BLOOD ON WISTERIA LANE
Cold beers round the firepit and chats over the picket fence: the Corbetts were at the centre of an aff luent social life. Then came a night of violence...
IT was a warm summer’s afternoon in the suburban cul-de-sac of Panther Creek Court. As a small firepit burned in the driveway of number 160, two couples chatted and laughed while their young children played on the green in front.
It was typically humid and as fatherof-two Jason Corbett shared a beer with his next-door neighbour, his wife Molly caught up on gossip with her friend Michelle. It was a familiar Saturday routine in the peaceful, picturesque street in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After mowing their lawns, the men would relax with a few bottles while in true Southern style the women provided the snacks.
‘We often have a get-together on the street while the kids are playing,’ said Panther Creek resident Tony Turner. ‘I was away that weekend but I know that Jason and Molly were out on their driveway with a couple who live on the street. The boys were having a few beers over a fire and the kids were playing out on the green. That was from about 5pm to 9pm. Everything was fine from what I was told.’
Hours later, in a shocking altercation that turned the peaceful idyll of their sleepy neighbourhood into a grisly crime scene, Jason Corbett would be dead, bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat in the bedroom of his luxury four-bedroom home.
It was shortly after 3am on Sunday morning when someone from inside the home made a call to the emergency services about a domestic disturbance.
When officers arrived, they found Mr Corbett, injured and unresponsive, lying on the floor of the master bedroom upstairs. Apart from his wife and two children – Jack and Sarah – Mr Corbett’s in-laws were also present. Thomas Martens and his wife Sharon had been visiting from Knoxville, Tennessee.
Both Mr Martens and his daughter have been described by police as ‘persons involved’ in Mr Corbett’s death, but neither has been charged. A baseball bat and a second weapon were recovered from the scene.
Incidents like this don’t happen in the upmarket Meadowlands area of Winston Salem – the residential location of choice for Davidson County’s upwardly mobile set. In a setting strikingly similar to Wisteria Lane of Desperate Housewives fame, it’s a place where domestic bliss goes hand in hand with a white-picket fence. Here neighbours do nice things for each other – talk while they’re doing yardwork, exchange Christmas cookies and look out for each other’s kids. ‘We joke that there is more drama here than there is on Wisteria Lane,’ said one neighbour. ‘Molly and Jason were one of the popular couples. I’m a lot older but the younger couples were all doing well if they were in their company.
‘I opened a coffee shop a few months back and I was told that if I invited Molly to the opening everyone would be there. Now, since everything that happened, it’s a case of whether you are on Team Molly or Team Jason. You have to be careful who you talk to.’
Jason Corbett, 39, first moved to North Carolina from Limerick four years ago. He had been widowed by the death of his first wife Mags after she died suddenly from an asthma attack in 2006. Sarah was two and Jack was just 11 weeks old at the time of their mother’s death. At the time Mr Corbett was working for packaging company Chesapeake and was also part- owner of a crèche run by Lynn Shanahan, also from Limerick.
‘After Mags died, we had the two children with us in the creche every day and got to know them so well,’ said Ms Shanahan. ‘Jason loved his children and got involved in coaching the under-6 team in Young Munster rugby club to be with Jack. He raised tens of thousands of euro for the Asthma Society after Mags died.’
Molly Martens, from Knoxville, Tennessee, came to Limerick in March 2008 to work as an au pair looking after Jack and Sarah.
Mr Corbett and Ms Martens started a relationship and, according to Mr Corbett’s friends, decided to move to the US with his children when she said she wanted to return home. The couple got engaged in 2010. A year later Chesapeake arranged to transfer Mr Corbett to its Lexington plant in North Caro-
We joke there’s more drama here than there is on Wisteria Lane
lina. That same year the couple tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Molly’s home town of Knoxville, Tennessee, where both Jack and Sarah had starring roles in the bridal party.
The move saw Mr Corbett purchase a luxury house in the sought-after Meadowlands area. The development boasts an 18- hole Hale Irwin-designed golf course, clubhouse, pool, tennis courts, playgrounds and parks, as well as more than 40 acres of natural area. The Corbetts’ 2,545 square foot house, set on 0.58 acres of land, was paid for in cash, according to neighbours. Its estimated value is $350,000.
Like their neighbours, Jack and Sarah were enrolled in nearby Walberg Elementary School, the yummy mummy option of choice for the allimportant pick-up and drop- off at the gates.
The couple had two cars – Molly drove a BMW SUV while Jason opted for a more practical Sedan. They quickly adapted to community life. Jason joined the local golf club and Molly took up a role as a swimming coach. While the men on the street gravitated towards him for his sociable spirit, the women marvelled at Molly’s ability to bake cakes and keep a supermodel figure. She was athletic and well groomed. He was gregarious and welcoming. They appeared to have it all.
‘They were the most loved-up couple you would ever see,’ said a neighbour. ‘Always holding hands, always kissing and laughing. They j ust seemed very, very happy.’
On Wednesday morning, more than a week after Mr Corbett’s death, the house remained empty. As busy husbands made their way to work, the wives on the street tended to their young children, waving politely at each other as they collected their mail. While a cleaner arrived at one home, a gardener carefully tended to the flower beds in another.
Here, the roads meander and the houses are not all the same, with pockets of diverse architectural styles, including mock Tudor and Victorian. The cars travel at a sedate, child-friendly pace, allowing youngsters to zip up and down the road in top-of-the range bicycles and karts.
Moms and Dads have a fine local social life here too, with book clubs, drinks parties, summer barbecues and smart kitchen suppers.
‘Everyone gets on around here,’ said Mr Turner. ‘The wives are all friends, the husbands are all friends. We have a great little community here and everyone looks out for each other. We mow each other’s lawns, mind each other’s kids, socialise together. It’s a great place to live.’
Despite the apparent closeness, few knew that Molly wasn’t Jack and Sarah’s biological mother. Even fewer knew Mr Corbett had been married before and lost his wife suddenly.
In the days that followed her husband’s death, Molly secured an emergency custody order over the children. The move prevented his sister Tracey, who travelled over from Ire- land, bringing both children home to Limerick to be with their family. A bitter battle for custody quickly ensued.
‘Those children should be allowed to go home to Ireland,’ said one neighbour. ‘I know Molly loves them dearly, especially Sarah, who we all assumed was her own child because they look so alike, but they need to be with their family.’
While Molly took the children to stay at her brother Bobby’s house in nearby Charlotte, her father returned to the house on several occasions to collect items and tend to the gardens. The Thursday after Jason’s death, before any of his family had arrived from Ireland, the Martens organised a memorial service in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Highpoint. Friends, neighbours and work colleagues went to pay their respects. ‘It was all very strange,’ said Tony Turner. ‘Molly and her family arrived in about five minutes before it started and didn’t speak to anyone. Then they left five minutes before it ended and didn’t speak to anyone. And none of Jason’s family were there.’
Mr Turner, who described himself as a good friend of Mr Corbett, said he was stunned by his death.
‘We just got on so well,’ he said. ‘He enjoyed the banter. I would slag him off for being a Liverpool supporter and he would keep me going about Man United..
‘He was loved at work too – I know people really got on with him. He could have gone much further in the company, but he didn’t want the extra travel that came with it. He didn’t want to sacrifice the time he had at home with the kids. He enjoyed his life here but the plan was always to go back to Ireland. He made trips home with Molly and the kids as often as he could.’
As it turned out, Jason’s twin brother Wayne had made a trip to North Carolina a week before his brother’s death. But after returning to Ireland he received an early-morning call to tell him Jason had died in what police described as a domestic dispute. He said the days he spent with his late brother Jason in North Carolina at the end of July were the ‘best of his life’.
‘It was a terrible phone call to get,’ he says. ‘I was in shock. It was more terrible telling my parents. All we want to do is bring our brother and his two children home.’
It is understood that Mr Corbett had resisted efforts by his second wife to have the children made US citizens and obtain US passports.
‘It was Jason’s intention to come back to Ireland with the children to rear them,’ said Lynn Shanahan. ‘They remained under his care and were under his working visa with Irish passports. She asked numerous times to adopt them and get them US passports, but he wouldn’t allow it. They were Irish and connected to him only. He wanted to ensure this after Mags’ death.
‘I went over two years ago with my family to visit Jason to see where they were living and how they were getting on. Jason at that time seemed to be struggling and very, very homesick. He didn’t know how long he could stay out there, he was missing all his family and friends and found it very hard to settle there.’
It’s understood that investigators are looking into the possibility that Mr Corbett was planning to return to Ireland on a permanent basis. On Panther Creek Court, a place where everyone is exchanging theories on what may have happened inside number 160, Jason Corbett’s friends are keen to discover the truth.
‘We all got together out on the drive on Saturday,’ said Mr Turner. ‘We had a few beers and toasted Jason. I wore my Liverpool jersey. We shared stories. No one knows what happened over there. One minute everything was fine and the next there was crime scene tape everywhere. We all just hope the truth comes out.’
The children should be allowed to go home to Ireland