Cracks in marriage ‘were evident even on day of wedding’
IT WAS something of a fairytale, ostensibly, on both sides. Limerick man Jason Corbett, tragically widowed while just a young father, hired a beautiful American au pair, a woman who doted on his two children, Jack and Sarah – and he fell in love with her.
The woman, Molly Martens, left her Southern home in Tennessee and found a happy family and a marriage. The couple’s wedding was like something out of a magazine, held on a sunny June evening in 2011 in Knoxville on the banks of the Tennessee River, at a venue called Bleak House, a historical Confederate memorial hall with extensive gardens. Molly was given away by her father Thomas, a retired FBI agent. Jack, then six, acted as ringbearer, and Sarah, then four, was a flower girl.
The couple danced the night away as Molly, looking radiant, wore a princess-style gown. Having relocated from Ireland, they would move into a luxury home in a coveted development of North Carolina, one which boasted an 18-hole Hale Irwin-designed golf course, clubhouse, pool, tennis courts, playgrounds and parks, and more than 40 acres of natural area.
Despite the seeming perfection of this life, however, cracks would start to show – as early as that idyllic wedding reception.
Mr Corbett’s sister, Tracey Lynch, said during a
‘Molly flipped out at the wedding and lost control’
court hearing that there was significant drama that evening.
‘Molly flipped out at the wedding and completely lost control and began screaming at Jason and at my husband. She threw her chief bridesmaid and her parents out of the wedding.’ The bride was allegedly upset because a guest was allergic to some of the wedding banquet meal and chose instead to eat McDonald’s.
And, as the family settled into their new life in North Carolina – with Molly a constant in her stepchildren’s lives, appearing like the perfect parent, creating Norman Rockwell-esque scenes such as marshmallow roasts and cookie baking – her behaviour out of view was apparently increasingly concerning to her husband. Molly allegedly told Mrs Lynch she was bipolar and had experienced multiple miscarriages, and a family friend allegedly saw her engage in self-harming behaviour ‘such as hitting herself while curled up in a ball’. Mrs Lynch also claims Molly lied about her past, drank throughout the day and displayed explosive anger towards Jack, such as holding his head under a tap.
And Jason, it seems, also had concerns about money and Molly’s spending habits, Although she pushed to adopt the children, he declined and kept their passports.
Molly’s own alleged behaviour towards him pokes further holes in the happy-family image.
A source claimed she said she did not love Jason any more, did not care what happened to him and had reconnected with an old boyfriend online.
She also allegedly bullied Jason about his weight, even prompting him to leave early from a social function two days before his killing.
‘They were out having dinner with some friends on the Friday before he died when Molly started fat-shaming him,’ a family friend said.
‘Jason always took it to heart and it upset him. He left Molly there that night and went home on his own. He was mortified.
‘She used to always call him ‘fat ass’ and he never liked it.’