castle Hill Avenue before the seven hearses arrived. About 200 people without connections to the family lined up in hopes of getting in to the funeral, but the church, built in 1903, was packed well beyond its 650-person capacity with friends and family. Scores of people stood through the Mass.

Prayers were said in English and Spanish, and a choir sang hymns in both languages.

At a point in the Mass where congregants share a sign of peace — usually a handshake — dozens of relatives left their pews for long embraces with each other, many of them crying. The display affected many other mourners; a nun dabbed at her eyes, an usher’s lower lip quivered.

At the end of the Mass, Bishop Josu Iriondo walked down the steps from the altar, sprinkled the caskets with holy water and waved incense over them.

The girls and their mothers were buried at St. Raymond Cemetery in the Bronx, Graham said. The grandparents’ bodies were to be returned to the Dominican Republic.

Novack, a native of Ecuador, and her brother, Cristobal Veliz, 57, of Philadelphia, have pleaded not guilty to a long list of federal charges. Their trial opens Monday in White Plains, N.Y.

The top count, murder in aid of racketeering, carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Novack’s husband was Ben Novack Jr., son of the man who built the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach. Novack grew up in the hotel, which was a celebrity playpen in the 1950s and ’60s and appeared in the movies “Scarface” and “Goldfinger.”

Novack, who had his own successful travel company, was at the Hilton hotel in Rye Brook, N.Y., at an Amway convention he’d arranged, on July 12, 2009, the day he was killed.

Novack was found beaten to death in the suite he shared with his wife. His body had been pummeled with dumbbells, his eyes slit with a knife.

Narcy Novack told police she was downstairs having breakfast when he was killed. But prosecutors say she opened the door to the killers, gave them a pillow to put over Ben Novack’s face and ordered them to cut out his eyes.

In crime-scene photos, Novack is bound at the wrists and knees with duct tape with a blood-soaked pillow beside him.

Two men have pleaded guilty to carrying out the killing and are expected to testify for the prosecution that they were recruited by Narcy Novack and her brother. Two other men have also pleaded guilty.

Three months earlier, Ben Novack’s mother, Bernice Novack, 86, was found dead in her Fort Lauderdale home. The medical examiner originally called it an accident, although her jaw had been broken and blood was smeared on her car and the walls of her house. Photos show her lying in a large pool of blood.

After Narcy Novack was arrested in her husband’s killing, the coroner said new information indicated Bernice Novack had been beaten to death with a monkey wrench. Prosecutors believe one of the men involved in the death of Ben Novack was also involved in his mother’s.

Bernice Novack’s death meant Ben Novack’s share of his father’s estate would be larger. When he was killed, Narcy Novack was in line to inherit.

But her daughter, May Abad, who was Ben Novack’s stepdaughter, filed a Florida lawsuit that blocked Novack’s access to the estate.

If Novack is convicted, the estimated $10 million estate would go principally to Abad’s two sons. Abad is expected to be a prosecution witness.

Abad was involved in an incident that led to a defense attack on the integrity of the investigation. Prosecutor Elliott Jacobson revealed last month that a county detective on the case gave Abad $5,000 of the detective’s money to relocate after Abad expressed fears for her safety.

The detective was taken off the case, but defense lawyer Howard Tanner said the payment shows, “This was a flawed and biased investigation from the start.” Tanner said he may use the incident to challenge Abad’s credibility.

The prosecution is likely to allude to a 2002 Fort Lauderdale police report in which Ben Novack alleged that his wife tied him to a chair for 25 hours and left with $440,000 in cash and his corporate files. She said it was part of a sex game and told police that her husband hit her often and once broke her nose.

According to the report, she said her husband took her to a plastic surgeon to repair her nose and when she woke up after the surgery she had breast implants she hadn’t asked for.

“While she contends this was done against her will, she never made a complaint to anyone,” the report says.

The report says Narcy Novack showed the police nude photos of women with artificial limbs “and went into a rather long and detailed statement of the sexual desires of Ben Novack.”

It also mentions a roomful of Batman collectibles. Ben Novack’s collection of Batman memorabilia, including a replica Batmobile, was estimated to be worth more than $1 million.

No charges were filed. Officers said in the report they were unsure about the Novacks’ credibility.

Information about the 2002 incident has been ruled inadmissible for the trial, but Narcy Novack’s comments to police afterward will be allowed.

In the days immediately after her husband’s killing, Narcy Novack discussed some of the same issues during lengthy questioning by police — without a lawyer. A video recording was made public.

Novack denied any role in the killing, saying, “Only a monster can do this kind of evil thing.” But when told that a broken piece from her eyeglasses was found at her husband’s murder scene, Novack said, “If this put me to the electrical chair let’s do it right now, you know why, because that would put me out of my misery.”

The questioning meandered for hours and included, in the words of Judge Kenneth Karas, “some remarkably intimate details” of the Novacks’ sex practices and what Narcy Novack said was her husband’s Batman “obsession.”

Novack has not been shy about speaking out in court, either, often criticizing her lawyer, Howard Tanner, or complaining about the long pretrial process, during which she has been behind bars.

At one point last week, the judge suggested she whisper, and she said, “I don’t whisper.”

“I’ve learned that,” the judge said.

On Jan. 7, Kennedy tried to take his 2-day-old son from the maternity ward at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, about 30 miles from Manhattan. He said he wanted some fresh air for the baby, but nurses tried to stop him, citing hospital policy, and a tussle was recorded on hospital video. Security guards were summoned and the baby stayed in the hospital.

The hospital reported the incident to police and the state’s Child Protective Services. Kennedy was arrested in February.

One nurse said Kennedy twisted her arm as she tried to keep him from leaving with the baby, and another said he kicked her.

Kennedy, 44, said Thursday “I was protecting my son from a complete stranger who tried to grab him from my arms.”

Kennedy’s wife, Molly, said “our lives have been turned upside down simply because my husband wanted to take a walk with our son.”

Kennedy lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, called the prosecution “a disgrace.” He said Kennedy had received a letter from a personal injury lawyer representing the two nurses.

“Certain individuals have taken advantage of a situation to line their pockets,” Gottlieb said.

A state investigation, including a visit to the Kennedy home in Chappaqua, found no evidence of child abuse by Kennedy. That conclusion does not directly affect the child endangerment charge, but Gottlieb has filed a motion to dismiss all charges.

Assistant District Attorney Amy Puerto said in court that the prosecution would fight the motion.

A small group of nurses from the state nurses union demonstrated outside court demanding that the harassment charge be upgraded from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Juliane Hatzel, a recovery room nurse at Westchester Medical Center, said “nurses get hurt all the time and there’s usually nothing that comes of it.”

Donna Hemmer, a nursing supervisor at the same hospital, said “I commend the nurses for putting the safety of the baby ahead of their own safety.”

Kennedy is next due in Mount Kisco Town Court on June 14.

Kennedy, a reporter for Fox News, is the 10th of 11 children of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. His father was assassinated in 1968.