A Deadly American Marriage

When Jason Corbett, an Irish widower and father of two young children, found love again with his American au pair, Molly Martens, in 2008, their relationship seemed ripped from the pages of a storybook. The couple, along with Jason’s kids, Jack and Sarah, moved from Ireland to North Carolina to build a new life together. But on Aug. 2, 2015, their idyllic tale took a dark turn when Jason was killed in a violent altercation at home. The perpetrators? Molly and her father, Thomas Martens — a former FBI agent.

Molly and Thomas claimed self-defense, the former eventually pleading no contest and the latter guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2023 to avoid a trial, but their release from prison in June 2024 reignited questions over the incident’s true nature. Was this actually self-defense, as they argued, or a calculated killing? For some, the intricacies of Jason and Molly’s marriage add further complexity, including a long-simmering debate over the custody of Jack and Sarah, who were 10 and 8 years old, respectively, at the time of Jason’s death.