In 2015, father-of-two Jason Corbett was found dead in his home after being attacked by his wife and father-in-law. His injuries were shocking, but the legal proceedings and the twists and turns that followed made the crime all the more disturbing.

Corbett’s death and the circumstances around the case continue to be of significant public interest even a decade later. But who was Jason, and what actually happened?

Join us here at Crime+Investigation as we take a closer look at two conflicting stories, and a simple question: was it murder or self-defence?

Who was Jason Corbett?

Jason Corbett was born in 1976 in Limerick, Ireland. While in Ireland, he was married to a woman named Margaret Fitzpatrick. Jason and Margaret, who went by Mags, had two children together: Jack and Sarah.

When Jack was two and Sarah was 12 weeks old, Margaret died suddenly from an asthma attack. She had suffered from asthma her whole life, but the attack that took her life was unexpected and severe.

Molly Martens

In 2008, two years after Mags’s death, Jason hired Molly Martens, a 24-year-old from Knoxville, Tennessee, to work for his family as an au pair. By 2010, the two had fallen in love.

Molly and the Corbett family planned to move to Lexington in North Carolina, and when they arrived, Jason and Molly got married. The family lived together in Panther’s Creek Court, Wallburg, North Carolina, for several years.

Tensions rise

Issues began to arise within the family when it came to the subject of Molly adopting Jack and Sarah so they could get American citizenship. The situation caused friction as Jason kept the family’s Irish passports. In 2013, Martens began the process of obtaining legal advice regarding custody of the children in the case of divorce.

Jason’s sister Tracey Lynch spoke to CBS about Molly’s erratic and controlling behavior, as well as her habit of lying. Tracey said that she became concerned about Molly when she lied to a bridesmaid at her and Jason’s wedding about Jason’s first wife, Mags.

‘Molly had told them that she had been friends with Mags… before she died of cancer. Mags didn’t die of cancer, she died of an asthma attack.‘

Molly’s mental health has also been speculated on, with previous medical records showing that she had depression. Molly herself also told Tracey that she was bipolar.

The night of Jason Corbett’s death

Tensions came to a head on the night of 2nd August 2015. Molly’s father, Thomas Martens, contacted 911 in the middle of the night. He said he intervened when Jason was attacking his daughter and that he thought he might have killed Jason.

Jason was unresponsive when authorities arrived, and he died not long after. He had been severely beaten with a paving stone and a baseball bat. Molly and Thomas claimed that Jason had been strangling Molly and that he threatened to kill her when Thomas found them. Though never denying that they killed Jason, the pair always argued that it was in self-defence. The story did not add up, and police began an investigation into his death.

Molly told authorities that she was suffering from domestic abuse at the hands of Jason, but Jason’s family countered those claims. Jason’s kids – Sarah and Jack – went on to give statements saying that Molly was telling the truth about the abuse. However, they later overturned that statement, saying Molly had coached them and that Jason was never abusive.

The trial and verdict

In July 2017, Molly and her father were tried together. They were found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison. However, this verdict was overturned in February 2020 after an appeal. A new trial was ordered.

In October 2023, Molly and Thomas accepted plea bargains that changed their murder charges to voluntary manslaughter. Their sentences were reduced significantly, and the two were released from prison in June 2024. They served only four years and three months for Jason’s murder.

A documentary about the case was subsequently released on Netflix. In it, Molly and Thomas Marten offer their side of the story – as do Jason’s children, Jack and Sarah. Intriguingly, both pairs provide differing accounts of who Jason was, further fuelling the mystery around the case.

Was Jason really an abusive husband, or an innocent victim of a vicious attack? According to Jack and Sarah – who now live in Ireland with the rest of the Corbett family – it’s the latter.

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