Molly Martens and Jason Corbett - Part 1

0:00 Hi. I'm Rich and I'm Tina. And if there's one thing we've learned in over twenty years of marriage. It's some days you'll feel like killing your husband, and. Some days you'll feel like killing your wife. Welcome to love, Mary. Kill, Hey Tina, Hey Rich? How are you? I'm very good? How are you? I'm doing good. I'm all hopped up on diet PEPSI and I trimmed my eyebrows for you this morning, so I am like ready to go. You trimmed your eyebrows just for you because I knew i'd be sitting across from you for a couple hours here and wanted to make sure I look as nice as possible for you.

0:48 I don't think I have commented on your eyebrows honestly in. Years, because I keep him trimmed. Now, what about the space in between? Yeah, that's trim too. Oh yeah, Okay, there was a time in our marriage that maybe. I have kind of heavy eyebrow hair. Let's just leave it at that. Okay, Well, I think that I haven't mentioned it since. Remember the time when I got wax between your very defined eye rounds and then I left a blister between. Your eyebrows, and I. Still feel bad about that to this day. You shouldn't feel bad. I have forgotten it. I'm moved on. You've moved. Yeah, well the eyebrows. Everything looks great. You're very handsome.

1:30 It's funny because I think about that too, because really, when we're podcasting, we sit across, we stare at each other more than we normally do, because normally we're like side by side or Yeah, so I always put makeup before we record something. I don't want to make up. Look at me without makeup. Well, you look very nice to Thank you so much. We have a couple of really busy months coming up. Are you prepared for all the busyness? Do you mean football season? Well, it's not just football season. It's the Tigers are making a playoff run. They're gonna make the playoffs. Who knows how far they'll go. Michigan football starts tonight tonight. We're recording on August thirtieth, so we're a little bit ahead of schedule. The Lions start next week, so it.

2:14 Sounds like busy for you. I know how much you love. My free time when you're watching a football game. Yes, I do. Okay, Well, I just want to make sure you're prepared for me to be busy. Oh honey, I know, I know. Do you want to give us any bold predictions? You have twenty seconds because I don't want this to linger too long. Okay, Well, bold prediction, Lions, this is the year super Bowl. We are winning the Super Bowl this year. Yeah. I don't think that's especially bold, but that's my. So is that what the other football people. Are And my other bold prediction, the Tigers will win the World Series. It's going to be a magical. Sounds amazing, sounds great. What about the Michigan because do they have a new coach this year?

2:58 No, last year they had a new coach. Okay, yeah, they're not going to win the National Championship this year, but they'll. Do Okay, Yeah, I still think it's great that they wanted that a couple of years ago. That was a great season, that was magical. Yes, so they don't have to win every season. I think we've gone on more than twenty seconds about football. Let's move on. Yeah, I do. But before we have a snack, I did want to mention, really briefly, a redditor made a nice post about us the other day on the true crime podcast subreddit killer Kim, and we just wanted to give a shout out to killer Kim and say thanks. That was really that was so kind. Thank you so much, Kim. I was scrolling you had sent it to me, But then the other day I was scrolling through Reddit and I saw it again. It was just like jarring to see you know the name of our podcast. Because we're still a smaller podcast, We're still growing and so it really does make a difference. And I've had several people message me since or leave you know, a comment or whatever. Hey, I found you from this Reddit post. So again, thank you so much. That was so generous, Kim.

3:57 Yeah, I just saw it randomly. I was scrolling through Reddit on my phone while waiting for our takeout order. See all of a sudden I say love Mary Kill. Is like, oh, what a nice surprise. It was nice to see it was positive and like, oh and you believe that woman? Yes, So thank you again, Kim. We appreciate it. Other podcasters have like, you know, a love Mary Kill like in their name, and we don't. We just kind of lurk on there. I think I like it. I think it seems more organic that way, so we're looking, we're watching. So if you say nice things about us US, it really means a lot. Yes, all right, Well, part of our case today takes place in North Carolina. The other part takes place in Iraq. We've been in North Caroline. We have been in North Carolina a lot lately. But I did when I was in North Carolina recently for work, and so I picked up some snacks at the airport. No, these are from a company. They're called me Ma's Country Kitchen, and they are based in North Carolina. And I brought you three snacks.

4:51 Wow. Thanks. Now the first one, I'm a little embarrassed to say the name of this, but this is the name of it. Uh huh. They are called cheese tids. That's tid d I e s. Just in case you were wondering. But they're these little they're little cheese crisps and I bought I bought lemon coolers and they're chocolate chip cookies. So we've got three little snacks to try. Nice. All right? You ready, what did you think about the MEMA's Country Kitchens. I liked all of them. I think Mema knows what she's doing in that kitchen. Yeah, I really like the cheese things. Those are like really. Like those two. Yeah, just like spicy, but like the perfect amount of spice. We've had something called moon cheese before that have gotten at Costco. I haven't bought it in a long time, but it reminds me of that.

5:42 But yeah, I loved all of these snacks. They were really good. They don't love like a packaged cookie like that always, and yet they were really good. Yeah. I think I approached it the wrong way. I went cheese doodle, lemon cooler, and then chocolate chip. I probably should have done. I think they should have said the lemon with a lemon. Yeah. I don't know, I don't know, but yeah, very good, Thank you good. Do you want to give them a rating? Sure, I'll give the cheese titty a night out of ten, and the cookies I'd give the lemon probably eight out of ten, and the chocolate cookie like seven and a half out of ten. I pretty much pretty much the same. Yeah. Yeah, Well, as I mentioned today's case, part of it takes place in North Carolina, part of it is from Ireland.

6:25 So tomorrow when we do part two, I've got a really good snack plan for you. From Ireland. You have been talking about this snack for a couple of weeks. I'm really excited about it. Okay, I can't wait. Well, this was a case recommendation from Marion who listens to us in Dublin, Ireland. So thank you Marion for the recommendation. Appreciate it. There's a Netflix documentary called A Deadly American Marriage which is about this case. It just came out, I think in the spring March timeframes. A really good documentary. If you're interested in the case, I definitely encourage you to check it out. They interviewed pretty much everyone involved in the case directly, and when it comes to a case like this where there is maybe some question about what happened, I think it's really valuable to hear from the people so you can kind of judge for yourselves based on you know, the person and there the way they talk about themselves and they talk about the case. So definitely recommend watching that documentary.

7:19 Did you feel like the documentary was unbiased. I think it was. Yeah. I think it was fairly unbiased. That's unique because usually there's, you know, some sort of bias. In some ways. The documentary may have tried a little bit too hard to be unbiased. It may have been like kind of you know, one of those both sides things like. But I think overall it was very well done. We're going to go deeper than the documentary. I read three books on this case, all written by people very close to the events that took place. That is dedication, sir. We well appreciate it. They were all really interesting, and I'll talk more about the sources at the end. The nine to one to one call came in just after three am on Sunday, August seventh, twenty fifteen. On the line was Tom Martin's thirty year FBI veteran, who had spent his career calmly navigating high pressure situations. But this wasn't a case he was investigating. It was happening within his own family. Tom told the dispatcher he was at his daughter Molly's house in Davidson County, North Carolina. Her husband, Jason Corbett, had attacked her. Tom said he stepped in to protect her, wielding an aluminum baseball bat. His voice was steady, but his words were chilling. I may have killed him. When first responders arrived, they were met with a horrifying scene.

8:32 Jason Corbett lay motionless, his head injuries so severe that when a paramedic tried to tilt his chin to prepare for intubation, his fingers slipped inside. Jason's fractured skull blood stained the walls, the bedding, the carpet. Tom and his daughter Molly told investigators the same story. Jason had wrapped his hands around Molly's neck and threatened to kill her. Tom rushed in to intervene, and what followed was, in his words, a real Donnybrook, a cho struggle that ended with Jason dead on the floor. Molly backed up her father's account and added more. Jason, she said, had been abusive for years, both toward her and the children. Despite the bloody scene, it initially seemed to investigators like a case of self defense. Lieutenant Detectivemanda Thompson even assured Molly, quote, at this point, after talking to your dad and talking to you, it looks like this is going to be self defense. Okay, I don't think there's going to be any issue with that. But in the days and weeks that followed, doubts began to creep in. Evidence at the scene didn't quite match the story. Jason's acquaintances in Ireland painted a very different picture of him, and whispers grew louder that this was less a desperate struggle for survival and more a calculated plan to stop Jason from taking his children back home across the Atlantic. So which was it a violent fight for Molly's life or a carefully plotted murder.

9:55 You said a word I've never heard before, Donnie brook You I've never heard that. Okay, it's an old fashioned word, for sure, but it just means like a brawl, like a chaotic sort of all out brawl. Okay, definitely, Mary forever. But you still say things sometimes, Well, is it me or. Well, this was Tom's word, not mine. I probably wouldn't use that word either, but he was the one that described it that way. Did Tom live with Molly and Jason. No, He and his wife, Sharon lived about four hours away. They had just come in for a visit that day. It seems odd that he would start a fight with his wife when his wife's parents were there in the house. Well, that is certainly a good observation, and we will talk about that. Jason Corbett was born in February nineteen seventy six in Limerick, Ireland. He was one of eight children, a twin in fact with his brother Wayne. He and Wayne were the youngest in the family. Jason's parents, John and Rita, had known each other practically all their lives.

10:51 They grew up next door to one another, and John even attended school with Frank McCourt, who would go on to write the Pulitzer Prize winning memoir Angela's Ashes, which we both read many years ago, Really good Look. The Corbett household wasn't wealthy, but Jason's sister Tracy remembers their childhood as full of warmth and joy. Rita was the heart of the family, always keeping the home cozy with the smell of something baking or simmering on the hob. You know what a hob is, well, I'm guessing it's a stovetop right. Jason grew up surrounded by love, laughter, and the noisy chaos of a big Irish family. When the nineteen eighties recession hit, life grew more difficult. John lost his job with Shell Oil and money became tight. Even as a teenager, Jason stepped up, taking on part time security work to help out and to earn a little pocket money. After finishing school, he landed a steady job with a local company called field Box More. That company later became Multi Packaging Solutions, a global leader in specialty packaging, and Jason would remain there for the next two decades, right up until his death. During those early working years, Jason moved in with his older sister Tracy and her husband, Dave Lynch.

12:00 He had always been close to Tracy, but in Dave he found not just a brother in law, but a role model and a trusted friend. Jason leaned on Dave for advice and support, and the two grew to share a deep bond. Friends and family described Jason as kind hearted, charismatic, and always smiling. He had a booming voice and a big personality. If Jason was in the room, you knew it more than anything. Though, He was remembered as someone who made people feel like they mattered. To everyone who crossed his path, Jason Corbett felt like a friend. As a young man, Jason David here and there, and even when relationships ended, he rarely left things on bad terms. More often than not, former girlfriends became lasting friends, a testament to his easygoing nature. In nineteen ninety seven, when Jason was twenty one, he went to a party with his good friend Lynn Shanahan. Lynn brought along a colleague from work, a woman named Margaret Maggs Fitzpatrick. The moment Jason met her, he was captivated. Like so many gatherings, the night stretched lad into laughter, music, and song. After the party wound down, the group drifted back to a friend's house for a nightcap or two in what they called a sing song, where everyone took turns belting out traditional Irish tunes. One by one. People dozed off in armchairs and on couches until only a few stragglers remained.

13:22 I want to go to a party like that? Yeah, I think I went to some like back in the day, but it's been a long time. The next morning, it was Maggs who was first up, bustling around the kitchen to make a proper Irish fry up sausages, bacon, pudding, fried eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and thick slices of soda bread. She realized she was missing a few ingredients and mentioned walking to a shop. Jason immediately offered to go with her. It was on that walk, hand in hand along the quiet road that Jason later said he fell head over heels and love for him. That was the moment everything changed. A week later they had their first official date, and from then on the two were inseparable. Jason would come home from nights out with Maggs to keep his roommate up half the night, gushing about how lucky he felt.

14:08 Before long, Jason and Maggs moved in together, renting an apartment directly above Tracy and Dave's place. Those were golden years, Tracy later recalled two young couples stacked one above the other, sharing dinners, laughter, and endless evenings together. At work, Jason was thriving at multi packaging solutions. He never shied away from responsibility, volunteering for extra shifts, taking on difficult tasks, and quickly earning the respect of his colleagues. He became the union representative, then went on to sit on the European Works Council, where he represented employees across the continent in labor negotiations. By nineteen ninety seven, he was promoted to shift supervisor, and a few years later he began attending night classes to further his education. His dedication paid off in two thousand and five, Jason was promoted again, this time to operations director, a position that came with a company car and a sense of pride For a boy who'd once taken odd jobs just to help his family make ends meet. It was like a dream realized, and alongside his career success, Jason's personal life was blossoming.

15:16 In two thousand and two, while on holiday in Barcelona, he proposed to Mags. She said yes, and the following year they were married in a church overlooking the ocean. They had promised not to see each other for three days before the ceremony, but Jason, ever the romantic, couldn't resist bending the rules in his own way. He secretly gave three handwritten notes to Catherine, Max's sister and maid of honor, with instructions to deliver one each day, and then he poured out his love, his hopes for their marriage, and the dreams he imagined they would share. By the time Mags read the final note, just hours before the wedding, she was in tears, so emotional that her father worried something was wrong, that perhaps she was changing her mind.

15:58 But no, Mag was overwhelmed with happiness, knowing she had found her soulmate. After the wedding, the couple bought a piece of property in the village of bally Needy, just fifteen minutes outside of Limerick, where Jason set about building what would become their dream home. Their joy only grew with the arrival of children. In September two thousand and four, they welcomed their first child, a son named Jack. Two years later, in September two thousand and six, their daughter Sarah was born, completing their family. For Jason and Magg's life felt complete. They had built their dream home in bally Needy, Jason's career was flourishing, and their little family, first Jack and then baby Sarah, filled the house with laughter and love. To friends and family, they seemed inseparable.

16:43 Jason often called Mags his anam kara, his sole friend, and the Celtic tradition, the one whose spirit is bound to yours for eternity. Their careers, their home, their family. Everything seemed to be falling perfectly into place. But life, of course, can change in an instant, and just twelve weeks after Sarah's birth, tragedy struck. Mags had long battled asthma, and the early hours one morning she woke gasping for air. Her nebulizer wasn't doing it for her, and she knew immediately that something about this attack was different. Panicked, she woke Jason. He called for an ambulance, then roused Mag's sister Catherine, who had been staying with them temporarily. I'm going to die, Mas, whispered to Catherine, clutching her chest and pain, I'm going to die. Jason couldn't bear to wait for help to reach their house outside of Limerick.

17:31 He bundled Mags into the car, keeping the emergency dispatcher on the line as he sped toward a halfway meeting point with the ambulance. But before they arrived, Mags slumped forward in her seat. Jason pulled over, dragged her from the car, and performed CPR on the side of the road until paramedics arrived and took over. He followed the ambulance to the hospital, desperately hoping Mags would be okay, but once there, doctors pulled him aside with the news no husband is ever ready to hear. Mags was gone. She had died in the ambulance en route. She was just thirty one years old. The post mortem determined the cause a severe asthma attack that had stopped her heart. The pathologists later explained that her heart had been weakened a ticking time bomb. He said, the fatal attack could have come at any time. That is really devastating.

18:21 Yeah, really really tragic. Asthma attacks are so scary because you can have it like Mags did her whole life, and you know, you don't know how severe the next attack will be. Yeah, and I get the sense that they were really, really in love with each other. And you know, their daughter was only twelve weeks old when this happened, so even, you know, more tragic because of that. We'll be back after a break. Jason was shattered just thirty years old. He was suddenly a widower, left to raise a two year old son and a twelve week old daughter on his own. At Mags's funeral, Jason wrote a farewell note to his wife.

19:02 He knew he couldn't get through it himself, so he asked his brother in law, Dave, to read it out loud. Quote, to my soulmate and beautiful wife, mag mag You've just heard how much I loved you before we got married, and it has been a million times better than I could ever have dreamed. I know we crammed in so much in the little time we had together, but it was only a fraction of the life we had planned. Jason promised Mags that their children would never forget her. Quote, don't worry about the babies. All of us here today, family and friends will make sure they always remember how great their mommy was. I promise I will stay strong for our wonderful kids. And finally, he spoke from the deepest part of his heart, quote, you always said I was lucky to have you. You were the girl of my dreams, and then you became the love of my life.

19:47 Now you are the girl of my dreams again, my mag mag I'll love you all of my life. Please look in on us from time to time. Love you always and forever. In the months that followed, Jason was lost without her. Most days, on his lunch break, he could be found at Maggs's grave, leaning against her headstone, reading the newspaper out loud, or updating her on the children. That is so sweet, I know, it really is. He tried to channel some of his grief into action, raising money for the Irish Asthma society in her memory, but the happy, go lucky, always smiling Jason, his family knew was gone. His children became the only reason he kept moving forward. In the aftermath of Maggs's death, Jason leaned heavily on family. Mag's sister Catherine stayed with him for a while to help with the children. Tracy and her husband Dave were constantly by his side, and many others pitched in as well. But as the months stretched on, Jason realized he needed something more permanent. His loved ones had their own families and responsibilities, and he didn't want to depend on them forever. He tried hiring live in help, first one nanny, then another, but neither arrangement lasted long.

20:56 The first two women struggled with English, and Jason worried about stability for Jack and Sarah. By two thousand and eight, he placed a new ad for an au pair. That ad would change everything. It was how Molly Martin's came into his life. Molli Martins was born in nineteen eighty three, the second of four children and the only girl in a close knit family from Knoxville, Tennessee. Her mother, Sharon, held a mathematics degree while her father, Tom, graduated from Emory University before embarking on a thirty year career with the FBI. The first half of his service was spent in the criminal division, the second half in counter intelligence. After retiring from the Bureau, he continued his work in national security at the Department of Energy's Oakridge National Laboratory.

21:40 Molly grew up in comfort. The Martin's family home was spacious and elegant, six bedrooms, a swimming pool, a sweeping lawn, and a broad, multi level deck for entertaining. Today, Zillo values the house at over a million dollars. It was a picture of upper middle class stability, the kind of place where children seemed destined for bright futures. Much of what we know about Molly Martin's before she moved to Ireland comes from an unusual source. In the years leading up to her move, she had a serious boyfriend, eventually a fiance named Keith McGinn. After their break up, Keith wrote a memoir called Turning This Thing Around, published in twenty twelve, three years before Jason Corbett's death. To be fair, the book isn't specifically about Molly. It's Keith's personal account of his struggles with depression and anxiety. But in these pages, Molly, referred to under the pseudonym Mary, plays a central role, and through his story we get a revealing portrait of the woman who would later enter Jason's life. Molly had dropped out of Clemson University after less than a semester and was working a series of jobs, some caring for children.

22:46 When she met Keith online. She struck him immediately as fun, different, and when they met in person, stunningly beautiful. Way out of my league, he later admitted. The two fell in love quickly, almost recklessly. Within a month, at Molly's insistence, Keith moved into her apartment. She told him she lived with bipolar disorder and manic depression, but assured him that medication kept things under control. Keith, who battled his own issues, felt empathy more than concern. But only weeks later he saw the other side of her. The vibrant, free spirited woman he'd fallen for slipped into despair. She stopped working, spent days in bed or curled up in the bathtub. Plagued by migraines, insomnia, and relentless self loathing. She thought herself hideous, even as she turned the heads of strangers, compliments only made her recoil. Their relationship became a cycle of highs and crushing lows. Keith wrote that he sometimes came home from work not knowing whether Molly would be asleep under the weight of her medications or sobbing on the bathroom floor talking of ending her life. He says he pulled her back from suicide more than once. Still, he loved her and wanted desperately to help. In two thousand and seven, he wrote a poem titled how Can I Make Happy the Sad Girl? One line read, how can I convince her? Can I ever make her see?

24:05 I'm not going anywhere? But she's running away from me. Molly began to pin her hopes for happiness on milestones. If they got engaged, she insisted it would prove his love and make her feel whole. So Keith proposed, and for a short time she seemed happier, but soon came new turmoil. She announced she was pregnant, despite being on birth control. She wasn't distressed. She loved children and believed motherhood would fix everything. Keith worried about her heavy regiment of medications, sometimes as many as sixteen daily prescriptions, plus others as needed. His fears proved justified when she soon miscarried. The loss plunged her deeper into depression. We'll talk about this a little bit later, but Molly has trouble with the truth in a lot of ways. She was prone to making up stories. So I have no way of knowing if this pregnancy was real or not. But there's certainly when I read this, knowing what we'll get into later, I certainly had some doubts about it, they'll say. Keith eventually convinced Molly to admit herself to a psychiatric facility to reduce her dependence on medication. After four days, she left unchanged, and then, almost without warning, she told him she wanted to move to Ireland. She saw it as an escape, a chance to start fresh. She asked Keith to come with her, but he couldn't. They had no money and he needed his job and his health insurance, so she went alone. She promised she would check in, but weeks passed without a word. Finally, three weeks after arriving, Keith received an email. Molly told him she was happy,

25:37 apologized for the chaos she had caused in his life and urged him to move on and find happiness without her. Wow, why Ireland? I don't know for sure. I think a lot of people, myself included, view Ireland very romantically. Like it just seems like if you were looking for a place to get away and start fresh, it seems like a great place to do that. I would love to go to Ireland. Same. When five year old Molly Martin's answered Jason Zad for an AWE pair, she presented herself as the perfect candidate. She claimed to be a certified Montessori teacher, a Clemson University graduate, vetted as a foster parent, and even a near qualifier for the US Olympic swim team. None of it was true, though Jason and his family wouldn't discover that until much later.

26:23 Wow. Yeah, it's pretty bold, I'll say. But she sounds like the perfect candidate, right. Oh yeah, you would totally look at that on paper and say excellent. Molly arrived in Ireland in March two thousand and eight, flying into Shannon Airport on a one way ticket. She had no work permit, no visa, none of the paperwork required to live and work legally. Immigration officials quickly flagged the issues and ordered her onto the next flight home. Jason rushed to the airport to try to intervene, but the officers wouldn't budge. Molly was placed on a plane to Boston. From there, she purchased a round trip ticket to Dublin and got back on another plane, and when she arrived in Ireland the following day, Dublin immigration waved her through without incident, just like that Molly was in.

27:07 So it was the one way ticket that set them off. I think it was, But also I think the airport in Limerick is much smaller than Dublin, so it's probably a little harder to get through those things. But it is interesting though, I think I don't know if she just didn't think about it, but you know, you have to have paperwork to work in another country, you can't just show up. Almost immediately, she bonded with Jack and baby Sarah. Jason encouraged her to explore Ireland on her days off to make friends and feel at home, and little by little, friends and family began to notice a change in Jason himself. He seemed lighter, a touch, more like the man he had been before losing Mags. Molly struck people as kind, attentive, and considerate, a welcome presence and a house that had carried so much sorrow. But within two months others began to notice something more. Jason and Molly linger together, talking closely off and trailing behind the group. Soon it became obvious a romance was forming. How much time had passed between Mags's death and Molly's arrival.

28:08 I think it was about a year and a half, okay. Reactions were mixed. On one hand, everyone wanted Jason to find happiness again after everything he had endured. He deserved it, but there were also concerns things were moving quickly. Molly was not just a girlfriend. She was living in his home, caring for his children. It was a complicated situation, and some worried about where it might lead. Before long, though there was no denying it, Jason and Molly were a couple. It didn't take long before the cracks began to show. Jason was in love, but it was also conflicted. Things were moving quickly, too quickly for his comfort. Molly was becoming a mother figure to his children, and while part of him was grateful, another part wasn't ready for that.

28:52 He wanted space to sort out his feelings, to separate his roles as a father from his role as a romantic partner. In June two thousand and eight, only a month into their romance, Jason suggested Molly return home to the US for a visit. It would give him a time to think to slow things down. Molly reluctantly agreed, but instead of giving him the distance he needed, she flooded him with emails and phone calls, pressing for reassurance. As she wrote in one email, I just want to be loved back. Neither one of us should live life with so much doubt. It hurts to carry out, and it hurts more to know that someone you love doubts you. Jason's reply was gentle but firm. It hurts me too, you know, I just want a normal boy girl relationship.

29:34 We should be having fun, getting to know one another, going on dates, not husband and wife. In another message, his fears came pouring out. Please know that I miss you and I love you so much, but I am scared, scared to let go in case I lose someone again, or the kids lose someone again. I couldn't live through it. My concern is for Jack and Sarah. I've had enough tragedy in their short lives, and while I know they're resilient, I'm nervous about them through anything. Further, 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. I think that email is a really good encapsulation of how he must have been feeling, and I can totally imagine that it's a really difficult situation asolutely.

30:16 We've done enough of these cases and looking at it objectively, those are pretty big red flags, and it's good that he took a pause, and it sounds like maybe he should have vented things there By August, Jason relented. He agreed Molly could return, but on the condition that she find a different job. His friend Lynn, who managed a child care facility, even offered to hire her, but when Lynn asked Molly to provide her Montessori certification, Molly brushed her off, saying her credentials wouldn't transfer to Ireland without proof. Lynn refused to hire her. Mollie never pursued another position, and before long things slid back to the way they had been before. Over time, Jason's friends and family began to notice troubling changes. Molly seemed to want Jason all to herself. She pushed him away from people he had once been close to at social gatherings. If Jason didn't give her enough attention, she might cause a scene, something he came to dread so Mollie. When she returned to Ireland, she moved back into the house with her I believe so yes, and slowly patterns began to emerge, the same patterns Keith McGinn had described in his memoir years earlier.

31:23 By twenty eleven, Jason's emails to Molly could have been lifted straight from Keith's book, and one he wrote, is there anything I can do to make you happy? I've done everything, and you still hate yourself, hate yourself, cry in the shower, vomit, curse, shout at me. I feel so inadequate. Models. I've given you everything in my life, including me in the kid's hearts, and I know you love us so so much, But in the last three days you've still done all of the above. Even vacation, Jason isn't enough anymore. I don't know what to do. I'm not sure exactly what he means by vacation, Jason. I can only assume it's just, you know, when he's relaxed and fun and. Not the weekend Jason. Yeah, probably vacation Jason is kind of hard to say.

32:04 It's a little tricky. On Valentine's Day twenty ten, nearly two years after Molly first arrived in Ireland, Jason proposed and Molly said yes. I'm a little surprised that he proposed. Yeah. I mean, I think Jason did love Molly. I also think that he really struggled with separating her from his kids. I think his kids loved her. They called her mom after a period of time, and I think he didn't want his kids to lose another mother, right. I can understand that. Jason's family wanted to be happy for him, but beneath the congratulations lingered unease. They worried about Molly's volatility, though they reassured themselves she was normal crazy, not dangerous crazy.

32:47 What they didn't see were the struggles behind closed doors, the endless emails filled with doubt, conflict, and Jason's fear of losing yet another partner. Molly's discontent was constant. She complained about the house that Jason had built for Mags their dream home, the place that symbolized his first marriage. Molly said she felt like she was living in Maggs's shadow. It wasn't unreasonable, but the bitterness in how she spoke about it unsettled those around her. Eventually, Jason gave in and put the house on the market. Molly was also homesick. She told Jason she hated living in Ireland and pushed hard for a fresh start in America. Jason was open to the idea. He had fond memories of the United States.

33:28 He and Maggs had honeymooned in Boston and New York, and he remembered the trip warmly. And at MPs, a new opportunity had opened up plant manager at their facility in Lexington, North Carolina, just over four hours from Molly's family in Knoxville. Kind of selfish for Molly to want to move back to the United States when Jason his support system, support system off, his children are all in Ireland. Yeah, I agree, And she chose to move there to take the job as his au pair, so yeah, I agree. It seemed like fate. A fresh start close to Molly's family with career growth for Jason, but his sister Tracy noticed something in him when he told her the plan conflict.

34:11 He admitted that Molly had given him an ultimat him moved to the US with her or the relationship was over. Tracy urged him to seek counseling, even paying for the sessions herself, but in the end Jason agreed to the move. One reason weighed especially heavy. Jack and Sarah now called Molly Mom. Jason couldn't bear the thought of his children losing another mother figure. The wedding was set for June twenty eleven in the United States. Afterward, Jason and Molly would settle in North Carolina, ready to begin what was supposed to be a brand new life. Three months before the wedding, Molly flew back to the US to handle preparations, while Jason stayed in Ireland to finish out his work and put things in order. The distance only deepened their problems.

34:55 The emails they exchanged during this time don't read like messages between a couple excited about their future. Instead, they sound like two people struggling just to hold it together. In March, Molly wrote, I believed you when you told me we should try for a child after marrying. I believe this was exciting for you. I feel so so, so, so so stupid, ridiculous, ashamed and humiliated for believing in you, and I will look like an idiot to everyone. A month later, Jason's frustration spilled onto the page. I won't be able to make a go of it in the United States under this emotional pressure you're placing on me. You just accused me of things off the cuff when you have no valid reason for doing so. You bang the phone down. You sound like an emotional wreck. I am moving to your country to be with you. I need you to be strong for us and not constantly crying, accusing me of things, banging down phones. You are supposedly getting what you want, and yet you sound more sad now than ever. You even told me you hate talking to me because you end up curling up in a ball.

35:55 Just weeks before the ceremony, Molly finally disclosed something she had kept hidden for their entire three year relationship, her history of diagnosed mental health conditions. Are you kidding? I am not kidding. They lived together and that he never knew nope. Jason was blindsided, upset, yes, but also relieved in a way. It explained some of her volatility, and it seemed to make him all the more determined to stand by her, to help her to make it work. I think it's always such a challenge in this type of situation, because mental illness is an illness, right, it really is. And you want if you love someone, you want to help them through it. You want to support them, you want to be there for them. But at the same time, there comes a certain point when you got to think of yourself.

36:39 Too and your children. Yeah, was she not taking her meds regularly? Or do you have any idea about that? I am not really sure. What Jason never knew was. Around this same time, Molly quietly consulted a divorce lawyer. She wanted to know her chances of gaining custody of Jack and Sarah if the marriage ended. The lawyer told her it was unlikely unless the children were old, perhaps twelve or so, when their preferences could carry weight in court. Wow, that is wild, it is. It was a troubling glimpse of what might already have been in Molly's mind even before she walked down the aisle. We'll be back after a break.

37:22 Several of Jason's family and friends made the trip to Tennessee for the wedding, arriving days in advance. Molly's parents, Tom and Sharon hosted a number of events to welcome their new Irish in laws, including a party at their home. But in those days leading up to the ceremony, a few more unsettling signs began to emerge. At a party, Jason's sister Tracy noticed that Molly was nowhere to be seen. When she asked about it, someone explained that Molly wasn't feeling well. Tracy went to check on her and found her lying in the fetal position crying. Tracy tried to comfort her, but Molly wouldn't say what was wrong. The encounter left Tracy uneasy. Later that evening, Tom Martin surprised Jason's family with what he framed as a gesture of hospitality, a whitewater rafting trips scheduled for the next morning at eight am. It was the first anyone had heard of it. Tracy, caught off guard, politely declined, explaining that there weren't prepared for such an outing and already had plans. From that point on, she said, Tom's demeanor towards Jason's family noticeably changed.

38:27 He seemed offended, even hostile, and the Irish guests got the impression that they were being looked down on. Judged to many, Tom came across as arrogant and dismissive. Can you imagine that, Like you're at a party and your host is like, hey, good news. Tomorrow morning, eight am. I got whitewater rafting tickets for us. I would probably have a hard time with that too. I think I think most people would. Yeah, that's something you don't just, you. Know, spring on people. At the wedding rehearsal. A couple of days later, the temperature soared above one hundred degrees. Molly suddenly fainted, but curiously, she collapsed in the only patch of grass in an otherwise rocky area. Tracy noticed several of Molly's relatives roll their eyes as they walked past, as if this was nothing unusual, hardly worth concern.

39:16 I should say that, you know, most of my sources in this case were books written by Tracy and by Sarah, the daughter, So some of these stories definitely come off as sounding a little one sided. If Molly or her dad had written a book, I definitely would have read that as well, but they haven't. So just you know, I feel like I need to explain a little bit why there's a lot of Molly kind of stories in here. Yeah, it sounds a little insensitive, but it sounds like that was something that Molly. She was just traumatic. Yeah, Individually, the moments might not have met munch, but taken together, they gave Jason's family an uneasy feeling. This marriage was already showing cracks and the wedding hadn't even happened yet.

39:59 But then some one thing that truly alarmed Jason's family and friends came. Just days before the wedding, Jason's best friend Paul struck up a casual conversation with one of Molly's bridesmaids. At one point, she remarked how romantic it was that Molly was fulfilling Max's final wish. Paul was taken back. Excuse me, he asked. The bridesmaid explained Mollie had told her that she had been pen pals with Mags. According to Molly, before Mags died, she asked Molly to look after Jack and Sarah and that's why she had originally gone to Ireland. Paul was stunned. It was an obvious, blatant lie. Another bridesmaid soon revealed a slightly different version of the story. She said that Molly had told her that she had been childhood friends with Mags and she was the children's godmother. She had supposedly traveled to Ireland after Mags died of cancer, another fabrication. Since Maggs had died of an asthma attack. Paul and Jason's sister Tracy tried to track Jason down to warn him from the whirlwind of wedding preparations. They never had the chance. This wasn't the only time Molly twisted her past. In fact, lies and exaggerations seemed to follow her everywhere. At a book club meeting, when another woman shared the news that she was expecting, Molly launched into an elaborate story about giving birth to Sarah, complete with details of a difficult labor.

41:23 Several women in the room knew full well that Molly was not Sarah's biological mother, but that didn't seem to matter to Molly. Yikes. Back in college, Molly told classmates that she had a sister named Grace, who had died of leukemia in childhood. She even kept a photo of a little girl in her dorm room, telling her roommate it was Grace. Only later did the roommate realize that the photo of Grace was just the stock picture that came with the frame. Years later, she was still invoking the same lie. In one email to Jason, after feeling betrayed about something, she wrote, other than my sister's death, nothing has ever devastated me so much. At various times, she claimed that she had been the editor of a magazine in Ireland, or that she had once served as a foster mother. Each story seemed grander than the last one.

42:14 Woman who knew Molly through book club and Bible study later put it this way quote no one had more life experiences, career paths, borest complike stories than Molly. She could one up any story you told, and she had experienced it all, even though she was only in her late twenties. She used her looks and her seemingly well educated mind to manipulate and create the picture of herself. She wanted others to believe. Her wild stories destroyed her credibility to a private circle of people. She was the growing joke for all of her outlandish claims. Years later, after Jason's death and all of the events that were going to be talking about, Molly herself admitted to the fabrications.

42:56 She said, first of all, everybody lies, and anybody who says they don't, they're lying. But if you had to ask me what I am most ashamed of in my life, it would be the times that I have not been honest with people. I've said things to make myself sound better, because I'm ashamed of who I am or aspects of who I am. She would later claim that some of her lies stemmed from Jason's discomfort about how they met. He didn't want people to know that she had been as nanny as she said, so he made up a story and she built a backstory to fit it. But to those who encountered her, it was clear Molly loved being the center of attention, and she was willing to reshape reality over and over again to hold that spotlight.

43:40 Did she ever lie to Jason about things that Jason could crosscheck or did he catch her and lies? Well, I know that she lied, like when she became his au pair, right, she lied about having a degree, about the Olympic swim team, about her Montessori certificate. I'm sure there were other things as well, and I don't I think in the beginning he didn't check those things, or didn't feel the need to check those things. I think over time he probably caught on. I'm not sure if I have any specific examples in the story where he did catch her or went back and did some research, but I'm sure he must have realized after a while that she was prone to lies and exaggeration. Yeah, because when they met, she was twenty five, and she already had like kind of a rich history for someone that young.

44:25 Right. The wedding ceremony itself went smoothly, beautiful, traditional, exactly what Jason and Molly had planned, but the reception told a different story. At the children's table, Tracy and Dave's young son, Adam, sat quietly, looking miserable. Molly's maid of honor and longtime friend Susie noticed and asked what was wrong. Adam explained that because of food allergies, he couldn't eat anything that had been served. Susie tried the kitchen, but it was already closed. Thinking fast, she remembered seeing the McDonald's nearby. She asked Adam if a happy meal might cheer him up. His face lit up. Susie slipped out, returned with the meal, and handed it to the grateful boy.

45:06 But when Molly spotted Adam crossing the reception hall with the McDonald's cup in hand, she exploded in front of the entire room. She screamed at Adam's father, Dave, who had no idea what she was talking about. Do you know how much this wedding cost? You've ruined my wedding? Dave, blindsided, stood his ground. He told her two people got married here today, not just one, and you paid for nothing. Mollie stormed off upstairs, where a bridesmaid later found her lying on a sofa, punching and kicking pillows like a child in the throes of a tantrum. She also lashed out at her maid of honor, Susie, the person who had helped Adam. Humiliated. Susie and her family left the reception early the next day, Tracy called Susie to thank her for her kindness to Adam and to apologize for the drama that it had caused. Susie confided that Molly had been bad mouthing Jason's family all week and that she was finished with my Dolly altogether. As the reception wound down, Molly waited in the limo for her new husband.

46:06 Jason lingered inside, where his best friend Paul pulled him aside. Paul told him, you're the unhappiest married man I've ever seen on his wedding day. You don't have to get in that car. You can walk away, get on a plane, go home. But Jason shook his head. No, I've made a commitment and I can't take a second mother away from the children. That sounds like that's a reoccurring theme for Jason. He really wanted his children to have a mother. Yeah, for sure. After the wedding, Jason, Molly, Jack and Sarah settled into their new life at North Carolina. They purchased a four hundred thousand dollars home in a gated community outside Winston Salem, paying cash from the sale of Jason's house in Ireland. Jason gave Molly eighty thousand dollars to furnish it. However, she liked the neighborhood was warm and welcoming and Overtime, the couple formed friendships with many of their new neighbors. Jason thrived in his role managing the MPs plant, nearly doubling their profits over the next four years. The children, seven and five at the time, adjusted quickly. They loved the big house, the spacious yard, and the chance to make new friends. Jack and Sarah joined activities in sports, settling happily into their new routines.

47:18 Molly picked up a part time job as a swim instructor, but spent most of her time at home being a mother to the children. On the surface, it looked like a fresh start, but just beneath the surface, tensions were already simmering. Only four months after the wedding, Molly quietly visited a divorce attorney in North Carolina. She wasn't ready to leave Jason, but she wanted to know her rights if she did. The attorney was blunt because Jack and Sarah were Jason's biological children and Molly hadn't adopted them. Custody would remain solely with Jason in the event of a divorce. Now the sun similar earlier. I mentioned she saw a divorce attorney before the marriage. I believe that these were two different events, but I wonder if they got conflated as well, if maybe the timing was off, So it may have just been one. It may have happened either right before or right after the marriage, But in any case, very early on in the marriage, or even before the marriage, Molly was already thinking about Yeah, well, not of always out, but would the children? Would she be able to get the children if they did end up splitting up? Adoption had been a fraught topic from the beginning. Molly and her father claimed that Jason had promised that she would adopt the children after their marriage, but he never followed through. Perhaps his growing doubts about Molly's behavior gave him pause. Emails discovered after Jason's death suggest that he did explore the possibility. In November twenty twelve, he wrote to a law firm quote, I have been married to Molly for just over a year now and

48:49 we live in Forsyth County. Is it possible to structure an adoption such that if I ever get divorced, not planning to that, the right to keep the children is with me over Molly, what would you need from me if we were to proceed? Whatever advice he received, Jason never moved forward with adoption. His fear that Mollie might one day try to take the children seemed to weigh heavily on him, even went so far as to keep Jack and Sarah's passports hidden away from the family home. Molly, for her part, would later insist the refusal was a form of control. In her view, Jason held the adoption over her head as a threat, a reminder that if their marriage ended, she could lose the children that she had been raising as her own.

49:32 In the final months of Jason's life, Molly began painting a disturbing picture of her husband to friends and neighbors. She claimed Jason was a drunk, that he neglected the children, and that he was abusive. She even showed people bruises, she said reproof of the abuse. Roughly seven months before Jason's death, Mollie sought legal advice from a family law attorney who also happened to be a neighbor. She told the lawyer that she was considering divorce, but she didn't want to leave without custom of Jack and Sarah. The attorney told her bluntly, if she wanted custody, she would need evidence that Jason was a domestic abuser, an alcoholic, and a danger to his children. Soon after, Molly began hiding small, voice activated recording devices around the house and even in Jason's car, apparently trying to capture him losing his temper. The district attorney later estimated that she recorded more than one hundred and fifty hours of audio, but when prosecutors requested the tapes, Molly turned over only three hours.

50:33 Here's one of the few clips that ever surfaced. Could I have dinner with the kids. That's what I asked you, but you ignored it. I went anyway, Now, I was on the phone with you ten minutes ago and I said, I'm gonna make some soup. Do you want something? He said no? They said no, because of how we're going to offend it together? Is you just do this is not what you wanted to do. I said, I'm making soup for the kids. Do you want something? The reason why I said no is because you ignored I. Didn't ignore anything. You forgot what I'm gonna asked. You couldn't care less. I said I'd like temp dinner with my family. That's what I said to you. You decided to stop hanging up the banister please and go up to your room. Well, don't up to now here, please, don't you can stay there? Please?

51:17 Can you look at me? Can you have some respect? I asked you to have dinner with my family. You said you were feeding the kids. That's why I said no, because you ignored by that. There about dinner my family. Go and sit down. Who cares what he says? Don't send them out of the room again when I'm talking, you don't have. The right pancake Tuesday? Why don't I make some pancakes? I asked you over and over again. You made it very clear you want to try to separate me. I'm like, no, I don't want to. I'm gonna I shouldn't have to see it over and over. I shouldn't have to see them. Molly, can you guys get have the stuff for pand I'm here. You won't get on and you're still gonna talking about some girls. She just got scared a bit.

52:03 So those were all clips from the same argument, but there was They're a little bit choppy because that was all that I was able to find from different sources. Jason can be heard saying you made it very clear. You want to try to separate me from my kids, I'm going to do the same to you. The difference is I will be able to do it to Molly. This was proof that Jason was controlling using the children as leverage, but Jason's family saw it differently. They believed Molly was goading him into fights, hoping to catch something incriminating on tape. In fact, Sarah later explained the backstory to this particular clip. It was pancake Tuesday, the Irish version of fat Tuesday, and Jason had wanted to share the tradition with his kids. He called Molly about dinner, but when he came home, she had already fed them.

52:50 Frustrated after a long day of work, he snapped. Molly later claimed the loud bang on the tape was Jason pounding his fists on the table. Sarah insisted it was his chair falling as he stood, and then the unedited recording, Jack can be heard saying, Dad, be careful, they're one hundred dollars chairs. So before we go any further, what do you what do you make of that recording? Like, what do you hear? Does it sound like Jason's potentially abusive. Well, first of all, the little kids with their Irish accents is adorable. Yeah, it's also heartbreaking that they're that they're. They're witnessing the argument. Yeah, I mean he sounded very angry, but it sound it escalated. He's sounded very calm in the beginning. He was trying to have a calm argument because I think he knew the kids were listening. But then he just kind of lost it. But I mean, it didn't sound like he was being abusive. He was just angry.

53:43 That's how I took it. When I first heard it, I thought, oh boy, that's that sounds bad. But then as I listened to it again, it didn't sound that different from what could be considered a normal, you know, marital argument. I mean, yeah, definitely escalated, and the banging sound was a little shocking, But if it really was just the falling, you know, it's still that didn't sound great. But I think one thing to keep in mind is that if there really were like one hundred and fifty hours of recording, and this is the worst that Molly could come up with, because she was in control of the recordings, she made them, so she decided what to share and what not to share. So if this is the worst of it, it doesn't seem like it's out of. There are three hours that she released them. Yeah, and I never found any others that I had never heard anymore. So yeah, I wish I could.

54:27 About a month before his death, Jason discovered one of the recording devices hidden in his car. He founded thanks to Jack, who was helping clean the car. Jason confronted Molly about it, and that argument, too, was recorded. That's such an invasion of someone's privacy. I know I would. I think that's unforgivable. Yes, Jason's family believes Molly's ultimate goal was clear. She wanted the children for herself, and to get there, she waged a month long, even years long campaign to tear Jason down. Emails show her tactics. At times, she did de liberately gave Jason the wrong start times for the kids' sporting events so he would miss them. She would then tell the children that their father hadn't bothered to show up. Frustrated, Jason sent an email to Molly in her capacity as a swim team coach.

55:15 He wrote, going forward as a swim team parent who helps pay for our kids to attend. I would like to be included in correspondence so I know what is going on with the team. My wife does not tell me. I have asked you to communicate prior to this, and it is with great sadness that I now have to resort to email for communication regarding our kids. I would also like to be included in school events. It was brought to my attention the other day about upcoming events regarding fathers. That was also kept for me for some reason. I would just like to know what is going on, and since you will not or forget to tell me, maybe copying me on an email might help. So. In the years since, both Jack and Sarah, who were nearly eleven and nine when their father died, have corroborated many of these claims. They said that Molly sometimes created bruises on herself then showed them to friends as supposed proof that Jason.

56:07 Had heard her. One reason I recommend watching the documentary is because Jack and Sarah are both interviewed in the documentary, and it's really interesting to see them and hear them talk about different things. Because they were pretty young when Jason died, and I think, you know, you could argue that they either didn't remember something directly or their memories changed over time. And I think, you know, those are really good questions. But I do think watching them in the documentary, you get a sense of kind of their perspective on things, So. You believe that they had clear memories of what happened. They seem to, Yes, they seem to have very clear memories. In the months leading up to his death, Jason began quietly laying plans of his own. About a year before he was killed, he confided to his sister Tracy that he was thinking of returning to Ireland with Jack and Sarah, but without Molly. He told her it would take time, that he would need to be extremely careful. A few weeks before his death, Jason called his best friend Paul in Ireland. He told him outright that he was planning to leave Molly and bring the children home, but he would have to arrange everything in secret. Tom Martin's had convinced him that Molly had equal parental rights in the US.

57:16 Jason worried that she might block him from taking the kids. Jason said, I would need to be on a plane before the Martins even knew I had left the call with Paul took place while Jason was driving. By then, he had already discovered and removed one of Molly's recording devices from his car. But it raises an unsettling question had she planned another, and if so, was she tipped off to his plans. What we do know is that less than twenty four hours before his death, Jason was actively searching flights back to Ireland on Expedia. Both Jack and Sarah later recalled seeing him scrolling through the flight options on his laptop. Sarah also remembered spotting the children's passports sitting on his night stand under a book, and thought Mollie may have seen them. Jack said he noticed a packed suitcase sitting beside his father's bed that same night.

58:04 I read a number of different things about Jason's plans to leave for Ireland. One source I read said that he planned to leave on August twenty first, which is a very specific date, and that he had sought to transfer sixty thousand dollars from his bank in North Carolina to one in Ireland. The source that I read didn't say how they knew that, so I didn't say it in here. But we do know that Jason hadn't purchased plane tickets yet, but it seems clear that he was at least planning to move back to Ireland. Just a day before his death, Jason and Mally attended a neighborhood party. They played cornhole with friends, but witnesses recalled Molly belittling him loudly, calling him a fat ass and joking that he must have robbed his twin brother of nutrition in the womb because he looked like he had eaten for two Wow. That's really mean, very mean.

58:51 Jason left the party early that night. He posted a short message on Facebook. It read, people will question all the good things they hear about you, but believe all the bad without a second thought. We'll be back after a break. That brings us to August first, twenty fifteen, the last day of Jason Corbett's life. That morning, Tom and Sharon Martin's decided, seemingly on a whim, to make the four hour drive from Tennessee to North Carolina. Tom would later say they woke up, had nothing to do and thought it was a beautiful day for a visit with Molly and the kids. Before leaving, he grabbed two old sporting items from home an aluminum baseball bat and a tennis racket once used by his own children, gifts for Jack and Sarah. Throughout the day, Tom and Molly were in frequent contact. Phone records show thirteen calls between them starting at two twenty one PM, and twelve more between Molly and her mother. Why so many calls? That's never been explained.

59:54 I don't know if that was normal for them or not, but really, I mean thirteen calls. Yeah, Molly was on the phone twenty five times. Right with her mom and dad that day. The Martins arrived shortly after eight pm. Jason and a neighbor were sitting in the driveway sharing a beer, a weekend tradition after mowing their lawns. Molly and the neighbor's wife joined them. Tom would later claim Jason was obviously drunk. Later, Molly ordered Domino's pizza and mixed mohitos for the adults. Jack left for a birthday party and came home around eleven PM. By then, the household had settled in. Jason, Molly, Sarah, and the Martins ate pizza, and according to Tom and Molly, the evening passed without incident, no arguments, no fights, As it got late, Tom and Charon went downstairs to the guest space known as the Blue Room, directly beneath the primary bedroom. Tom left the baseball bat and tennis racket in the Blue Room for the night, planning to give them to the children in the morning. Here's what happened next.

1:00:54 According to Tom and Molly, sometime after midnight, Sarah awoke from a nightmare. She imagined the fairies on her bed sheets had turned into spiders and lizards. Frightened, she ran to her parents' bedroom. Molly later said she took Sarah back to her room and stripped off the bed sheets, but Jason, awakened, became angry, and a violent fight erupted. Molly claimed that Jason grabbed her by the throat and began choking her. When he loosened his grip for a moment, she screamed now. Sarah later recalled this nightmare in her book, but her memory of what happened next was different. She said that on nights when she was scared, she would usually be allowed to crawl into bed between her parents, but this time, she said that her mother intercepted her at the door. She remembered seeing her father asleep in bed undisturbed. But again keep in mind that Sarah was nine years old and this was something that happened in the middle of the night when she woke up. Downstairs, Tom claimed that he woke to loud thumps, raised voices, and then a scream. He grabbed the aluminum baseball bat that he had brought for Jack, and, wearing only boxer shorts and a gull shirt, he ran upstairs. According to Tom, he found Jason in the bedroom with his hands around Molly's neck. Seven or eight feet inside the doorway. Tom shouted for Jason to let her go. Jason's reply, I'm going to kill her. Tom repeated the command, but Jason repeated the threat. Tom said that Jason began edging backwards toward the bathroom, his arms still locked around Molly's neck.

1:02:25 Fearing that Jason might shut himself inside with her, Tom stepped forward and swung the bat, struck Jason's head. Tom later claimed the blow only enraged Jason further. He swung again. This time, Jason wrestled the bat away, knocking Tom across the room, but Tom said he somehow scrambled up, charged Jason and wrenched the bat back From there the details grow murkier. Tom would describe it simply as a Donnybrook, a chaotic brawl. Molly too joined the fray, at one point, grabbing a paving brick from her bedside table. Why she had a paving brick beside her bed is something we will come back to in a minute. Tom, however, insisted he never saw her strike Jason, and what of Sharon Martin's According to her, she briefly woke when Tom went upstairs, but then went back to sleep. She said she somehow slept through the entire violent struggle that followed. The children, too, were said to have slept through it all.

1:03:23 Wow. Interesting. According to Tom, the moment that he was sure that Jason was incapacitated, he reached for the phone and dialed nine to one to one. The call lasted for fourteen minutes. We're not going to play at all here, but I did want to share just a few key moments. Here is the opening of the call, Vidson County. Now when one want to steer margesty, my name is Tom Martin. I meant one sixty Panther Creek Court and we need help. Okay, what's going on there? My daughter's husband, my son in law. He's gotten a fight with my daughter. I intervened, and I think he's in bad shape. We need hill. Okay, what do you mean he's in bad shape?

1:04:11 He's heard he's leading all over and I may have killed him. He sounds like towman's having another day at the office, doesn't it like he see he sounds so. I know he's an FBI agent, so maybe he's, you know, trained to remain calm in situation. But that's what I was thinking, Like he said, I was like, well, he really sunds very calm. Yeah, but I mean he is an FBI agent, so we have to remember that. A couple of minutes into the call, the dispatcher asked Tom, what had happened? All right? Coming, what happened? Did you hit him in the head or hit him in the head with what with a baseball bat? With a baseball bat? Yes, ma'am. He was choking. He was choking my daughter. He said, I'm going to kill her.

1:04:53 Well, there we have the over explaining by the nine one one collar, which is always a bad sign. Right from there, the operator calmly walked Tom and Molly through CPR. She counted out the rhythm two beats per second, urging them to keep going until help arrived. She told them to switch off when they grew tired to keep Jason's heart pumping. About ten minutes into the call, the dispatcher addressed Molly directly, two Night. Mollie, I listened to one two four four one two four wine two. At the end of the fourteen minutes, paramedics finally arrived and took over, but almost immediately they could tell there was nothing left to be done. Jason Corbett was dead.

1:05:39 He was just thirty nine years old. When paramedics and police arrived, the scene was bloody and chaotic. Blood was everywhere, spattered across the walls and the floor, smeared on the blinds and the dresser, staining the mattress and even the lampshade. Drops trailed into the hallway and the bathroom. A vacuum cleaner had blood on it too. In the walls. Investigators later noted indentations that appeared to have been made by the bat or by the brick. Jason lay naked on the bedroom floor. His face and chest were streaked with dried, flaking blood. When a paramedic tried to tilt his head back to intubate him. He realized immediately the back of Jason's skull was crushed there was no possibility of saving him. Upstairs, his children slept through it all. Police carried Jack and Sarah from their rooms, shielding their faces from the horror as they brought them downstairs. They asked Sharon Martin's to look after them. At first glance, the bloodied bedroom might have seemed to fit Tom's account of a donnybrook a desperate struggle, but investigators quickly noticed troubling inconsistencies. First of all, timing paramedics said that Jason's body was already cool to the touch. If Tom had really called nine one one the moment that Jason was subdued, and if help had arrived only fourteen minutes later, shouldn't his body still have been warm. Similarly, much of the blood in the room was already dried or congealed, suggesting that Jason may have died earlier than claimed. Second was the injuries. Jason's wounds

1:07:09 were concentrated on the back of his head, a fact confirmed later in the autopsy. But Tom's story had been that he was facing Jason, who was holding Molly in front of him. How then, were nearly all of the blows delivered from behind Next the blood spatter, some stains and indentations on the wall were only six inches above the floor, consistent with Jason being struck as he was falling or after he was already down. Blood on the inside of the bedroom door raised another question. Had some blows been delivered before Tom entered. Tom would later say that he closed the door behind him after he entered the room, though it's unclear if that explanation came before or after. Police pointed out the blood on the back of the door. Next to Tom's clothing. His boxer shorts had blood spatter inside the lower hemp, suggesting that he had swung the bat downward at close range while standing over Jason. Lastly, the injuries or lack thereof. Despite the supposed life and death struggle, neither Tom nor Molly had so much as a scratch. Molly complained of neck pain and nausea, saying that Jason had strangled her, but photos showed only a faint red mark at the front of her neck, barely even visible. Officers even had to tell her to stop tugging and pulling at her throat, as if she were trying to create an injury. Later, they found and photographed another red mark under her ear. Her attorneys would claim it was a fingernail scratch, consistent with strangulation,

1:08:40 but still no bruising, no torn clothing, no defensive injuries on either Tom or Molly. Molly's delicate bracelet remained perfectly intact. Her pajamas were unstretched. Even with a bat and a paving stone, could a sixty seven year old man and a petite, thirty two year old woman truly subdue a two hundred fifty pound man without so much as a bruise in return? And then there was Sharon Martin's. She admitted that she woke when Tom grabbed the bat and ran upstairs after hearing screams, but then she said she simply rolled over and went back to sleep. She never called nine one one, she never went upstairs to see what was happening. For investigators, it strained all credibility. The scene told a story, but not the one that Tom and Molly were telling. The story about Sharon I think is just baffling to me, Like if you and I were sleeping in the basement of our daughter's home and we wake up, we hear a scream. I grab a bat and run upstairs. Are you just gonna roll over and go back to bed?

1:09:41 Oh? Probably not. I don't know. I think that I might be the one that grabs the baseball back. You don't wake up very quickly, so you might still be sleeping. I would roll over right, got this? That could be. After the bloody scene was processed, both Tom and Molly were taken to the police station for questioning. They were interviewed separately, but their stories lined up almost perfectly except for one detail. Tom insisted he never saw Molly hit Jason with the paving brick. As for why she had a paving brick on her nightstand in the first place, Molly told investigators that she and the children had been planning to paint bricks to place around the mailbox. That doesn't make sense, No, it really doesn't. They're planning on painting the bricks, but you only have one on your night yeah.

1:10:28 And why is it in your bedroom? We'll talk about it making part two. But whenever they did arts and crafts, it was in the kitchen, So why in. The bedroom when a brick is really hard to paint too. Yeah, that part I don't doubt because other neighbors had done the same thing, and I guess they were planning to do that, so I think it was their plan to do that. But why there was one brick in the bedroom doesn't make a lot of sense. Tom with thirty years in the FBI, knew what an interrogation looked like and how to handle one. On the nine to one one call, he had sounded steady, almost detached. In the interview room, he was the same calm, collected and careful with his words, as if he was trying to shape the narrative. From the start, Molly was more emotional.

1:11:11 Her first concern was what would happen to Jack and Sarah. Through tears, she told Lieutenant Detective Wanda Thompson, I'm scared they'll try and take the kids. Have you adopted the kids? Thompson asked. Molly shook her head. Then that's a real possibility, Thompson replied. Molly broke down sobbing, but I've raised them. As the interview wound down, Detective Thompson tried to reassure her, quote at this point, after talking to your dad and talking to you, it looks like this is going to be self defense. Okay, I don't think there's going to be any issue with that. Now. Whether Thompson truly believed that or was simply trying to put Molly at ease in hopes that she would let her guard down is unclear to me. What is clear is this, by the end of that night, Jason Corbett was dead and Tom and Molly Martin's were walking free, but the investigation had just begun. And that is where we're going to end part one.

1:12:05 That's a real cliffhanger. Rich, Well, that's. How we do things, you know, keep people coming back for part two. But I definitely think you should come back for part two because it's really interesting. I took my calendar. Okay. I know a lot of people sleep naked, but I think when you have young children and the children might come into the room when they're having a nightmare. Is that weird or is. That just me being well, I'm actually glad you brought that up, because I don't know how Jason slept, whether he normally slept without his clothes, but his family members, which again I don't know how they know or whether they know, they said that he never slept naked like that. That wouldn't be like him. And especially if you have guests in the house, right. Yeah, it does seem like you would probably it seems Yeah, it seems unusual to me.

1:12:48 But could he have been getting out of the shower and that's when the attack started? Yeah? Possibly. Well, let me ask you a couple of questions. So Jason clearly had doubts about Molly early on, but they he still moved forward the relationship and the move to North Carolina. We talked about it a little bit. But do you think that he felt trapped by her or do you think he was just desperate to give his kids stability. It seemed like he really wanted his children to have a mother, and it sounded like he did love Molly and she was good to them in the beginning. Yeah, I think so. And I think when he found out about her mental health struggles, I think that made him want to help her too, and so he maybe there may have been a little bit of denial there, like, yeah, I can help her through this and we'll work through it together.

1:13:36 We've been doing this podcast for almost three years, and if there's one thing that I would want people to know is trust your gut. If you're early on in a relationship and you're already seeing those red flags, yeah, and you know, get out of there before you're in too deep, and yeah, so much harder to you know. And if you're living together or you're engaged or married and you have children to it's just the longer you're together, the harder it is right to end things. And it's not going to be good for your kids if this relationship is going to be bad. So don't sound so idealistic saying it, though, I know it's harder in practice. But yeah, I can't imagine if I were ever to date again, which I'm not planning on, it would I would just be impossible to I mean I'm already impossible, but you know what I mean, it would be really hard to find someone to trust. Oh yeah, not see all those red flags.

1:14:25 Yeah, absolutely so, based on the crime scene, based on what we've talked about, you know, one of the challenges in a case like this is all you have to go on is what Molly and Tom have said. Jason's not there to tell his story, so but based on the crime scene and what you've heard, what do you think actually happened that night. What's your best guess? I guess, well, like I said just a minute ago, the fact that he was naked made me think that maybe he was attacked once he was getting out of the shower. You know, maybe I don't know his schedule, but you know, maybe he took a shower at night and you know, then he was coming into the bedroom and she was ready, and you know, maybe she hit him with the brick first. But it's such a gruesome scene and you can't but help compare this to your own life. And you know, if that situation happened, and you know, my dad was in the house and we were arguing, I would think that once you saw him, you would stud. You wouldn't say I'm going to kill you in front of my dad, you would be it would it would quell be argument right way.

1:15:25 I would think, Yeah, I think that whole story just it just doesn't add up to me. The thing I struggle with the most is how was Tom involved in this? Because you know, I'm not going to help my daughter kill someone unless I mean, if I really had to and I felt like her life was in danger, of course I would sit you backpedaling, But not if it was like a premeditated thing, of course not so. I just wonder like, did she did Molly attack Jason with the brick and then did Tom come running up without knowing? And it's hard to believe that the father would be complicit the plan to murder anyone, especially being a law enforcement agent. Maybe Molly knew that her parents were there and it was an opportunity where I don't know, or maybe she did the overkill. I don't know. Maybe her dad helped. I can't see him agreeing to killing Jason, but maybe.

1:16:16 Help covering him. That was what I was thinking too, is that maybe he came up, saw what she had done and then helped her cover it up. He didn't have the baseball bat. Maybe I don't know, But Molly, you said that she's a smaller woman. I haven't seen a picture of her. Yeah, I think that the first I think she struck him with the paver when he was in bed asleep. I think that's what started it. But again that doesn't explain if he didn't sleep on clothes. But yeah, it's really hard to know what happened. The one thing I will say, well, I'll mention this in part two, but the paving brick had blood on all four sides of it, so which led investigators to believe that he was struck more than once with that paving brick. So it wasn't just a one time thing.

1:16:57 Brutal. Really, it's really horrible, horrible scene. Remind us again of the name of the documentary you watched and where can we find it. It is called A Deadly American Marriage and it is on Netflix. How many parts is it? It's just one. It's like, I think an hour and a half. Okay, maybe I'll watch that. When Michigan came this on, Lady. Yeah, you definitely should watch it. I think I think it would be really good for you. It'll be interesting to have the perspective of you telling me the story and then seeing Netflix. Yeah and yeah. As we mentioned at the beginning, a nice listener made a Reddit post about us, and as a result of that, we've got some new listeners. On the last episode, at the end, you asked me that James Lipton inside the actors studio questions. I thought it would be good for me to ask you some questions. Not the same type of questions. These are more get to know Tina questions for new listeners.

1:17:58 Much as they need to know to. Know, I don't think they do. So these are these aren't hard questions. These are a little easier. But I want to start with, what is your favorite movie of all time? I don't know that's impossible to answer, Oh it's not. I really love Bridesmaids a lot. I love to laugh. I love that. You know, you can watch a movie and you can be having a bad day. But yeah, you know, that movie always makes me laugh. And I am not a person who likes to watch the same movies over and over. Yeah, I tend to watch something once and I don't need to watch it again. I like to be exposed to new things. But I have watched Bridesmaids probably twenty times, and it still makes me laugh. And I really love it. And you know, like I said, it's a great movie that's not typical for me.

1:18:38 Yeah, whenever it's on TV, it's like, oh, yeah, it's one of those threes you gotta stop and watch. To me, that movie is magical. It used to be better off dead for you, I. Used to Yeah. John Cusack was my first boyfriend, my first love. Yeah, not really, I mean I really used to love him, but now I don't love him as much as I used to. But yeah, I used to when I was like young, that was my favorite movie. Or I loved The Man with Two Brains with Steve Martin. Really just silly. But I like, you know, scary movies and silly movies. I love The Ice Storm. I don't know, there's a lot of movies I love. Well, I've got more questions, so don't don't go on too long about each one. What is your favorite book of all time?

1:19:20 I mean you're asking some questions that are like impossible. I love. I mean, you know I love books. I love I know you do. I don't think I could give you a favorite book of all time. They just like every year I might have a favorite. I'll just pick one of a book that you love, that you've read relatively recently that I. Have to consult my good Reads. Well, somewhat recently. I think when we were on vacation, I finished a book called Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall. I rated that five stars. I enjoyed that very much. And I think I've talked about the God of the Woods. I really loved that book. He read that that was one of the best things I've read. Like, if you asked me my favorite book, I would say I, I really love that one's I'm so busy right now that it's hard to find the time to read books and or to want like I used to love to like sit I would read two books a week. And yeah, because we're so busy with the podcast reading books, I don't have time to do that anymore. And I miss like being so engaged in a book that I don't want to put it down.

1:20:20 Yeah, so I'm in a little bit of a reading slump myself. It's not that I don't have time. I just feel like, I mean, you're having hard time focus. Just said you read three books for this case. So no, you're well, and you have a demanding full time job and a demanding full time wife. So, speaking of vacations, what was the best vacation you've ever taken? And why? I mean, every day with you, my darling, sweet, handsome husband, is like a vacation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know. I think every time we go away, I feel very fortunate that we always have a good time together, whether it's us or with our kids. I mean, I'm not a Disney adult. But I really love Disney. I would love to go back. It's been a long time. Maybe it would be fun to go now, like without the kids.

1:21:02 Yeah, we should, but I don't. I don't know. What's your favorite vacation. You're not answering these questions. I'm sorry, I'm being not reciprocal, right, I know we're going We could go on and on. My favorite vacation I think was the two weeks we took where we drove. It was like a huge road. We flew to Las Vegas, but then we drove like all it. Was a lovely trip. Yeah, we went up California, Yosemite. It was really an amazing trip, long, nice two week vacation. Yeah, and we got to see your sister and brother in law and yeah, it was a really nice time. Our kids are good travelers and that's we've been really lucky with that too. Yeah, we're your favorite book on movie? Really quick?

1:21:42 Oh my favorite book? This is going to be a total cliche, but probably a catcher in the ryde just because I remember like reading that when I was sixteen and just fell in love with it. Favorite movie is a tough one. It varies from day to day. Today I will say Good Fellas is probably right up there. So Jane Ayre also is my cavorite. I love Jane Eyre and Gone with the Wind actually was you've never read it before. It kind of holds up on East of eden By. I'm gonna myself sound literary. She's so fancy, but those are all really great books that. Well that I'm gonna throw in Weathering Heights then, because that's one of my favorite kind of in the class. I have a couple more questions for you, So again, speaking of vacations, we talked about vacation Jason, what is vacation Tina like? What is vacation Tina like? And how is vacation Tina different?

1:22:31 Vacation Tina is really boring. She used to be a lot more fun, but now she's just like, just leave me alone, let me sleep in. I don't know. I like to have some good sandwiches. We're planning a trip in a in October and I'm really just thinking about a sandwich in Traverse City. Do you know? And you know what I'm talking about talk about? Yeah, So I don't know. I think I'll have like one drink at dinner and I'll be fine. Yeah, So I don't know. I think I'm a little boring right now, what do you think? Well, I'm not not that different, really, I just for me, like being on vacation is about just feeling free and relaxed and unencumbered by worries and just being able to chill out and you know, just not worry about stuff.

1:23:18 I definitely did that when we took a week I thought that was actually a really great trip. Yeah. I had a good time, and I did disconnect from social media, and for me, I guess that would be one thing that I'm trying to do, and especially on weekends or vacations, I'm just because it really does get kind of stressful. So yeah, all right. My last question for you is a deep one. Okay, what is your definition of success? Oh? God, I am not motivated by success, as you can tell if you listen to this podcast, because I'm like. Well, your definition may just be different from. Other happiness just being happy and liking yourself and being at peace and having people you love in your life. To me, it's that's what it's about. It's not about although you know, for me to answer that question is also somewhat entitled because we're not rich, but we're comfortable financially so that gives me like a you know, a different when we're older. So I can answer that question, you know what I'm saying.

1:24:16 Yeah, you're in a position where. They don't have to say, oh, I, you know, because we're already financially secure, right, So I'm grateful for those things. Yeah, and what about you? To me, success is if we have a million people listen to this episode. I'm just kidding now. I feel very similarly to you. I mean, and I think a lot of people feel the same. But I think the way I want to think about it is that it's more about the journey than a destination. It's not like, oh yeah, if I could get to this point, then I'll feel successful. To me, it's just, you know, feeling like you're on a journey, you've got goals, you're moving in a direction, and you feel some sense of happening.

1:24:57 We're goal oriented that I am. Oh, I definitely am a little bit goal oriented, like I do think I would. I don't know. I have to have something that I'm working toward. But that makes me happy. So that makes me feel kind of successful that I have something like that. That always makes me feel a little inadequate because I'm you know, I've never had like a great career or whatever, and I just kind of just want to be a free spirit and enjoy the journey. Well, I mean, you've had a great career as a mom raising two great kids, so well, that's. Nice to be to say. It's funny how we just get these microphones in front of us and we just bear our souls and answering questions that no one's asking.

1:25:37 I learned a lot about you today, so that's all we did you. I don't think I learned anything too new, but it's always nice to hear your thoughts on you know it is. It is nice to have like a more introspective talk with your partner because we don't do that so much. I think our listeners have learned a little bit more about Tina as well, and I'm sure they appreciate that. Sorry, I can't see any where's my eyes are rolled up into the back of the school. Well, thank you so much for sticking with us. Definitely come back for part two. If you'd like to listen to part two right now, you can join us on Patreon dot com. Slash Love Marykill. You can subscribe, it's five dollars a month. You get early ad free access and a monthly bonus episode. Or you can just buy part two. It's three dollars just to buy and listen to part two.

1:26:21 And you do that on patreon dot com slash Lovemrykill. Yeah. And by the way, just so you know, we Patreon doesn't allow us to make the episode any less expensive than three dollars per episode, and they also do a charge if you buy it on your iPhone, So on the iPhone it's four dollars and fifty cents. Oh so if you listen on your MacBook or whatever. Yeah, so we don't have any control over that, so apologies, but we would love it if you joined us on Patreon one way or another. We can not just slam Patreon, but Patreon is not the most user friendly app now, so if you need help once you become a member, feel free to message us. Yeah, and also find us on YouTube. We're out there. We're slowly growing, slowly growing, So if you're on YouTube, it would be amazing if you wanted to subscribe, and we always drop the episodes a day early on YouTube. Well, please rate, review, follow and subscribe, find us on social media, or send us an email at lovemarykilat gmail dot com and if you listen on Spotify, if you want to leave us a comment. We always love to hear what you guys are thinking about the episodes or our banter before the episode or after the episode. We love that you are a part of our show and you make it better and you make us better.

1:27:34 Until next time, don't kill your husband and don't kill your wife. Compat