Molly Martens hired off-duty police to block family from Jason Corbett’s memorial, says sister
A Deadly American Marriage. Cr. Brendan O’Callaghan/Courtesy of Netflix © 2025 netflix destv Molly Martens Jason Corbett
The sister of Irishman Jason Corbett, who was bludgeoned to death by his second wife Molly Martens and her ex-FBI father in the US in August 2015, said Martens had hired off-duty police officers to prevent her from attending his memorial service.
Tracey Corbett Lynch said that Martens believed she and her husband David were “going to kidnap” Jason’s children – Sarah, then aged eight, and Jack, aged ten – and take them back to Ireland.
Limerick-based Tracey said she did want to bring the children home “as Jason wanted”, but this would be done
“through the courts”.
Ms Corbett was speaking on , along with Sarah Corbett Lynch, following the airing of a new Netflix documentary, A Deadly American Marriage, about the killing of Mr Corbett and its aftermath.
Sarah described the memorial service in North Carolina as “absolutely bizarre” and said the Martens family “acted like nothing had happened”.
Sarah said: “Molly was acting like she had a new lease of life. So there was a memorial service for my dad. And I remember standing in the middle of this room with Jack, and there was a load of people we had never met before getting, like, food, and it was really sunny outside, and there were no pictures of my dad. My dad's body wasn't there. My dad's family wasn't there.
“And it was kind of like a popularity thing for Molly, because everyone was going up to her. But nobody, none of the Martins ever said, ‘I'm sorry. Your dad is gone.’”
She said they were staying in the house of a member of the Martens family.
“He all his wife had family from Puerto Rico staying over," Sarah said. "So there were about 20 people in the house all the time, and they were out in the pool and having barbecues. And the only thing that was a little bit weird was the hush conversations between the Martens family. But no one ever checked on me and Jack to see, if were we okay. You know, I spent most of my time in a tree house, in the back garden, and Jack spent most of his time in a cornfield he found a few kilometres away.”
Tracey said she and her husband David were in North Carolina at the time.
“Molly had hired off-duty police officers for that memorial service so that we couldn’t attend, a team of off-duty police officers from an adjacent county," Tracey said. "She felt that we were going to kidnap the children.”
She said they were there “to get the children as Jason wanted, through the courts”.
Tracey and her husband were subsequently granted custody of the children by the US courts.
Jason Corbett had met Molly, who was originally from Tennessee, when she worked for him as an au pair after the sudden death from asthma of his first wife and the children’s mother, Margaret ‘Mags’ Fitzpatrick, in 2006.
They developed a relationship and relocated from Ireland to North Carolina, where they married.
In November 2023, Molly Martens and her father, Thomas Martens, were sentenced to serve between seven months and 30 months in prison for the manslaughter of Jason Corbett on August 2, 2015.
They received credit for the 44 months they had already spent in jail after a trial in 2017 for second-degree murder before those convictions were quashed by an appeal court.
Following a plea agreement with prosecutors, Molly Martens did not contest a charge of voluntary manslaughter. Her father pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
Sarah said they felt “compelled” to participate in the Netflix documentary, where, for the first time, her brother Jack publicly spoke about the death of their father.
Tracey said Sarah and Jack “had not been given the opportunity” in the courts to speak and wanted to “right that wrong”.
She said they found the documentary “extremely difficult to watch”, adding that they had agreed to watch it together.
“It was very raw,” Sarah said. “We had to pause it a good few times."
Sarah said that since she was very young, Molly Martens used to “pit” her and her brother against each other.
“One day Jack would be her favourite and I could be the worst child in the world and then she’d swap,” she said.
Sarah said that, from a young age, Molly Martens would tell her that her dad had killed her mother.
“I never believed her, but she would say it quite a lot,” she said.
Sarah recalled the first time that her father heard Martens say this to her after they had an argument downstairs.
“Molly came running up to my room, and it was nighttime,” Sarah said. “At this time, she turned on the light and jumped into my bed and was squeezing my arm, and she said, ‘He's gonna kill me like he killed his first wife’.
“And what she didn't realize is that my dad had come up the stairs after her, and had heard her say that, and I remember seeing my dad after he'd heard her say it, and it was just like I saw my dad's entire heart shatter. I saw him put all the pieces together of what was actually going on inside of his home and how unsafe me and Jack were.”
Tracey said that after they gained custody of Sarah and Jack and brought them home they realised the damage Martens had inflicted on them over the years.
“We didn't realize, we didn't know the depth, you know, of the abuse," Tracey said. "We didn't understand it, and it unfolded over a period of time. You've two children with very different personalities as well, so and different ages, and while in the same household, you know somewhat different experiences as well and grieving. You know the loss of their father, and you know the loss of another parental figure as well in their life.
“And for David and I, the challenge was obviously acknowledging that by staying silent and listening and being supportive and giving them security and access to therapy, which we did and slowly over the years, and it took many, many years, and it's never anything you fully recover from.”
Tracey added: “You just continue to try and acknowledge it within your life. But Jack and Sarah began to trust us.”
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