By AP/KWMU
St. Louis – Nearly a thousand mourners packed a St. Louis church to remember four siblings who drowned Sunday.
They, along with another child, died in the Meramec River during a church picnic at Castlewood State Park.
The four were remembered as special children who found purpose in their brief lives.
Some schoolmates wailed their grief as they passed the coffins that held 17-year-old Damon Johnson, 13-year-old Dana Johnson, 14-year-old Ryan Mason, and Bryant Barnes Jr., 10.
Services for 16-year-old Deandre Sherman, are scheduled for next week.
Mourners gathered at the St. Louis Dream Center, the nondenominational church that sponsored the picnic, and which has had little to say publicly about the events of that day.
The four were remembered as special children who found purpose in their brief life.