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[pensive music playing]
[birds chirping]
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
[dog barking in distance]
[melancholy music playing]
[seatbelt clicks]
Today is Thursday, August 6th, 2015.
I'm about to do an interview on Sarah Corbett.
Well, Sarah, did you know why you're here today?
[Sarah] Yes.
Tell me why you're here today.
Because my dad died.
Okay.
Just have a seat for me.
And, Jack, my name is Brandy, and it's my job to talk to you today.
You said your dad died. What's your dad's name?
Jason Paul Corbett. C-O-R-B-E-T-T.
[Brandy] What is your mom's name?
[Jack] Molly Martens.
[Brandy] And what is your grandpa's name?
[Jack] His name is Tom Martens.
[Brandy] Okay. And what do you call him?
I call him Grandpa Tom.
Grandpa Tom. Okay.
[music continues]
[seatbelt unbuckles]
[foreboding music playing]
[phone dialing]
[line ringing]
[operator] Davidson County 911. What is the address of your emergency?
[Tom] My name is Tom Martens.
I'm at Panther Creek Court,
and... we need help.
[operator] Okay, what's going on there?
[Tom] My... My daughter's husband,
um, my son-in-law,
uh, got in a fight with my daughter.
I intervened, and I...
I hit him in the head.
- [operator] With what? - With a baseball bat.
- [operator] With a baseball bat? - Yes, ma'am.
[Molly] Help!
- [operator] Is he conscious at all? - [Tom] No.
[operator] Is he breathing?
[Tom] I can't tell.
I'm dead asleep in bed when the phone rings.
As a detective, you know when that phone rings at three o'clock in the morning,
it's never good.
So, I'm out of the bed, and I'm out the door,
and I am headed to Meadowlands in North Carolina.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[crickets chirping]
I go into the house,
and I look inside the master bedroom,
and it's pretty horrific.
[camera clicking]
It's one of the bloodiest crime scenes I've seen in a long time.
The female resident tells me that her name is Molly Corbett...
[camera clicks]
...and that the victim is her husband, Jason Corbett.
[Wanda] These offices are really cold.
- [Molly] Thanks. - You're welcome.
[Tom grunts]
[Wanda] All right. Tell me what happened tonight.
We were fighting.
- Who was fighting? - My husband.
My daughter had a nightmare.
She or I woke him up, so he was angry.
He choked me.
How did he choke you?
First, with his hand pressed really hard right here.
He let go for a second, and I screamed really loud.
[Molly sniffles, exhales]
I can't remember next until my dad came in.
[Wanda] Okay.
I heard arguing and thumping going on on the floor above me.
And it-- it sounded bad.
I grabbed the bat, and I ran upstairs.
So, I open the bedroom door,
and he's got Molly by the throat like this.
And he sees me coming,
and he goes around the throat like this.
And I said, "Let her go."
"I'm gonna kill her."
- "Let her go." - "I'm gonna kill her."
And he started to drag her towards the bedroom,
into the, uh, bathroom.
[tense music playing]
And I hit him.
I hit him with the baseball bat.
And he reaches out, and he grabs the bat.
Jason got the baseball bat.
And... he tried to hit my dad.
I think he might have missed, and...
I... [sniffles]
Um...
I hit him on the head.
You hit him on the head with what?
With... With a brick on my nightstand.
[Wanda] Okay.
[Molly] I'm not sure. I hit him on the head or the shoulder.
[Wanda] How many times did you hit Jason?
I don't know.
Okay. You don't remember?
[crying] I don't know.
I can't tell you how many times I hit him.
I can't tell you how many times he shoved me.
I can't tell you. I...
'Cause it was a battle.
[Wanda] These two people are telling us they just were in a fight for their life.
Her husband has horrific injuries.
And they don't appear to have any.
[camera clicking]
In North Carolina, they have a right to defend themselves.
But are they the victims, or is he the victim?
[ominous music playing]
[music fades]
[Wanda] You know your husband didn't survive his injuries, right?
I didn't... I didn't think so.
[Wanda] No, he didn't survive his injuries.
[Sarah breathes deeply]
How long have you been together?
Probably seven years.
My children aren't biologically my children.
They're his first wife's children, and she died.
Is there anybody that you need for us to contact from your husband's family?
[Molly] Oh God.
[crying] What if I'm scared of his family?
[sobbing]
I'm scared they'll try to take the kids.
[Wanda] Um...
- You guys are legally married? - Yes.
- Did you adopt the children? - No.
Okay, then that's a real possibility.
[sobs] Oh!
Oh!
[seagulls squawking]
[somber music playing]
[phone vibrating]
My brother got a call to say that Jason was dead.
He and Molly had an argument.
She pushed him, he fell, hit his head, and died.
So I immediately started to call Molly,
um, and I got no answer at that time.
I can't comprehend. I can't process.
You know, I just couldn't believe it.
Jason and I, we were super close.
We had a really big family.
We grew up in Janesboro in Limerick.
And Jason and Wayne and myself are the three youngest.
Jason remained a constant best friend.
When I had learned the news,
my first thought was to the welfare of Jack and Sarah.
And so, within hours, I'm packed and on the road
to fly to America in order to find out what happened to Jason
and to make sure Jack and Sarah are safe.
We just knew that we needed to get to North Carolina as quickly as possible.
Myself and Tracey were named as guardians in Jason's will.
I went straight to Jason's solicitor's office.
I collected the will and flew out to America a couple of hours later.
[pensive music playing]
[Wanda] We start coordinating with the district attorney's office
about where the investigation needs to go from here.
[man] What immediately strikes me
is that this is going to be a case outside the normal of what we deal with.
I'm a retired FBI agent.
[detective] What did you do with the FBI?
First half of my career was Criminal.
Second half of my career was Counterintelligence.
[Alan] Tom Martens is a retired FBI agent,
and he has been schooled in
and has schooled other officers
on the art of interrogation.
We would be remiss in our duties
if we ever just accepted, wholesale and without examination,
what any person who's killed somebody has to say.
Perhaps it would be helpful if I just kinda launched into the story.
[detective] Okay.
'Cause it will contribute to my state of mind.
[detective] Okay.
I see Tom attempting to control the narrative
and present things the way he wants to present them.
Tom never admits that he saw Molly hit Jason at all.
[detective] At any point, did Molly join in on the volley?
When I lost control of the bat and she wiggled out,
she somehow distracted him, but I don't know.
I'm scrambling. I don't know.
We find that hard to believe.
The night of the incident, I'm at the house,
I learned that Molly's mother was in the basement.
So, we get a statement from her.
Sharon Martens tells us
that they got awakened in the middle of the night to a ruckus,
and she hears her daughter scream.
Her husband gets out of bed,
goes upstairs to take care of whatever the ruckus is,
and she rolls over and goes back to sleep.
I'm... dumbfounded.
Like, what grandmother does that?
What mother does that?
[Alan] Sharon Martens is telling us she never responded in any way
to this horrible, violent, explosive event
that was happening right upstairs in a house full of people that she loved.
It just doesn't quite add up.
We are also looking at the 911 call.
[Molly] ...three, four.
- [Tom] One, two, three, four. Good. - [Molly] One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four. One...
[Alan] EMS workers are listening to this recording and saying,
"I don't think those people are doing CPR."
It's too hard.
You can't count out loud like that with that precision, that rhythm.
[Tom] One... I'll count. I'll count. One, two, three, four.
[Alan] EMS personnel also describe
that Jason's body was cool to the touch,
and one of them even looked at another and said,
"When did they say he went down?"
This is not scientific evidence,
and there are sufficient variables in how quickly a body cools,
but it was compelling information for us.
[Wanda] Now there's a possibility the Martens were thinking,
"I've got to sit down and get my story straight
before I call the cops."
[somber music playing]
[Tracey] We found out that within hours of Jason's death,
Molly and Thomas Martens returned home,
and at this point,
the children are in the care and control of Molly Martens and her family.
Within 48 hours, the Martens had filed for guardianship,
adoption, and custody of Jack and Sarah.
I asked to speak to them, you know, on the phone,
to have a supervised visit, uh, anything.
I just wanted to put my arms around them.
They had lost their father.
And Molly would not allow it.
There's all these things happening, all at once, all colliding,
and I want to see my brother.
We spoke to the funeral director, trying to get to see Jason,
and he apologized profusely, but he had been given clear instructions
that we were not allowed to view Jason.
[Tracey] I believe that Molly's trying to cremate Jason's body
before I got there.
I thought to myself, "What have you done?"
[Alan] Then we get the results from the autopsy.
And the autopsy findings...
are horrific.
Jason has abrasions on his forehead,
under his eye,
his shoulder blades,
and then... we get to his head.
And in... 30 years of prosecuting...
I've never seen photographs like these.
He had...
so many blows to his head
that the pathologist couldn't count them
because they overlapped,
and a chunk of Jason's skull
fell out onto the table.
It takes an incredible amount of force
to cause that kind of injury.
[somber music playing]
[footsteps approaching]
[Tracey] It's taken me four days of legal action to see Jason's body.
It's horrendous to see
what one human being can inflict on another.
His children lay in a bedroom just feet away from him,
and I know his last thoughts would have been with them.
I hold his hand, and I promise him that his children would be okay,
and I promise that I would get justice for what happened to him.
[music ends]
[Wanda] Jack and Sarah were in the home,
in bed asleep,
when this event occurred.
We need to have them interviewed
by people that are trained to interview small children.
So, they're taken to the Dragonfly Child Advocacy Center.
Let's just start with the very first thing you told me, that your dad died.
How did your dad die?
Well, my sister had a nightmare
about insects crawling.
She had fairy blankets and insects all over her bed.
My dad got very mad,
and he was screaming at my mom, and Mom let out a scream,
and my grandpa came up and started to hit him with a bat.
And then my dad grabbed a hold of the bat, and hit my grandpa with the bat.
And so my mom... put her... like...
We were going to paint a brick that was in there, like, a cinder block,
and it hit his temple right here,
and he died.
[Brandy] Okay.
Now, your sister had a nightmare. How did you know that?
My pare... My mom told me.
Okay.
Did your mom and dad fight before this?
He gets very angry at my mom for leaving one light on.
- What would he do? - He would... he would scream at her.
Okay. Did you ever see him hit her?
Um...
Once.
He just got very mad about simple things.
- [Brandy] And who would he get mad at? - My mom.
- Did you see him get mad at her? - Yes.
And when he would get mad, what would he do?
He would physically and verbally hurt my... physically and verbally hurt my mom.
Did you see him physically hurt her?
Um, once or twice.
What did you see?
Um, punching, hitting, pushing.
[Alan] The children do both make some statements about Jason.
We have to pay close attention to that.
But they also use a lot of words
that eight-year-olds and ten-year-olds don't generally use.
He would physically and verbally hurt my... physically and verbally hurt my mom.
That's unusual and stands out.
And... And how do you know she's afraid of him?
She told us.
[Sarah] No. My mom told me about that.
And who told you about that?
Uh, my mom.
My mom told me.
She told me.
[Brandy] Your mom told you.
There's a possibility the kids may have been coached.
There's a lot of, "This is what my mom told me about that night
and about things that had happened in the past."
My mom told me,
not when I was four, not when I was five, but she told me when I was six,
"Your dad is not that good of a dad."
[Alan] Why is she saying that to Sarah?
What is the truth and what's not?
We went back to Molly and Tom's interviews.
I know he's got me outmatched.
I know he's a martial arts guy.
I know he's a boxer.
I am trying to stay a bat's length away from this guy.
[detective] Right.
I'm scared to death.
[Wanda] We're trying to verify any training that Jason may have had
in karate or martial arts,
any boxing training that he may have had.
[Tracey] Within one week of Jason being killed,
I am contacted by the Davidson County Sheriff's Department
asking questions like, "Was Jason an MMA fighter?"
"Was he a professional boxer?"
"Was our family in the Irish Republican Army?"
[gun firing on TV]
But, of course, these things are ridiculous.
They were just doing everything they could to destroy his character.
I want the world to know the truth about Jason.
[man] He was the most kind-hearted person you could meet.
You'd never not see the man smiling.
Everybody loved him.
Everybody loved Jason. He was just... He was everybody's friend.
[bright music playing]
[Tracey] He was very charismatic, and he had a loud voice as well.
You knew when Jason was around.
Family meant everything to him.
I never thought he was a romantic growing up,
um, until he met his first wife, Mags.
[woman] We were out socializing one night, and I introduced Mags to Jason.
And from the start, they were just meant for each other.
They were very, very happy.
I, Margaret, take you, Jason,
as my husband,
for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health, all the days of our lives.
[David] They'd built their house.
Mags had opened a new crèche, and Jason had got promoted in work,
so life couldn't have been better.
It was like a fairy tale.
And Jason's kids were everything to him.
When they were born, he was just the happiest he's ever been.
That's it. Good boy. I love Sarah.
- Aw! You're the best boy, Jack. - [Mags] Who's that, Jack?
[Jason] Jack, do you know what... do you know what Sarah told me?
She said she's getting Jack a tractor and a trailer as a present
because you're her brother.
'Cause she loves Jack.
Get off my chair. Get off my chair.
This was the beginning of his whole life.
What you doin'?
You dancin'?
[music continues]
[Lynn] All that changed drastically when I got a phone call
at home one night, telling me that Mags had had an asthma attack.
[tense music playing]
Myself and my husband managed to get to the hospital.
And Jason was with Mags, and we could hear him...
[inhaling deeply]
He just begged her not to go
and leave him.
Jason, in that moment, was just...
broken into pieces.
[somber music playing]
He would write letters to Mags and then leave them at the grave site.
All of our family rallied around,
but obviously, he had very little space to grieve.
He was a single parent of two babies,
and he had to go to work every day.
So, he advertised for an au pair,
and that's when Molly Martens came into our lives.
[somber music continues]
I was in my early 20s, and I'd been in a relationship for several months
and, um, unexpectedly got pregnant,
and, um...
shortly thereafter, suffered a miscarriage.
And I think anybody who's suffered a miscarriage
can understand that that is devastating at the time.
I, um...
was in that relationship with someone,
and I realized I didn't want to spend my life with that someone,
and I felt like that might be easier if I got away
and enjoy the world.
And for me, working with children was a natural choice.
And so, I joined an au pair agency.
And when Jason reached out to me,
he indicated on his profile that he had lost his wife.
I guess that just pulled on my heartstrings.
There were these two babies
without a mother,
and maybe I had an ache to fill that need.
It was only natural that she would develop a talent
for taking care of young children,
in that her two younger brothers
came along as she was nearing the age where she could help her mother.
She was very good at engaging them.
I arrived in Ireland on, um, a traditional rainy day.
And I met Jason, and he put me at ease.
[gentle music playing]
He was charming, funny.
He made me feel very special.
[Tracey] Molly hadn't been in the country too long
when I began to pick up on things,
just little signals between Jason and Molly.
We were walking on the beach, and they were dropping behind us,
and I think Tracey mentioned to me
that, you know, she thought there was more to the relationship
than employer-employee.
I felt like I was bringing joy into Jack, Sarah, and Jason's life.
[Molly] Okay, go get your sandal.
[Sarah babbling]
[Molly] You gotta put them on over your tight...
Hello.
...'cause it's the warmest day in Ireland and you still need tights.
Sarah, how old are you?
Two.
- [Molly] Two and a half. - Yeah.
[Molly] How old are you?
Four and a half.
- Are you sure you're not one and a half? - No.
[Molly] Are you sure?
But that noise you make, sometimes it kinda sounds like this...
[mimics a crying baby]
That's kinda like a one-and-a-half-year-old.
And it was in the very early days that Sarah started calling me "Mom."
I was really becoming a mother to those kids
before I became a mother to those kids.
It was just wonderful.
[Tracey] Molly made Jason smile,
and he hadn't in a very long time.
But it was clear from emails from Jason to Molly
that Jason wanted to slow the pace of their relationship down.
"My concern is for Jack and Sarah."
"They have had enough tragedy in their short lives,
and while I know that they are resilient,
I'm nervous about putting them through anything further."
"I'm really scared, Molly."
"I don't want to lose you,
but more so, I don't want to risk Jack and Sarah
losing another mother if we don't work out."
But Molly always wanted the relationship validated.
And she's pushing, pushing, pushing.
Eventually, Jason began to talk about the opportunity
to begin a new life for Jack and Sarah,
to allow them to have a stable family environment
with a mother and father.
I was on a regular night out with my friends.
Jason walked in first, and Molly walked in behind,
showing the ring on her finger.
And I said, "I am delighted. I want you to be happy."
"Mags wouldn't want you to be miserable."
[Molly] Ultimately, we decided to move to the United States.
Mostly, it was the lifestyle,
and in particular, the lifestyle in regard to raising children.
[bright music playing]
[birds chirping]
I was excited about a new beginning for our family.
[birds chirping]
My first time seeing the house, I thought it was like a mansion.
It was so cool.
Everything was much bigger than Ireland,
which I loved.
I remember when I first went in,
I went into my room and started running around in circles.
And I loved how big the garden was,
'cause my dad told me we could get a trampoline and a dog.
It was just really happy.
Everyone was excited for this new adventure.
We just moved to America.
[Jack] I feel like we fit in straightaway
when we moved over to Meadowlands in North Carolina.
We got straight into activities like swimming,
joining teams.
Everyone there was so nice, so friendly.
It was a great community to be part of.
[Tracey] After Molly, Jason, Jack, and Sarah moved to North Carolina,
within a couple of weeks, there was going to be a wedding
and just a joyous occasion that we were looking forward to.
We just wanted Jason to be happy, and we traveled to support him.
[exciting music playing]
When we arrived, everyone was excited.
[laughing]
[Brendan] Jason and Molly had loads planned for us.
We went to NASCAR,
barbecues,
loads of games, loads of fun.
[camera clicking]
[announcer] We have Molly from Knoxville, Tennessee...
[cheering]
...and we have Jason all the way over from Limerick, Ireland!
[all cheering]
It's my duty as the best man to introduce everybody,
and we all hit it off straightaway.
♪ ...caught in a trap ♪
♪ Can't walk out... ♪
[Brendan] We sang, and we drank, and we danced.
[song continues]
The atmosphere was fantastic.
[all cheering]
[Brendan] He looked happy.
[party music fades]
[somber music playing]
[Tracey] The next day, at the wedding,
it started to become apparent to me
that there was something amiss
when I had a conversation with the maid of honor, Susie.
[Susie] I had a speech prepared.
Before I was supposed to give it, I was talking to Tracey,
just telling her, you know, it's just like a fairy tale.
She starts to say how amazing it all is and how romantic.
You know, Molly goes over there
to be the godparent to Jason's kids,
since she was childhood friends with Mags.
What?
And now, like, you know, she's gonna be their stepmom.
I... I don't know what you're talking about.
Uh, she was the au pair.
I'm like, "What?" [scoffs]
Like, "You gotta be kidding me."
[David] We're just in disbelief
that this is what the American contingent of the wedding believe.
Why would anybody create this fabricated story?
[suspicious music playing]
[birds chirping]
[music fades]
[Alan] In the course of the investigation,
we are interviewing people about Molly.
Her friends, her family, her neighbors.
And what we are learning becomes full-on bizarre.
[Wanda] One of the neighbors tells us that she was part of a book club,
and one of the ladies comes in
and is just excited about finding out she's pregnant.
[pensive music playing]
Allegedly, Molly starts telling everybody this whole drawn-out story
about how she gave birth to Sarah.
And some of the people in the room already knew that wasn't true.
And yet, the story was being told to other people in front of them.
And she had told her college roommate about a dead sister,
and that her sister had died of cancer.
We found that's also not true.
So, she is fabricating a story about a sister that doesn't exist.
[Alan] Why does it matter that, on so many occasions,
Molly has told so many things that are clearly not true?
It matters because there were only three people in that room that night.
Jason can't tell his story.
The two people who are left are Tom and Molly.
And we come to the conclusion that Molly is not credible.
Another thing that comes to light
is Molly's consistent demand
to be able to adopt Jason's children.
Just months after the wedding,
she had visited a divorce attorney to explore her rights to the children.
I wanted to adopt them because they were my children.
I mean, I was their mommy. I was their mama. They were my kiddos.
Jason and I had spoke previously of an adoption ceremony
being part of the wedding ceremony.
There were a lot of promises that were broken,
but that was a big one.
[Tom] I brought it up several times
and say, "Where are we on the adoption process?"
"Anything I can do to help out?"
And he would say, well, you know, he's working on it,
and, um, then nothing would happen.
[gentle music playing]
[David] Looking back on the correspondence that we got access to after Jason's death,
we realized Jason was trying to follow through on his promise
to allow Molly to adopt the children.
We saw an email from Jason to an attorney.
I think one line stands out in the email from the attorneys.
Jason would never take that risk.
[news theme music playing]
[reporter] Behind closed doors in Davidson,
a custody battle began yesterday.
At its center are ten-year-old Jack Corbett
and his eight-year-old sister, Sarah.
The children are in the care of this woman,
his second wife, Molly Paige Martens.
[Sarah] I remember Molly telling me that
Tracey and David were trying to take us away,
and that she was going to court.
And she told me that she was winning.
[Jack] Molly was telling us about the new life we're going to have.
She was already looking at apartments,
looking at new cars, new schools we were going to.
[David] It shouldn't even have got to this.
These children are two Irish citizens. Their father was an Irish citizen.
There's nothing. There's no adoption. There's no dual citizenship.
They're solely Irish citizens.
We presented evidence that I was a mother,
and clearly was the mother.
I'm the one that took them to all their appointments,
and took care of meals, and did all the day-to-day activities.
and I feel like we proved that without a doubt,
and their home environment was with me and that they were safe and stable.
[judge] We're here on the matter of the guardianship
of the minor children, Sarah and Jack Corbett.
The parents of Sarah and Jack, I'm almost certain,
would want their children to be raised in the land of their origin,
where the culture, the religion, the customs,
and their extended family on both sides are prepared to nurture them in a manner
that will be in the child's best interest.
These children will be returning to Ireland.
All these people, you know, have said,
"Well, Jason wanted his children to be in Ireland with their family." What?
Jason wanted to be alive.
[scoffs]
Jason didn't think he was gonna die. I didn't think he was gonna die.
And I don't know, if some crazy world where he thought he was gonna die,
I believe he would have wanted the children to be with their mother.
That is something I do believe.
[birds chirping]
[Jack] I remember the day that I was taken from Molly.
A police car pulled up outside the house,
and two policemen hopped out,
and a van came up behind them with two people in it.
[police radio chatter]
They told me that there had been a court order to remove the kids.
You know, Jack was kicking and screaming and saying,
"I'm not leaving with you. I'm not leaving with you."
"I'm not going,"
and "You can't take me."
And Sarah was crying.
I remember I was holding Jack's hand, and I asked them, "Where are we going?"
"Who are you? Take us back. Where are you taking us?"
And I was... I was melting down, and, you know, I was crying,
um, but I was trying to hold it together.
I was trying to make sense of this, and I was trying to... I don't know.
How can this possibly be happening?
[Molly crying]
[Molly] I love you so much.
[Jack] I remember just saying goodbye and saying "I love you" to her,
and she was saying that she loved me.
I was a ten-year-old kid,
and this was the only person that had been there every single day.
[Sarah] I'm saying goodbye to someone who'd been my mom
for as long as I can remember.
I loved Molly.
[Molly] It was not a goodbye for me, it was just a visit,
and I was going to see them soon,
but it was the last time I saw them.
[sobbing]
[reporter] Eleven-year-old Jack and eight-year-old Sarah
arrived back in Ireland yesterday.
Molly Martens and her father, 65-year-old Thomas Martens,
are described by police as persons of interest
in the death of 39-year-old Jason.
[Jack] When I came back to Ireland,
there was just a huge media frenzy around our family and my dad.
[melancholy music playing]
It was just a shock to see so many people interested,
and it being such a high-profile case back home.
I had made a promise to Jason
that I would make sure that he would be buried with Mags.
[church bell tolling]
[Jack] There were so many people there that loved and supported my dad,
and supported all of us.
And for the last, like, 200 meters, we walked behind the casket.
[somber music playing]
It was just hard to know that I'm never going to see him again.
[somber music continues]
I remember holding Sarah in my arms in bed at night, and she's asking me,
how did she lose, you know, three parents.
I wanted to trust Tracey and David. I really did.
And I remember thinking about that.
I remember thinking to myself,
"You should just trust them. You know they love you."
But I found it really hard to let myself
because I didn't want to get hurt again.
[Tracey] We were dealing with just two completely traumatized little children.
And they just needed me to be a mother, and that's what I did.
I suppose we were lucky that myself and Tracey had trained as foster parents.
We knew what needed to happen to the two kids
in order for them to move forward,
and counseling was going to be a very important part of their healing.
[phone ringing]
[Molly] The family wouldn't allow any contact.
They wouldn't answer any calls.
[phone continues ringing]
And so, I used social media
to send messages to my kids.
[pensive music playing]
[Molly] I have not spoken...
spoken to them since my visitation with them...
...um, under which we were all under the impression
that it was a visitation, not a goodbye.
[crying] I want someone to tell them that I love them.
And happy birthday, kiddos, with all of my heart.
They tried to fly a plane over our school.
And Molly was asking people on social media websites
to just tell us that she loved us.
[pensive music continues]
[David] It was just a constant barrage.
We were trying to build a safe environment for them,
and they were attempting to undo everything.
We don't want them contacting these children.
These are the people that have killed their father.
[music continues]
[Wanda] We were waiting for the results of the toxicology report
because we had been told in the initial stages of the investigation
that Jason was quite drunk.
I know he'd been drinking.
I mean, he was wild.
[Wanda] Would you say that you thought he was drunk?
Yes, he was drunk.
It wasn't just sloppy drunk.
Now we have definitive scientific evidence
that this was not true.
The number is .02.
It's legal to drive in North Carolina to .08.
At the time he died, he was not drunk.
In addition to a little bit of alcohol,
Jason has some of Molly's sleep medication tranquilizer
in his system.
[Wanda] Did he take it voluntarily,
or was it given to him without his knowledge?
That's a question that we probably will never be able to answer.
But it's setting off flags for me as to what really happened here.
[suspenseful music playing]
Reviewing Tom's interview
about where this fight happened and how it happened,
it didn't make any sense.
It turned out to be defensive to have her in front,
to have her between us.
He's holding her in front of him.
I'm afraid I'm going to hit her.
I kept trying to get around and distract him,
and get him to let her go.
Most of Jason's injuries were to the back and side of his head.
How do you swing a baseball bat
and hit somebody in the back of the head if you're standing in front of them?
It makes more sense that they were either running from you
or you came up behind them.
[camera clicking]
[Alan] At the crime scene, there was blood spatter in more than one room.
The master bedroom.
[camera clicking]
In the hallway.
In the bathroom.
There's defects in the walls from weapons being swung.
The blood spatter expert points out
there are places that appear to be consistent
with Jason being hit as he goes down.
[camera clicking]
There's one place in particular
where Jason was hit when his head was inches from the floor.
Clearly, Jason was still being struck in the head after he was down.
[camera clicks]
Also, he points out that there is blood on the back of the bedroom door.
[camera clicking]
That means there's a possibility there was deadly violence going on in that room
before Tom got there, and the door was closed.
Did Molly start something that Tom got pulled into?
Even if it started as self-defense,
at the point that Jason is no longer aggressive toward them,
they have to stop beating him,
and they didn't.
And they beat him to death.
[music fades]
[Alan] As a result of all that examination,
we decide that it is appropriate to charge second-degree murder.
This isn't just excessive force.
This is murder with malice.
[cameras clicking]
The case of a former model and her father, an ex-FBI agent,
both now charged with murder for the killing of her husband.
[newsreader] They're due back in court later on this month
and are expected to plead not guilty.
If convicted, they could face up to life in prison.
[reporter] A $200,000 security must be paid for each of them.
They must surrender their passports,
and they must agree to cease all contact with the Corbett family,
specifically Jason Corbett's two young children.
[pensive music playing]
[Jack] In the first few months I was back in Ireland,
I just felt I was very out of place.
I just felt very alone.
I didn't trust anyone.
I didn't have a lot of friends at the time,
and I missed my friends over in America.
We miss everyone in Meadowlands.
And to tell everyone that we miss them.
Bye. Love you.
Me and Sarah had really different experiences,
even though we came from the same situation.
She fit in a lot better. She was a lot more chatty than me.
She was more outgoing.
[girl] Now, let's go over and see what Sarah's doing.
[Sarah] Hi, guys. I call this the baby swing.
[speaking indistinctly]
[girls giggling]
Okay, let me try that again.
She was able to find friends a lot quicker than I would have been.
And she kind of was able to open up easier.
So, you see her nails. They haven't been painted, have they?
[Tracey] Not for a while.
No, they're not really working out very well.
And I missed my life, I missed all the sports that I did,
I missed, um, school,
and I did miss Molly.
[line ringing]
Hi, Mom, this is Jack. This cannot go public.
I miss you, and I love you.
Keep fighting really hard. I want to know how you are.
I love you so much.
Call me, pretty please.
And then it was just released to the press,
which was just a huge betrayal.
And that was kind of when my perspective changed,
and I started to look things up,
and I started to find out what really happened
and gain my own opinions and see what the truth really was.
[tense music playing]
[siren blaring]
[Alan] As we are preparing for trial,
we get word from Ireland that Jack needs to come forward with the truth.
So we set up a live video-conference interview
between our office and Jack in Ireland.
Molly made me lie, uh, to the people who were interviewing me.
[Ina] And how did Molly make you lie?
[Jack] Um...
She made up a lot of stories about my dad.
Um, that he was...
She said that he was very abusive, and she wasn't lying.
Then she started crying, and she said, "I'd never see you again."
I didn't know what was going on.
[contemplative music playing]
There has been this weight on my shoulders for so long, of guilt.
Molly told me,
"You need to say that your dad hit me, or they're gonna take you away."
"And you're never going to see me again."
Tell me why you're here.
My aunt and uncle from my dad's side are trying to take me away from my mom.
[Alan] The judge hears the Dragonfly House recordings,
he also is given the information about Jack's recantation,
and at this point, the judge agreed with us
that Jack and Sarah's statements at the Dragonfly House
are inadmissible hearsay,
and now the jury will not hear them.
[Sarah] I said what Molly told me to say.
I had just lost my dad,
I had already lost my mom, I didn't want to lose anybody else,
um, so I lied.
I never saw my... my dad ever lay hands on Molly, not once in my life.
I was scared and afraid, and I was so young,
and I had no one else in the world,
and I was afraid of losing Molly.
I have so much guilt
because, in a way, I felt like I let my dad down.
I described someone that was the complete opposite of my dad.
[toy plane whirring]
Boom!
I want people to know the truth,
and I want people to know my dad as a person.
Um, my dad was a really amazing person,
and what happened to him shouldn't have happened to him.
[pensive music playing]
[Jack] My dad was killed the way no person should be killed.
He was beaten to death with a cinder block and a baseball bat,
and no... no person should ever have to go through that... that sort of pain.
And, like, in the evidence,
you see that he tries to get away from them,
and they keep hitting him.
They... They won't stop.
And it's just really hard to... to even think about.
[Tracey] I'm trying to establish why Jason was killed.
There's a lot of email exchanges between Jason and Molly
that are concerning.
[suspenseful music playing]
[mouse clicking]
[Tracey] There seems to be red flags in the relationship.
I'm also getting messages from members of the Meadowlands community.
This one in particular came on Facebook Messenger.
It says, "Jason and Molly were at a party the Friday before his death,
and she was belittling him, calling him a fat ass,
saying that he must have taken all the nutrition from his twin
because he looked like he had eaten for two."
Jason actually left the party early and seemed down, not like himself.
He had spoken to me about coming back to Ireland
because the marriage wasn't in a good place.
And he had sent a text to his friend.
[chiming]
Putting the pieces of the jigsaw together,
I believe the relationship was over, and he wanted to move home,
and it was going to happen really quickly.
And Molly couldn't let Jason leave with the children,
because if she does, she's lost everything.
[music fades]
[reporter] Developing tonight,
a murder mystery getting national attention now
as a former model and her father, a former FBI agent,
find themselves facing life behind bars for the death of the woman's husband.
I did not commit a crime.
I had one moment in this altercation where I protected my father,
and if I hadn't done that, I believe that he would be dead,
and then I would also have been killed.
I don't know if a father can see something worse
than watching his child die in front of him.
I was going to save her life or die trying.
And I have no regrets.
Tom's number one priority is to protect Molly.
He wants to save Molly, so he has to say that he killed him.
But he leaves Molly completely out of it.
[pensive music playing]
Molly is guilty of murder too, the state contends.
She was angry that she'd not been allowed to adopt the children.
Situation has been described where he bought the house.
He makes all the money.
She's stuck.
Malice feels like, when delivered with the bat from Tom Marten...
- [bat slams] - ..."I hate him!"
That's what malice feels like.
You know what malice feels like
when it comes from the brick that Molly had?
It feels like...
- [brick slams] - ..."I hate him! And I want those kids!"
That's what malice feels like.
You know what malice looks like?
Malice looks like all of those pictures of what they did to his skull.
The wife and father-in-law of Limerick man Jason Corbett
have been sentenced to between 20 and 25 years in jail
after being found guilty of second degree murder.
[Molly] I was in a state of complete shock.
I believed in the system,
and I believed that the truth would matter.
And I felt like if I hadn't screamed that night, if I...
You know, maybe he would've just strangled me,
and maybe I would've been okay.
And I felt like...
that after my dad, you know, lived this life serving his country
and being a wonderful father,
now the rest of his life was over,
and it was my fault.
We worried the jury might not find the two accused guilty,
but they did, and we thank them for it.
For us, it's the beginning of healing, of rebuilding our lives.
Life has possibility for us again.
[joyful music playing]
It's the first time where I just felt so free
and so just empty, but in a good way.
How dare you disapprove?
- [Tracey laughing] - There. You still lose.
I started to settle into my family properly.
♪ Happy birthday Dear Sarah and Grandad... ♪
This is my mum, this is my dad, and these are my brothers.
Show us how it's done!
- No, Jack. - [Jack] You're just moving your arm.
Come on, show us how it's done.
[Sarah humming]
[Tracey] Sarah!
[indistinct conversation]
I can remember the first time Jack called me "Dad."
He was going up the stairs one day, and he just answered, "Okay, Dad."
And you know, it was very...
It was a very emotional moment for me.
[joyful music continues]
[Sarah shouts joyfully]
[Tracey chuckling]
[Tracey] It was very much a coming together of our little tribe,
our blended family.
[Jack] Everything was going well, but then it took a turn for the worst
and everything went wrong again.
[foreboding music playing]
[suspenseful music playing]
We know how Jason Corbett died.
Now we're gonna tell you why he died.
[man] We are gonna tell this story.
It did not get told at the first trial.
By gosh, it is going to get told this time.
Molly Corbett's family come to me and asked me to review the record
to convince the North Carolina Court of Appeals to award a new trial.
One of the first things I come across is an interview
that Molly gave the morning that this happened.
[Wanda] How many times before tonight have you guys had physical altercations?
I don't know. [exhales]
[Wanda] Too many to count?
A lot.
And the next thing I see
is that the authorities interviewed the children,
starting the very next day with a visit by the Department of Social Services,
and they both describe their father as controlling and abusive.
And then three days later, at the Dragonfly House,
they repeat the initial statements.
He just got very mad about simple things.
It's gotten worse over the past two months.
Now he's been cussing and screaming a lot more, getting a lot angrier.
[Doug] Unbeknownst to anybody,
two weeks earlier, Jason has gone to his doctor,
and he complained that he found himself getting angry
for no reason.
Almost Jack's identical words.
So, now I'm thinking, "Wow, maybe there's something to this."
[Jack] I just came up with a keyword.
Tell me about that.
Um, "galaxy," that's mine, and my sister's is "peacock."
And who told you to set up these keywords?
My grandma.
I could just say, "peacock," and then I hang up the phone,
and she would come over to our house.
- From Tennessee? - Yeah.
Do you remember when she came up with that?
A few weeks before my dad died, the peacock thing happened.
[Brandy] What about their phone numbers? Did you have those written down?
[Jack] Yeah, we have one under a doll.
[Jay] Their grandmother, Sharon Martens, was concerned
'cause of things she knew about what's going on in the house,
that she had the kids create a code word
and gave the kids her phone number and hid it from Jason
because they knew how he would react.
Tell me about this cinder block that you're talking about,
or the brick that your mom used.
[Jack] Um, we just got flowers that we were going to plant
in our front yard or backyard.
And we were gonna paint it so it looked pretty.
And it was in my mom's room because it was raining earlier.
[Wanda] You have a brick on the nightstand?
The kids and I were gonna paint...
[sniffles]
Paint these bricks and flowers around the mailbox.
It's not a coincidence
that all the physical evidence and the circumstantial evidence
all corroborate what Tom and Molly told law enforcement from the beginning.
I was stunned to read that the state
had successfully persuaded the trial judge to exclude
everything that the children had said.
How could there have been a fair trial
when the jury never heard the very evidence that supports
what Molly said happened that night?
One of the arguments the state made
was that the children were now recanting their original statements.
And is it true that your father was abusive, or false?
[Jack] Um, false.
I believe that this is just a gross miscarriage of justice.
When I watched the interview of Jack, it looks very rehearsed.
They appear to be brainwashed.
I know the truth.
I know that what they state is not the truth.
What's going on inside their heads?
I don't know.
[Mike] One is conducted by a trained child interviewer
in a sterile environment.
One is not.
She told us that that's how my dad died, and to tell the DA...
Uh, you're gone.
[Ina exclaims]
It's okay. Are you... Are you back?
[Dr. Hayes] I'm going to have to call David.
If this is such an important interview,
uh, why can't Davidson County fly somebody to Ireland
and conduct a proper interview?
- Hi. - [man] Okay. Is that better?
[David] I'm gonna go ahead and back out. You guys carry on.
Molly Corbett is sitting in the women's prison
with a sentence of 20 to 25 years.
[pensive music playing]
And I don't think she did this.
[music fades]
[bailiff announcing start of session]
Good morning, everyone,
and welcome to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
I've got to convince these three judges that an injustice was done.
Your Honor, I wanted to address the decision
to exclude the children's statements.
The trial court in its conclusions, in my judgment, were clearly erroneous.
I got the decision from the Court of Appeals that we had won.
And the judge ruled that Jason Corbett was the aggressor that night.
But the state is appealing the decision
to the full Supreme Court of North Carolina.
And so, I begin again.
The children were uniquely positioned to know the truth
of whether their father had an irrational anger problem.
And therein lies the problem with excluding the children's statements.
The Supreme Court of North Carolina is in recess.
God save the state and this honorable court.
[gavel bangs]
The Supreme Court has ruled, and we won.
They have awarded a new trial.
And this time, the children's statements are going to be heard by the jury.
The murder convictions of Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens
have been overturned on appeal.
[reporter] North Carolina Supreme Court upheld an appellate court's ruling,
granting Tom and Molly a new trial.
There had been serious problems with the trial,
and it was going to be rectified.
It was exhilarating. I was going home.
[tense music playing]
[reporter 1] Well, tonight, Molly Corbett and her father, Tom Martens,
are free on bail.
[reporter 2] Mr. Martens, how does it feel to be out?
[Tom] I'm glad to be back with my family.
[reporter 3] The father-daughter pair left the Davidson County Jail
just an hour apart.
[Doug] For the first time in over three and a half years,
Molly walked out of that jail free.
It's not fair...
[inhales deeply]
...that they're out and walking.
[sniffles]
I can't focus.
[sobbing] And there's no trial date set.
There's no...
[sniffling]
There's nothing to say, "Okay, this is when it's gonna be over."
I just have to sit here
and let my life pass me by again because of them.
[Jack] Very hard to see the people that took so much from you
and took your dad's life,
that are able to walk free and be able to hug their dads and their moms
when we have to go down to a little patch of grass with a headstone to see my dad.
[Doug] Now we have to prepare for a new trial in front of a new jury.
All of the evidence is gonna be presented, and the whole story will finally get told.
Domestic abuse was going to come into the light.
I mean, my domestic abuse,
the abuse that I suffered and endured, it was... it was going to come out.
[birds chirping]
I think we appeared as a pretty perfect family,
but things were not great in regard to Jason's treatment of me.
[somber music playing]
Just every day, there would be kind of an interrogation
of what I did that day, who I talked to, and what I was wearing.
And if I wore my hair a different way, there would be,
"Why did you wear your hair that way?"
"Were you hoping to talk to someone specific?"
Everything was just fraught with peril.
Sometimes he would just be kind of seething and angry
because I hadn't abided by something
or I'd been somewhere I shouldn't have been.
And sometimes that would lead, uh,
to a violent situation.
[camera clicks]
Molly was becoming a shell of what she had been.
She was definitely not as happy.
She was definitely not as confident.
She was acting beaten down.
I did not realize the extent or the seriousness of the domestic abuse
that I do now.
Not letting me adopt the children was a method of control.
And it was something that I didn't recognize early on.
He would always say, "Why does it matter? It's just a piece of paper."
He knew that a divorce and custody
was just in the realm of possibility if I adopted the kids.
And so, he wanted to make sure that didn't happen.
If I had left at that time,
the kids were not old enough to have a say in court
and I would most likely lose the kids.
And I... I wasn't willing to lose the kids, and he knew that.
He knew I couldn't ever leave the kids.
And so, my friend in the neighborhood who was the family attorney,
she recommended that I keep a record of not only the abuse
but also just general motherhood.
You know, so if there was a divorce when the kids were older,
that there would be a record that I was their mom.
And she recommended that I make recordings.
[Jason] I was trying to have a conversation with Jack.
Could you just give me two minutes to talk to my kids
when you're with them all the time?
- Could you do that? - [Molly] Yeah, I'm sorry.
[Jason] You should be.
They were little recording devices that were voice activated,
and I put them around the house.
Underneath the coffee table.
Underneath the counter.
One on the nightstand.
My plan had been to control the situation
until they were old enough to have a say in court.
And there were times when I thought
that I'm gonna die before that happens.
Um, but there was never a time
where I thought that Jason might die before that happens.
[Dr. Hampton] I get a call from Doug Kingsbery
saying that he has a case that he thinks I might be able to help with.
We have a man who is a very successful businessman.
He gets along with everybody.
Does not have an angry bone in his body.
The thing is, abusers can appear one way n public
but very different in private.
And so, Doug sent me an audio recording of the family during dinnertime.
[Jason] Could I have dinner with the kids? That's what I asked, but you ignored it
and went and fed them anyway.
[Molly] I was on the phone with you ten minutes ago,
I said, "I'm gonna make some soup. Do you want some?" And you said no.
[Jason] I said no because I thought we'd have family dinner.
But you ignored it, honey, because you just do,
because it's not what you wanted to do.
[Molly] I said, "I'm making soup for the kids."
"Do you want some?"
[Jason] The reason I said no is because you ignored what I asked.
[Molly] I didn't ignore anything.
[Jason] You forgot what I asked. You couldn't care less.
One of the characteristics of abusers is they like to take on the victim role.
And no matter how much Molly tries to appease him or reassure him
that she was offering to do something for him,
he does not want to be pleased.
He doesn't want a solution to the problem.
He wants a problem to complain about.
[Jason] I said, "I'd like to have dinner with my family."
That's what I said to you. You decided--
[Molly] Jack, stop hanging off the banister. Go to your room.
[Jason] No, don't go up to your room, Jack, come down here, please.
Don't tell them to go when I'm talking to them.
- [Sarah] I gotta go to the bathroom. - [Jason] You can stay there, please.
Can you look at me? Have some respect?
Asked you to have dinner with my family. You said you were feeding the kids.
That's why I said no, because you ignored what I said about dinner with my family.
- [Molly] Sit down, finish your food. - Who cares what he says.
Don't send them out when I'm talking. You don't have the right.
"You don't have the right."
I mean, yeah, she's not... she's not their adoptive mother.
According to Jason, this is further ammunition
to letting Molly know where she stands.
[Molly] It's Pancake Tuesday. Why don't I make some pancakes?
[Jason] I don't want anything from you. I asked you over and over again.
You made it clear you want to try to separate me from my kids.
[Molly] No, I don't, J.
[Jason] I'm gonna do the same to you.
The difference is, I will be able to do it.
That's a very clear threat from Jason.
"If you try to take the kids from me, I'll just take the kids from you."
[Jason] I shouldn't have to say it over and over...
[Molly] Can you guys get out the stuff for pancakes?
- [Jason] There you go again! - [chair slams]
I'm talking to you, and you're talking about something else!
- [Jack] Stop slamming your chair! - [Sarah] Stop fighting!
- [Jason] Go up to bed. - [Sarah crying]
- [Jason] Up to bed. Go. - [Molly] She just got scared, J.
- [Jason] Up to bed. - [Jack] She did, Dad. She got scared.
[Jason] Go to bed. Go to bed. Go to bed.
[pensive music playing]
[Mike] If a jury hears this evidence of domestic abuse,
they will find Tom and Molly innocent.
Because Molly told a story five years ago, or maybe two stories,
does that mean that she was not abused by Jason?
My daughter's not a liar.
I'm not a liar.
And if you think we are, go for it.
Prove it.
[music continues]
[Alan] We learn that there are secret recordings
that Molly has made of Jason.
Molly was the only person who knew the recording was being made,
which creates a scenario where she can control the narrative.
Molly was preparing for divorce and custody proceedings.
[Jason] I'll be able to do what you're trying to do.
- [Molly] I'm not trying to do anything, J. - [Jason] You are.
She clearly is trying to do something.
Anyone who's making secret recordings in a personal relationship
can manipulate the context and make Jason look bad.
[dog barking]
[Jack] In the last months before my father was killed,
the mood was kinda different in the house.
There wasn't as much activities with us as a family going on.
When I kinda really started to notice it was
when I found the recording device in my dad's car, and I showed it to him.
And he was absolutely shocked to see it in there.
And he said, "How do you feel about moving back to Ireland?"
And Sarah said, "Without Mommy?" And my dad said, "Yes."
And I knew Molly would not like that.
She knew he'd be able to take us away, and she'd be able to do nothing about it.
It appears from everything we learned about Molly
that things are coming to a head as it relates to the marriage
and to, most importantly, to her custody of the children.
[Alan] We look back at Tom's statement the night Jason was killed,
and the reason for the visit from Tom and Sharon.
I mean, we're fairly social people.
And we didn't really have anything going on this weekend.
That Saturday morning, we decided, "Hey, why don't we go on over to Molly's?"
It's a four-hour drive, and it's a beautiful day.
[Alan] But we learned from people in Tennessee,
where Tom and Sharon live,
that Tom and Sharon had plans that night with his boss,
which they canceled at the last minute.
[pensive music playing]
We do not believe that Tom came to North Carolina
to beat Jason to death with a baseball bat.
Our theory is that Molly had devised some explosive event.
If Molly could get Jason to blow up
while her parents were there as witnesses,
she could apply for a domestic violence protective order,
which would remove him from the house.
And then she can file for emergency custody of the children
and take his children away from him.
But when the plan went awry, and it got violent,
it appears she quit caring whether or not he lived or died.
[melancholy music playing]
[reporter] Now, everyone's talking about Tom and Molly Martens.
This case has caused a big divide
between the US and Ireland for a long time.
[reporter 2] The situation now is that they are expected to go for a retrial
on the same charges in 2022.
[radio host] How difficult is it to listen to all the things
that you know have been said about your dead brother
to make him look as if he deserved it?
I think that's one of the reasons why I wrote the book,
because we weren't able to defend Jason.
I've been fighting for justice for Jason for seven years.
Now I face a retrial,
and I expect that the defense will call me.
I believe they're going to try and claim that I brainwashed Jack and Sarah,
which is utterly... untrue.
[David] Telling a child what to say, or telling a child to lie,
would go against every fiber of my being.
That is never going to happen.
[seagulls squawking]
[Sarah] I'm just packing, getting ready, 'cause we're leaving in the morning
for the pre-trial hearing.
It will be the first time we see the Martens since 2015.
So, that's going to be very hard.
[Jack] The reason they were granted a retrial
is a lot to do with my Dragonfly interview,
where I said that my dad hit Molly.
It's always in the back of my mind.
We all just hope that the retrial is set as soon as possible.
These people have been out for over a year,
and that I think it's time for this book to be closed
and that justice to be served.
I just want to be there to support my father and my family.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter] The family of Jason Corbett, the Irishman found beaten to death
in his North Carolina home in 2015,
have said they hope a date for Molly and Tom Martens's retrial
will be set at a hearing today.
[Sarah] They walked into the courtroom and I saw Molly, and I saw Tom.
They had their heads down. They wouldn't look at me.
And I thought, "I'm not afraid anymore."
I'm not the one who should be afraid.
I... I did nothing wrong.
I lied, that's true.
Um...
But I was eight.
And I do believe that justice will be delivered for my dad.
[reporter 1] We're going to some breaking news in the last while
as the killers of Irish businessman Jason Corbett will face a retrial
on murder charges next summer.
[reporter 2] The family had been hoping
that the retrial would take place before Christmas.
Unfortunately, that is not to be.
[Jack] Right now, it's really just a waiting game.
It's stressful having to deal with this hanging over us.
But if I get to testify, which I hope I do,
I feel confident I'll be able to portray what really happened inside the house,
and tell people and the jury what Molly was really like,
and the real version of events, the truth.
I've been waiting a long time to say everything,
and I didn't have the words to explain what happened to me,
and my brother, and my dad before.
[contemplative music playing]
On the outside of the house,
the house looks like sunshines and rainbows.
And on the inside, it's dark and heavy.
[Jack] My relationship with Molly got progressively worse
as we moved over to America.
Myself and Sarah used to have pictures of our biological mother in our rooms,
and she took the picture off me and hid it.
I feel that Molly wanted to be the only mother that existed,
that there was no one else before her.
Sarah had a lot closer relationship with Molly than I did.
They did everything together.
She was like the... the star child.
I was closer with my dad.
I remember when my father was on a work trip,
and I said, "Goodbye, I love you."
She chased me up to my room,
she destroyed my whole room, pulled all my clothes out, flipped my bed,
turned over my dresser.
[somber music playing]
I was in the car with Molly, and I asked her,
"Could I start tee-ball? Dad's the coach, so he can bring me."
And Molly turned around and said, "Do you not love me?"
"Do you not care about me? You don't want to spend time with me."
"Why do you want to spend time with your dad?"
I felt awful because I thought I really hurt her.
I couldn't even tell my dad things that happened,
and that made it really hard for me to know what was right and what was wrong,
because I only had one person whispering in my ear the whole time.
[Jack] I was constantly fighting to be loved by her.
[inhales deeply]
I did everything I could to just feel attention off her,
not even love,
and I loved her.
[Sarah] Me and Jack both loved her.
But I think that she pitted me and Jack against each other
to fight for her love.
I think if it had gotten to a case
where we had been brought before a judge at 13,
I would have chose my dad every day of the week.
But Sarah would have picked Molly.
Molly took Sarah away from my dad constantly.
She never got...
She never got the relationship that she wanted with him.
That's Molly's fault.
In my opinion, that's Molly's fault.
[pensive music playing]
[Doug] As we are preparing for a retrial,
I find out that Molly has a handful of close friends
that heard Jason in fits of anger,
threaten her,
or who witnessed Jason's controlling behavior,
supporting what Molly has described to me.
One of the women says,
"Molly has told me Jason has strangled me before in the bedroom."
And she said,
"Molly was afraid that Jason had strangled his first wife,
and she was growing concerned that it could happen to her."
And I'm... I'm thinking, "What?"
It's been there all along,
since the first interview with law enforcement.
His first wife died in mysterious circumstances.
Um, the finding was that she had an asthma attack.
This didn't just come up.
Tom had concerns from when he talked to Mikey Fitzpatrick.
[tense music playing]
[Tom] We had the maternal grandparents over.
They're at our house.
I have occasion to have a conversation
with the father of the deceased first wife.
His name is Mikey Fitzpatrick.
He's not a well-educated man. He's very hard to understand.
Got a heavy Irish accent.
I asked him what he thought of Jason.
He said, "I think he killed my daughter."
I found that pretty shocking.
I didn't know if it was just a bitter man
who... needed somebody to blame for his daughter's death,
or if he had a basis for this.
He was deadly serious.
He wasn't joking around.
Nobody investigated any further into Mags' death
and the circumstances surrounding Mags' death.
Everybody accepted the autopsy findings
until Doug started digging further.
I obtained a copy of the official autopsy report
of Jason's first wife.
I have a medical expert look at this.
He says, "Jason Corbett's first wife did not die from an asthma attack."
"The evidence to me shows
that she succumbed to injuries from manual strangulation."
We had learned that Mags' sister was there that night.
And she reported, "Mags kept saying, 'I'm going to die. I'm going to die.'"
That's what happens to victims of manual strangulation
that survive the event
but dies from those injuries within the hour.
But according to Mags Corbett's autopsy report,
there were not visible marks on the outside of her neck.
My expert says, "You don't die from what's on the external part of the neck."
"You die from the injury that can't be seen
on the inside of the neck."
This is important.
The state is making an argument
that Molly couldn't have been strangled that night
because there's a lack of injuries to her neck.
And he says to me, "Take a look at the photograph of Molly Corbett
taken in the early morning hours right outside the house by the police."
"Do you see that linear mark
on the left side of Molly's neck below her ear?"
I hadn't noticed it before.
He says, "That's a nail dig."
It's what happens during manual strangulation
when either the assailant's nails
dig into the side of the neck,
or sometimes the victim is trying to pry the hand away.
[camera clicking]
And he says to me,
"Have you examined her pajamas that she was wearing that night?"
"No. What am I looking for?"
"If the victim loses consciousness,
uh, they lose control of their bladder."
"I'll bet you dollars to donuts,
you're gonna go down there and find a urine stain
in the crotch area of her pajamas."
And there it is.
I believe the only reason wife number two was not victim number two
was because that night her 65-year-old father
was there to intervene and stop it.
[music fades]
[Alan] There are numerous expert witnesses for the state and for the defense.
Every expert who looks at the autopsy of Mags
agree that she did not die of an asthma attack.
[pensive music playing]
But our experts said that you could not extrapolate from that
that Jason or anybody else had killed her.
That is a reckless conclusion and is not supported by the evidence.
There is a long list of possible health conditions
which would have looked like an asthma attack in a known asthmatic.
However, the claims that Jason must have strangled her
is not the kind of testimony we want to get in front of a jury.
We're concerned that a jury hears that, they may stop listening.
Jack and Sarah are absolutely convinced
that their testimony will fix everything.
But even if they testify brilliantly
and carry their share of the load,
and more,
it could still go sideways.
And so, we are willing to consider plea negotiations.
[music continues]
[music fades]
[newsreader] Today, Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens
appeared in a Davidson County courtroom
to plead for a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Molly Corbett, she pled no contest to that charge of voluntary manslaughter.
And Thomas Martens, he pled guilty to the charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Now, they also say his exemplary career in the FBI in upholding the law
should warrant an easier sentence.
I had no interest in taking a plea.
I was ready to go to trial.
I was ready for the truth to prevail, and I was ready to fight back.
But the possibility of us losing at trial
and my father being incarcerated for what would be the rest of his life,
I couldn't handle that responsibility.
[Madison] The state and defense teams, they're gonna go through
all of the evidence from a case that this area knows very well
and present that to a judge.
And then he'll make the determination of how long their sentences should be.
My whole world has just been flipped upside down again
for I don't know how many times over the last eight years.
They could walk out at the end of the sentencing hearing for time served.
It's just a complete injustice.
This is not what my dad deserves. This isn't what I deserve.
It's not right. It's not fair.
[newsreader] The court has been hearing testimony from friends and neighbors
of Molly Martens Corbett
who said they were aware of arguments, physical violence and controlling behavior
in the Corbetts' marriage.
[reporter] Questions were raised about the cause of death of his previous wife,
Margaret Corbett.
The defense brought in pathologists who say it's possible
that someone could've killed her.
[Sarah] I feel like my dad's on trial.
And I feel like all the focus is on my dad's character.
Molly's lawyers say that there's one common denominator
in my birth mother's death and my dad's death.
My birth mother was feeding me
'cause I woke up crying the night that she died. [sniffles]
And the night that my dad died, I woke up and went downstairs.
How could you blame me for the reason both of my parents are dead?
[melancholy music playing]
That's when I realized that
this is just a case for the defense.
They don't know my da-- my dad, and they don't want to know him.
[Molly] As painful as that news could have been for them to hear
that Mags didn't die of an asthma attack,
which is the story that they have been fed their entire lives,
um, I guess I did have some hope that this would, you know, cause a break
in... in their brainwashing.
But, um...
they continue to believe she did,
and maybe that's what they have to believe.
I'm angry because I know my dad didn't kill my mom.
[gentle music playing]
My Auntie Catherine was in the house that night.
[Catherine] I do wish that I had been asked to come over and testify,
because I'm the only one who was there the night Mags passed.
Just after two o'clock, I'd say, in the morning,
there was a knock on the bedroom door, and it was Jason.
And he said, "Mags isn't well. She's having a bad asthma attack."
Mags is in the kitchen holding her chest.
She had her inhaler in her hand.
I watched Jason frantically do everything to save her.
Tom Marten was saying that Mike and him had a conversation
about how Mag died on Jason's hands.
When we heard this, all my family were enraged, my father especially.
[Marian] He said, "No such thing happened."
"Until the day I die, how would I ever believe Jason
had killed my daughter?"
[Catherine] They had a beautiful relationship.
They were a very loving couple.
[Marian] And Michael loved Jason.
He was our son.
We decided Michael would make a statement to the solicitor.
[Catherine] My father passed away from cancer,
so we're speaking on behalf of my dad.
"Statement of Michael Fitzpatrick."
"I wish to put it on record that I only ever met Thomas Martens once."
"I can also state categorically
that we never discussed my daughter Margaret,
nor did I inform Thomas Martens
that Jason had killed my daughter Margaret."
"Such statements by Thomas Martens are totally and utterly untrue."
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter] The Davidson County judge will hear closing arguments
from both the state and defense,
which could lead to a final decision on sentencing.
The last thing that happens before the judge enters his sentence
is victim impact statements from Jason's family members,
and Jack and Sarah are the most important of who are gonna speak.
[Jack] I've written this,
not just for my dad, but for myself as well.
I'm 19 years of age.
I haven't been able to speak out for so long,
and I've had to listen to lies over the last eight years,
and this is my opportunity to say the truth.
[Sarah] I am old enough, and I am brave enough now.
I've always had someone else tell my story,
and it's important to me that I can tell my story myself.
I'm going to start listening to "Chicken Fried."
Do, yeah. Oh, we put it on?
- We put it on? - Yeah, do. Yeah, do.
[Jack] We used to always play it together.
It felt like he was beside me.
["Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band playing]
♪ You know I like my chicken fried ♪
♪ A cold beer on a Friday night ♪
♪ A pair of jeans that fit just right ♪
♪ And the radio up ♪
♪ Well, I was raised up Beneath the shade of a Georgia Pine ♪
♪ And that's home you know ♪
♪ Sweet tea, pecan pie ♪
And homemade wine ♪
♪ Where the peaches grow ♪
♪ And my house It's not much to talk about ♪
♪ But it's filled with love That's grown in southern ground ♪
♪ And a little bit of chicken fried ♪
♪ A cold beer on a Friday night ♪
♪ A pair of jeans that fit just right ♪
♪ And the radio up ♪
♪ I love to see the sun... ♪
We are the strongest, most united together.
- Yeah. - [Tracey] You know?
- And we're gonna do this together. - [Tracey] Yeah.
- The last word is yours. - Look at me. All will be okay.
Time for crying is over.
Now it's time to get angry. In there, head up, shoulders back.
- Fuck these people. They're nothing to us. - [all] Yeah.
Come on, Sarah, give it to us. What are we gonna do?
- Let's do this! - [all chuckling]
- [Tracey breathes deeply] - [David] So, yeah.
[cameras clicking]
[tense music playing]
[Jack] I used to pray at night when I was a kid
that I would wake up and it would all have been a bad dream.
I've had to experience childhood, adolescence,
and the beginning of adulthood without my dad there to guide me.
Your Honor, don't be fooled by this mask of civility of Molly Martens.
She systematically broke me down and drip-fed me un-truths.
I want to be clear.
I have never witnessed my dad hit Molly Martens, ever.
[Sarah] Who is the victim here?
The Martens made my pain so much worse
by trying to have the world think my dad was a bad person.
What Molly and Tom Martens took from me, I can never get back.
I've seen my father's bloody handprint on the door of his bedroom.
[sobbing] There was nothing voluntary about his death.
He did not choose to leave us. He was taken from us.
He was the victim.
[Jack] Luckily, my dad picked two wonderful parents
to guide me through life.
It hasn't been easy, but having them made it a lot easier.
[Sarah] It was only when I went to live with Tracey and David in Ireland
that I knew the true meaning of family.
Molly Corbett and Thomas Marten are going back to prison
for the death of Jason Corbett.
This afternoon, the judge sentenced them to 51 to 74 months...
...when you factor in the amount of time they already served
when they were previously found guilty for second degree murder,
it only adds up to about seven or eight months.
[reporter] The judge made it clear it was difficult for him
to find the truth in this case,
but made very clear the kids were blameless.
That's Jack and Sarah.
[Jay] I think Molly did the best job she could do with raising those kids.
And it was just very difficult for her
to have to listen to them saying that she somehow hurt them,
um, which I just don't believe is true.
I did not emotionally, or physically, or in any way abuse my children.
The children have been used as tools of evil.
Uh, they've been weaponized against me.
And, uh... they wanted to hurt me, and they did.
Do I think those children know the truth?
I don't know. How do they remember the times at the beach?
How do they remember Molly as the school mother?
How do they remember the meals that she made?
How do they remember the birthday parties?
How do they remember her teaching them how to swim?
How do they remember?
How can you remember that and hate Molly?
Today, Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens will walk out of their prisons free.
[cameras clicking]
[Molly] I am not allowed to attempt to have any contact with the kids.
That's a court order.
When it comes to, you know, my feelings
about whether I consider myself their mother,
uh, that would cause them immense pain right now.
I think that they hate the person that they think that I am,
and they think of me as an evil abuser,
and they think their father was wonderful.
I certainly am not their mother now.
Will I always think of myself as having been their mother?
Yes, I was. I was their mother.
I was the mother to the Jack and Sarah that existed in another lifetime.
Sarah, how old are you?
Two.
[Molly] Two and a half.
Yeah.
[Molly] How old are you?
- Four and a half. - Are you sure you're not one and a half?
[Sarah] It is true that I loved Molly.
But just because I loved Molly doesn't make her a good mother.
- [Molly] Say, "Bye, camera." - Bye, camera.
[Jack] I have no feelings towards her anymore. I don't...
I don't hate her.
I just don't want to give her any power over me anymore.
[softly] Thank you.
[uplifting music playing]
[Jack] I understand how a lot of people could say
he's been around people who loved his dad,
his dad's family, his dad's friends for eight years,
that's why he's saying these things.
[indistinct chatter]
But I was always left to come up with my own decisions, my own opinions.
[indistinct conversation]
[Jack] My dad was my hero. He was someone I looked up to.
He was my best friend.
[Jason] There's a gorgeous boy.
Jack, blow Daddy a kiss.
- [Mags chuckling] - [Jason] Good boy.
Oh, another one.
[Jack] What are you doing, Daddy?
Getting Sarah and Mum.
They're coming home to Jack's house.
Hi, Bubba! Give Daddy a kiss?
- Did you miss Daddy? - Hi!
- See what Daddy bought ya. - [Mags] Oh, Daddy buy you presents?
My dad was an amazing person. He was a good dad.
He was, like, my biggest cheerleader.
[Jason] Go, Sarah!
[Sarah] I know my dad and my mom would not want me to sit around upset.
[Jack] So, you just have to keep going forward and make them proud,
and live the life that they wanted you to live.
[Sarah] My dad loved me and Jack.
We were his everything, and I know that.
And I'm really proud to say that I am Jason Corbett's daughter.
[music continues]
[music fades]
[melancholy music playing]
[music ends]