The sister of Jason Corbett, the Limerick man killed by his American wife and father-in-law in 2015, has said she is disappointed a first degree murder charge was not brought and has her own beliefs on what happened to her brother.
Mr Corbett was beaten to death at his home in Wallburg, North Carolina, on August 2nd, 2015.
His wife Molly Martens Corbett (33 at the time of trial) and his father-in-law Thomas Martens (who was then 67 and a retired FBI agent) were convicted of second-degree murder.
Both were sentenced to a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of 25 years at Davidson County Court in Lexington last year.
In their first interview since, the members of the Corbett family have outlined what they believe really happened on the day of his murder and described the strange behaviour of the Martens family before and after their crime.
"I believe that Molly Martens planned to kill Jason and that all the evidence pointed towards it. I was disappointed there wasn't a first degree [/MURDER]/ charge," his sister Tracey Corbett Lynch said on Friday night's Late Late Show.
Bag packed
“I know that Jason had a bag packed with the kids’ clothes. He was going to leave. He had been looking up flights... he had been drugged and the toxicology report shows the drugs in his system.”
She said Martens had hit him in the head with a brick in his sleep and after he died, waited to call 911. “I believe they left him to die.”
Molly Martens Corbett first met her Irish husband in 2008 after she moved to Limerick to work as a nanny for his children following the death of his first wife Margaret (Mags) Fitzpatrick. They later became involved and married in 2011.
When Molly came over to be the aupair, Ms Tracey said, "it was the lowest ebb in his life. He was very vulnerable when they started having a relationship. He started smiling again."
She later returned to the US for a short time and planned to come back to Ireland but to live separately although that never happened.
Later the pair decided to marry. Jason’s sister Marilyn said her family began to become concerned when they went over to the wedding in the US and heard stories that Molly had been telling people.
She appeared to be a “different person”, she said – people had the impression Jason’s children from his first marriage – Jack and Sarah – were hers, while others had been told that Molly had met both Jason and Mags before her death.
Molly also told Jason's family that she had had a sister, Grace, who died of leukaemia, which was not true.
After Jason was killed, Thomas Marten’s wife Sharon rang his twin brother Wayne and said there had been an argument; Molly had pushed Jason who fell, hit his head and died. She said her daughter was too upset to speak and hung up the phone.
She later told Tracey that Jason had been drinking for 24 hours before the fight. “We got lots of different versions of Jason falling and hitting his head,” she said.
Stonewalled
Later when the family arrived in the US they were “stonewalled” by the Martens, Marilyn said, who wouldn’t engage or tell them where Jason’s remains were.
They even moved him at one stage and the Corbetts only eventually gained access after lawyers were engaged and they agreed to pay the costs.
A smear campaign followed by the Martens, they said, in which they spread stories that he had been in the IRA and that he had played a role in the death of his wife Mags.
Efforts were made to stop them leaving the country with the children. With help from Irish officials the Corbetts would find their way into an Irish diplomatic car and checking into hotel rooms under pseudonyms.
"It was literally planes, trains and automobiles," said Tracey, "it was something like out of a James Bond movie."
Later, they said, Molly had even attempted to hire planes to fly over the children’s school in Limerick with messages for them.
And while the Martens ultimately ended up behind bars, there is an uneasy feeling resting with the Corbett family.
“I have no doubt whatsoever that [/MOLLY]/ will seek out a kind hearted, generous, loving man at some stage,” Marilyn said. “Whether it’s inside or outside of jail.”
