FULL EXPLOSIVE DETAILS OF THE KILLING THAT’S SHOCKED A NATION:
Explosive dossier reveals details of the violent altercation that lead to the brutal death of Jason Corbett
US investigators last night released the damning details that led them to seek charges against Molly Martens and her father for the murder of Jason Corbett.
In an explosive dossier, detectives from the Davidson County Sheriff’s department report that:
÷ Ms Martens and her father admitted to striking Jason Corbett on the head ‘with a concrete paving brick and an aluminium baseball bat’.
÷ The struggle described by Ms Martens and her father ‘was not consistent with the evidence at the scene, particularly the master bedroom were Mr Corbett was killed’.
÷ Neither of the Martens had suffered any injuries, even though the Martens had claimed that Mr Corbett had been choking his wife.
÷ Mr Martens and his wife Sharon, ‘suddenly changed plans on Saturday August 1 to travel to North Carolina from their home in Tennessee. According to information received, this behaviour would be considered unusual for Mr Martens’.
÷ Mr Corbett was planning to travel to Ireland ‘with or without’ his wife Molly but with the children, and he was looking for work in Ireland or England.
÷ His wife allegedly removed large sums of money from shared bank accounts after he died.
The shocking details were contained in a set of search warrant documents that were released by Davidson County District Attorney Garry Frank.
The documents contain a series of affidavits from detectives assigned to investigate the case. In one affidavit, given by Detective B.M. Smith, he states that during initial interviews, ‘it was told that Jason Corbett was choking Molly Corbett inside the master bedroom door’.
Mr Martens and his wife had been visiting from their home in Tennessee and were staying in a bedroom in the downstairs basement.
The document states claims that Mr Martens was ‘awoken’ by a disturbance. He went to the master bedroom and intervened with the use of an aluminium baseball bat striking Mr Corbett in the head. Detective Smith says Mr Martens described the altercation as a ‘Donnybrook’ – a public fight or an uncontrolled argument.
He adds: ‘Throughout my law enforcement career, I have seen several what would be described ‘uncontrolled fights’. In my opinion, the struggle described by Ms Martens and her father ‘was not consistent with the evidence at the scene, particularly the master bedroom were Mr Corbett was killed’.
An affidavit given by Wanda Thompson, the lead detective in the case, states
‘Large sums of money have been removed’
that, through Mr Corbett’s colleagues and friends, she had learned that he was planning to return home on or around August 21.
She also states that Mr Corbett’s business partners had provided information that he had allegedly discussed transferring some of his financial assets, to include up to $60,000 from bank accounts in the US to bank accounts in Ireland. Ms Thompson said that members of the Corbett family had told her that Ms Martens’ spending habits were a source of concern for her husband.
She concludes: ‘Davidson County Sheriff’s officers have also learned, from attorney’s handling Mr Corbett’s estate, that since Jason Corbett’s death, large sums of money have been removed from some of the bank accounts he shared jointly with Molly Martens Corbett. Jason Corbett’s alleged comfortable financial status provides additional motive for his untimely death.’
In relation to the baseball bat that was recovered from the scene, documents show that Mr Martens told investigators that he brought the bat to the house on the night of the assault.
‘It was a gift for Jack but the assault occurred before he could give it.’ states Detective Thompson. The bat, which was covered in blood and hair, was black and red with black grips.
Detectives however were informed that Jack had a similar baseball bat, which he had been given a year earlier, and which he kept in a zipped-up bag in the garage. The investigators appeared to suspect that Mr Martens had used this bat in the killing, which, if true, would undermine his clam that he had simply grabbed the bat which he had nearby.
The detective concludes. ‘I have probable cause to believe that the baseball bat used to assault Jason Corbett may have come from the sports equipment bag used by Jack and stored in the garage of the 160 Panther Creek Court residence.’
It also emerged that Mr Corbett had told his wife that he was moving back to Ireland ‘with or without’ her.
The father of two had even gone online to arrange flights back home for himself and his two children, the day before he was found dead.
And police are preparing to put forward evidence of a long bitter spell in his marriage to second wife Molly Martens as a reason for his bloody end. The 39year-old Limerick man had been just a few days from leaving Ms Martens.
He had been applying for work in England and Ireland and was prepared to quit his job with a local pharmaceutical packaging company.
Key information about his intention to leave his wife has been recovered from a computer found inside the detached corner home at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he died in the early hours of August 2 last year, police believe.
Thomas Martens, who had worked as a counter intelligence agent at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee before retiring, phoned emergency services at around 3.05am.
Police, led by District Attorney Garry Frank, will present evidence that the marriage was all but over and the victim was making clear plans to leaving the US. Sources say he and his wife had argued furiously over his wishes to take his children back to Ireland and that she was determined to cling on to them.
Sources say the autopsy and crime scene evidence would be crucial to the case against Ms Martin and her father Thomas.
The couple had discussed splitting after Mr Corbett repeatedly said he was homesick. He had moved to the US with the former nanny and his two children by his late wife in 2011.
Ms Martens had told a family friend Lynn Shanahan, in the summer of 2013, that she had spoken to lawyers about gaining legal custody of her step-children if a divorce was to go through.
The couple had been married in June 2011, two years before she confided in Ms Shanahan, and had started dating in 2008, two years after Mr Corbett’s wife Mags died from an asthma attack.
Ms Martens was the fourth nanny he had employed after his first wife’s death. She had travelled from the US to Limerick to look after Jack, 11, and Sarah 9. After the relationship began the children started calling her ‘mommy.’
And she is continuing her fight to win custody of the children – who now live with their guardians Tracey and David Lynch in Ireland – and has lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court in Raleigh.
Mr Corbett had specified in his will that Tracey, his sister, should be granted custody of the child.
The Lynches hugged and consoled each other when they visited the house where Mr Corbett died after being hit with what is believed to have been a baseball bat. They were accompanied by police and court officials as they checked piles of toys which are to be shipped back to Ireland for the children.
Mr Lynch told the Irish Daily Mail the
children were settled in Ireland and doing well.
However, after Ms Martens failed to win custody of Jack and Sarah, she has asked her lawyers to take the case to the Supreme Court in Raleigh. She had tried to persuade her husband to allow her to adopt the children but he had refused.
One senior court official who was involved in the custody hearings said Ms Martens had ‘not a hope in hell’s chance’ of getting custody.
However, Michael Earnest, her uncle, and Mr Martens’ brother-in-law, told the Mail: ‘This was all about self defence and once the case is put before a jury, they will be exonerated.’
Asked about the continuing custody battle, he said: ‘She will fight for custody of the children. She was like a mother to them and it was very difficult when they were taken from her in tears and screaming that they wanted to stay with their mommy.’ Up until she was charged she had been continuing to try and contact the children.
She posted photos of them in much happier days and wrote: ‘I have loved, nurtured and protected you to the best of my ability in the environment we found ourselves. I do not know what you will remember about our lives but I know some of the things you are being told.
‘I pray one day you are able to remember with truth and clarity some of the events of our lives.
‘You are my heart and soul, my sunshine and my happy, and I will always love you.’ That post was put up before she was charged. Since then one of her bail conditions has been not to try and contact the children. news@dailymail.ie