Latest news with #MollyMartens
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
I woke up in my childhood bedroom with the house full of police and covered in blood - what my stepmother had done turned my life upside-down
A young woman has spoken out about her stepmother's violent killing of her father - which saw her wake up to her childhood home full of police and covered in blood. Sarah Corbett Lynch, 18, appeared on This Morning today, sitting down with presenters Ben Shepherd, 50, and Cat Deeley, 48, to tell all about her experience. It came after a documentary about her ordeal, titled A Deadly American Marriage, was released on Netflix last month, which she features in. She has also written a memoir, called A Time For Truth, about her experience, which came out earlier this year. Her appearance on the ITV chat show saw her recall the night of her father Jason Corbett's death in August 2015, at the hands of his wife Molly Martens and her father Thomas Martens. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Sarah explained to Ben and Cat: 'I remember everything from that night.' She recalled being woken up by a kind police officer, who gave her two options: 'I could walk down the stairs backwards with my eyes closed or he could carry me down the stairs with my eyes closed.' The house was full with the sound of police officers - which fell suddenly silent when they reached the bottom of the stairs: 'There were dozens of people inside the house... 'As he carried me down the stairs, he covered my face with his hand and put my head in the nape of his neck.' He was shielding her from the grisly, violent scene that lay below - Jason, then 39, had been beaten to death by Molly and her former FBI agent father. Sarah said: 'I'm extremely lucky for the fact that he did that and I couldn't have asked for a better officer to have been there with me.' Originally from Ireland, Sarah was born to businessman Jason and his first wife Margaret Fitzpatrick, known as Mags - who sadly died when Sarah was just twelve weeks old. The widower, then 32, hired American 24-year-old Molly as a live-in nanny two years later to take care of Sarah and her older brother Jack, then aged one and three. Jason and Molly (pictured, in an old picture shown in the Netflix documentary) soon fell in love, marrying in 2011, with the whole family relocating from Limerick, Ireland, to North Carolina in the US when Sarah was just four Jason and Molly soon fell in love, marrying in 2011, with the whole family relocating from Limerick, Ireland, to North Carolina in the US when Sarah was just four. Sarah said the move was 'really exciting at the beginning... The weather was great, the houses were huge and I remember running around my new bedroom, really excited. 'And Molly and my dad hand in hand picking out furniture and pointing where they were going to put it, so at the beginning, it was like a new beginning. 'She cooked us dinner, my dad would take us to school and she'd collect us.' But things soon turned sour: 'Most of my memories looking back on it now, it probably wasn't a healthy relationship. 'Molly was very manipulative and would pit me and Jack against each other.' She explained: 'If Jack did good at a swim meet, he was the favourite child and she would give him all of the glory and then I would be "the little shrimp", as she used to call me, when I didn't do well in swimming.' Sarah added: 'Molly started telling me that my dad killed my birth mum when I was six years old. She told me my dad was a bad man. 'Molly also taught me that vomiting was OK to keep myself skinny for swimming when I was six and that shoplifting was OK.' The atmosphere at home 'was always tense', with Sarah always feeling 'a ball of anxiety': 'But it was our normal.' She emphasised: 'My dad was always extremely loving to me and Jack and he did try his best with Molly, bringing her flowers home. 'It was really difficult to keep Molly happy and if you didn't, you knew about it.' Following their father's death, Sarah and Jack were soon called in for interviews. But Molly told them beforehand: 'We had to say dad was a bad man and he hit her and if we didn't say those things, we would be separated and we'd never see each other again. 'So, we were really scared and we lied - I told social workers that Molly told me my dad hit her and Molly told me my dad was a bad man.' The siblings recanted those statements just weeks later - but they were nevertheless brought up in court, which saw Molly and her father Tom have their charges dropped from second-degree murder to voluntary manslaughter. They were both released from prison in June 2024. Molly, now 41, and Thomas, 75, still say they killed in self-defence, amid a pattern of abusive, threatening behaviour from Jason towards Molly. Sarah said: 'We have to live with the fact that words we said are part of the reason why the Martens are walking free today.' And her memoir was a chance to tell the truth: 'We didn't have a voice. I wasn't allowed to give evidence. I wasn't allowed to be a character witness. 'I was under a gag order so I couldn't even talk to my friends or family or media. 'And it was extremely difficult because you can't defame the dead so the Martens could say anything about my dad.' It was difficult to hear this 'completely fabricated narrative about my dad's personality': 'That really shows the character of the people that the Martens are.' After their father's death, Sarah and Jack moved back to Ireland to live with their aunt and uncle Tracey and David, who she now calls her parents. Sarah described it as 'the best thing that happened to me... I was put into a safe family environment and I was extremely lucky. 'Tracey and David took us in like we were their own kids. They have never treated us differently. They have two of their own sons who I now call my brothers. 'And another thing was they never said a bad thing about the Martens.' It was to the extent that several years ago, Sarah said: 'I was begging Tracey to say something negative about Molly and she said, "I don't like that woman, she killed my brother", and that was it.' Molly and Thomas's initial convictions, for second-degree murder, in 2017 - for which they were sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison - were overturned in 2020, over errors in and omission of evidence. The Martens reached a plea deal in October 2023 to drop the second-degree murder charges, with Molly pleading no contest and Thomas guilty to voluntary manslaughter - getting a minimum of 51 months in prison and credit for time served. Sarah and Jack had had no contact with them up to this point - 'other than Molly trying to fly planes over our school and going on social media, trying to contact friends of mine I sat next to in school'. But it was then Sarah was finally able to contribute to the evidence process, reading out a victim impact statement. She said: 'I wasn't afraid of them anymore. They had taken up so much space in my life and I didn't want to give them the power over me anymore. 'I've cried a lot less since writing the book because I took all of my childhood trauma and everything bad that happened to me and put it into it.' She finished: 'People who are going through similar, really difficult situations, know that: you will be able to find the light at the end of the tunnel and have a normal life. 'Everybody has good and bad days, whether they've been through traumatic experiences or not.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
Sarah Corbett Lynch of A Deadly American Marriage Is Finding Her Voice—and Won't Stop Using It
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by Glamour editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission. Mobius Sarah Corbett Lynch was working at the pool where she teaches swimming to kids recently when she noticed one of her young charges was struggling. The young boy is in foster care, and had taken a shining to the 18-year-old teacher. Through conversations with his foster mom, Lynch learned the past few weeks had been particularly tough. So, she went to her locker, where she happened to have a copy of Noodle Loses Dad, the children's book she wrote at age 13 to help other kids deal with the loss of a parent. When she later saw the boy, she could tell that having a story about the hard experience he was going through had helped him not feel so alone. For Lynch, this small anecdote highlights what she's all about. 'I want to help other kids and other young adults who have been through really difficult circumstances and want to see a light at the end of the tunnel,' she tells me over Zoom. The difficult circumstances that Lynch and her family went through a decade ago are now ones that millions more people know about. In August 2015, Lynch's stepmother, Molly Martens, and her father, Tom Martens, killed her father, Jason Corbett, in their North Carolina home. The long and shocking court case that followed is now the subject of a new Netflix documentary A Deadly American Marriage, which has rocketed up the streamer's charts since being released on May 9. When investigators arrived at the scene following Corbett's killing, Molly and Tom Martens said the killing had been self-defense. They claimed that Corbett, a native of Ireland who had moved to his wife's home country a few years prior, had been physically abusing his wife and had attempted to strangle her to death that night, before being found by his father-in-law. However, doubts were raised at the trial over the brutality of the crime and lies Molly Martens had told about other aspects of their relationship, and in 2017, the pair were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to decades in prison. However, the convictions were overturned on appeal, and in 2023 Molly Martens pleaded no contest and her father pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Ultimately, the pair were released from prison less than a year later. While Sarah and her older brother Jack, then 8 and 10, initially corroborated Molly Martens' claims of abuse, they later said they had been coached by their stepmother and she, in fact, had been subjecting them to coercive control and physical and emotional abuse. But while videos of their initial statements were played during the sentencing phase of the Martens' plea deal in 2023, the siblings never got to refute them in court or share the reality of what they had experienced. It was this feeling of being silenced that led the siblings to want to participate in the documentary and for Lynch to begin to work on a memoir about her experience. The book, A Time for Truth, was coincidentally released just a few months before the documentary. 'I believe that it was premeditated,' Lynch says of her dad's killing. 'I believe that Molly planned it and that Tom covered it up. I believe this because I lived in the house and I was there and all of the evidence points to premeditation. But that's not the convictions they have and there's nothing I can do about that. That was a really hard pill to swallow. But I think in everything that we've been through, a lesson we've learned is that you can't get upset about things you can't control…Then the book idea came to my head. That felt like I was getting justice for myself and for my dad and for my brother more than I ever could in a courtroom.' Glamour spoke with Lynch about how she plans to help other survivors and what she wants the world to know about her dad. : The documentary has now been out for two weeks, how are you feeling about the reception and how you were portrayed? Sarah Corbett Lynch: I've been quite happy. I was happy with my contribution and it does feel like a certain amount of weight has been lifted off my shoulders that people are hearing us now and can understand it. I suppose people could ask 'why did you do the documentary?' And it wasn't really a choice. It felt like something we were compelled to do because we never knew what way it was going to go in America. I didn't know whether they were going to get convictions or not. I wanted to get my dad's truth and my truth on as many platforms as possible because my words have been twisted and used against me and my dad's truth was twisted. It's been really important for me and my family to have my dad remembered for the person that he was. How did you and your family, including your paternal aunt and uncle who raised you, Tracey Corbett-Lynch and David Lynch, decide to participate? There was a lot of discussion. We all sat down and spoke about it. At the end of the day we thought if we don't partake in this, it's going to go ahead anyways. We would like to have our voices heard in it. And there were two strong women producers who were extremely sensitive throughout the entire process, especially because of me and Jack's ages. We were both minors when it started. I do believe that it shows our characters in the way that we are. Have you seen the response online at all? How has navigating that been? A few times I've been scrolling on TikTok or it comes up about someone's opinion or what they're thinking. But people have been quite sensitive as well about it. There was even one girl on TikTok saying that reminding people that me and Jack are on TikTok, so be careful of what you guys are saying. That's really nice to see that people aren't just looking at it as a true crime documentary. They're actually seeing the people behind the story and that is what we wanted. Are there any misconceptions about the case you'd like to clear up? I think a lot of people forget that anyone can be abused and anyone could be an abuser. My dad was abused, I was abused, and Jack was abused by a woman. It's really important for people to understand that nobody, whether their gender, age, race, sexuality, nobody should be able to affect your life negatively. Nobody should be able to control you. Nobody should be able to force you to do these things that you want to do. I think a lot of people get confused about me and Jack's evidence that we gave to social workers and ask us, 'oh, well, how did they coach you in three days?' But Molly had been in my ear since I was four years old. When I was six, Molly started telling me that my dad killed my birth mom. She had taught me how to vomit and how to shoplift, and I thought those things were okay. And yes, she did sit me down before I went into these interviews and told me if I didn't say this, I didn't say this, that I'd never see her again and that I'd be taken away and I'd be separated from Jack. But I knew what to say before she even told me because someone I loved and trusted was telling me to lie about someone else I loved and trusted and they were calling it the truth. What are some things that you wish viewers could know that they didn't see in the documentary? I think the only way to answer that would be to read A Time For Truth, because there's so much evidence out there. When I think about it, it just makes me so upset that it was never heard in court. I think that's probably the hardest thing about writing the book was seeing all of the evidence put together and asking how are the Martens' walking free right now? So I would love it if people read the book and actually tried to understand the facts because there's nothing that I say or that Tracey says in her book My Brother Jason that isn't backed up by facts and by evidence. Your book details a lot more of your experience of the coercive control and abuse you dealt with while living with Molly in North Carolina. You write that you watched her shoplift as a child, saw her physically abuse your brother, and began making yourself throw up due to pressure she placed on you. How did you decide to share these personal and painful experiences? It was difficult. What I thought about was that other girl or that other kid or that other woman who is experiencing that. They could connect and be like, 'okay, I'm not the only one.' I think it's important to note that there's so many people out there that are experiencing really difficult times and challenges right now, and those are the people that I want to understand aren't alone. There's always somebody out there that's willing to help you. I think it's important that people understand the signs of coercive control, because sometimes you don't know you're in it until it's happened or you don't know how bad it is until something extremely bad happens. I didn't know what coercive control was until about three years ago, and it was only through therapy that I realized that's what was happening to me for so long. And I think in the book, vomiting, shoplifting and everything in it shows people the actual true picture of all of the different mind games that were happening between all of us. And it was like we were all living under this roof, but had completely different lives. That must have been really challenging to unspool as well. Yeah. I think writing the book was also a type of therapy for me. I remember my dad, David, asked me, 'How do you feel about writing the book?' And my first answer was, 'I've cried a lot less because I got to take all of the worst things that's happened to me in my life, put them into one funnel and look at it and write it and rewrite it and read it and write it and rewrite it.' And it gave me a chance to actually forgive that little girl for saying those things. And to say that I'm very proud of her and I hope she's proud of me. You also share many lovely memories of your dad in the book. I loved one anecdote you shared of going for a walk in Ireland, and getting stuck in the rain and finding a cave to hide out in. And then, after his death when you moved home, you coincidentally found yourself in the same cave. My dad was everything and it was the same for Jack. That memory is my favorite memory of my dad, my most favorite. I was in Spanish Point, where that happened, only a few days ago with my friends, and I remember it was my birth mom's birthday. And I remember thinking to myself, 'I actually wouldn't be anywhere else if my parents were alive, I would be here with them.' And it was a really nice feeling. I knew that I was where I belonged, this is where I should be. For so long, because I moved so much growing up, I never felt like I belonged here until I was in the care of Tracey and David. And I love that people are really enjoying my dad's memories. I think people really relate to them. So many children, unfortunately, experience abuse or trauma at home. What would you say to encourage them? I think as a kid who's giving evidence and talking to police, it's really hard because no one believes you. What I've learned is that you have to know the truth and be okay with that. I also think that you have a voice, no matter how many people tell you, you can't. You're too young. I wasn't allowed to give evidence. I wasn't allowed to be a character witness. I wasn't allowed to testify. I was told that I probably shouldn't do the book because what would people say? But I believed I knew the truth. I was there and I wanted people to hear me. And that's why I chose to do the audiobook as well, because I wanted people to actually hear me say all of those things. I think a lot of people have come back to say that I was really glad that it was you who was actually speaking. They felt like they were actually talking to me. And it was really important to me that people understand that it wasn't one night in August, 2015, it was years and years. You write in the book about how Molly, a former competitive swimmer, coached you and your brother in swimming and pressured you to succeed to the point where you hated the sport. But now, you're a swim instructor and a certified diver, and want to pursue diving full time post college as a career. How did you repair your relationship with swimming? I had a very, I want to say, toxic relationship with swimming. Molly was obsessive. She had me in the gym at six years of age. She had me on a diet. It got to a stage where I was making myself sick to stay skinny at the age of seven, and I hated it. I hated swimming so much because Jack was really, really good at it and he was so talented and came easy to him. And Molly just bullied me every time I did bad or every time I didn't win I came back to Ireland and in our school system you have to do swimming lessons. And so I went to swimming lessons and they were shocked because I was really good compared to most of the kids in my class, and I liked that. I love being in the water. I just didn't like when people asked me to freestyle or…I just didn't like the competitiveness of it. Then I started working in the pool and a few of my friends were doing their lifeguard course. So I was like, I'll do mine. And I made really good friends in it, so I was like, okay, I want to do my swim teacher's course. Now, I don't think there's been a day in, I think about four weeks that I haven't been in the water. I find swimming and diving, it's my therapy. I go under the water. I can't bring my phone, can't bring work emails, can't bring friend drama. I can't bring anything other than myself and the only person I have to worry about is myself unless I'm teaching. It's just about you, that big tank on your back and looking at a load of fish. If you could tell viewers of the documentary anything that they should take away from your story or how you're doing now, what is something that you would share? I would definitely like to share how appreciative I am for all the lovely messages. I've been inundated the last few weeks and I've been trying to get back to everybody. I really am trying my best. I think that it is a saying that's probably way overused, but it's so true. There always is light at the end of the tunnel and you have a voice. I found mine and there's absolutely nothing stopping anybody from finding theirs. Originally Appeared on Glamour
Irish Independent
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Sarah Corbett believes the killing of her father Jason was recorded on a listening device
A Deadly American Marriage' is the #1 Netflix show in Ireland and across the world. It tells the story of how Irish man Jason Corbett was savagely beaten to death by his second wife, Molly Martens, and her father Tom in 2015. Molly was originally a nanny for Jason's two children, Jack and Sarah, after their mother Mags tragically died following an asthma attack. Jason and Molly got married in 2011 and relocated from Limerick to North Carolina in America. He was the breadwinner, while she was the doting stepmother. But a new Netflix documentary has recast the story as a 'Deadly American Marriage' telling how the former cheerleader and her father, a former FBI agent, bludgeoned Jason to death in his bedroom with a baseball bat and a brick. Multiple legal cases have followed, and while admitting to the killing, the Martens are already free from prison. Jason's daughter Sarah Corbett joined Kevin Doyle on the Indo Daily podcast to try and make sense of how she's feeling now that the whole world is watching her life story. Sarah recounts stories of how Molly Martens taught her 'how to vomit', told her that 'shoplifting was okay' and how she believes the killing of her father was recorded 'on a listening device.'
Sunday World
20-05-2025
- Sunday World
‘Recording of my dad's killing is missing' – Jason Corbett's daughter speaks out
Sarah Corbett Lynch discusses life with Molly Martens and explains her reasons for talking to Netflix documentary The daughter of Jason Corbett believes her father's killing was recorded using one of the devices Molly Martens kept in their North Carolina home. Mr Corbett died in a fatal assault carried out by his wife Molly and her father Tom Martens in 2015. The father and daughter were released from prisons in the US last year having served four years and three months for the voluntary manslaughter of the Limerick father of two. In an interview with the Indo Daily podcast, Sarah Corbett Lynch said Molly Martens confirmed a device had been put on her nightstand in the new Netflix documentary about the killing of Mr Corbett, A Deadly American Marriage. Ms Corbett Lynch said this corroborates something she has said 'for years and years' about the presence of the device in the room. 'Jack [Ms Corbett Lynch's brother] said it in his victim-impact statement that he saw a recording device in a ziplock baggie in Bobby Martens's house a few days after my dad was killed, and Molly says on Netflix, she corroborates that there was a recording device in their bedroom on her nightstand,' she said. 'But do you know, that just begs the question, where is that recording device?' Asked whether she believes her father's killing was recorded, she said: 'I believe it was and I also believe that it was premeditated. There's so much evidence that points to premeditation, but that's not the conviction that they have.' Ms Corbett Lynch, whose book A Time For Truth was published earlier this year, said she agreed to do the documentary as for many years, she 'didn't have a voice', adding: 'I wanted to tell the truth about my dad, and I wanted to tell the truth about the story and what truly happened inside of our home.' On the involvement of the Martens in the series, she said she understood that 'both sides of the story' should be shown, but that 'the Martens showed their true character in it and I believe we showed ours.' The programme makes it clear that the Martens had 'no remorse and no regret', she said. 'After my dad was killed by them, nobody asked me was I OK. Nobody said, 'I'm sorry that you lost your dad',' she added. Nobody actually said bye to us or hugged us or anything 'Molly acted like she got a new lease of life and even when we were taken away by social services, Molly curled up in a ball and started crying and her family gathered around her. 'Nobody actually said bye to us or hugged us or anything. We just got put into the back of a van and taken away.' Molly Martens and Jason Corbett. Photo: Brendan O'Callaghan/Netflix She said it was difficult to watch a scene in the Netflix series where her older brother described how Molly Martens prevented his sister from having a full relationship with their father. Molly made it really difficult for me and Jack to be close 'I think that was probably one of the hardest for me to watch as well, but it was also quite nice to see that Jack could see my pain that I didn't get that relationship,' she said. 'Molly made it really difficult for me and Jack to be close and we've had to work really hard together to gain the relationship that we have now. 'He was sitting next to me when we watched that and he gave me a hug, as he was saying it on the screen he was sitting next to me holding my hand and giving me a hug, and it was a nice moment that we understood each other.' Martens, who treated her like 'her little doll', would get 'very upset' when she spent time with her father and attempted to isolate her from family members through 'a lot of coercive control'. 'Molly started teaching me how to vomit and told me shoplifting was OK. There was a lot of things that she got in my head and started whispering in my ear from a really young age,' she said. Molly Martens. Photo: AP She said she received a new dress at the age of six or seven that she showed Martens's mother, Sharon. 'I was dancing around showing her the new dress and Sharon looked me dead in the eye and told me that I looked fat in the dress,' she said. 'Molly was very conscious of her weight. She was making herself sick, and I had seen her doing it and she showed me how to do it, and she told me it would keep me skinny for swimming and I could swim faster.' On whether she believed Martens loved her, she said: 'I think Molly loved the idea of me and Jack. She loved control and she could control us, and I think that's what she loved.' She said Martens even went to the extent of attempting to 'hire a plane from Shannon Airport' with her phone number on it to fly over their school in Limerick. She said Martens's appearance on an Irish radio station was hard for her family as 'Ireland is a very safe space for us'.
Irish Independent
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
The Indo Daily: Why Sarah Corbett believes the killing of her father Jason was recorded on a listening device
It tells the story of how Irish man Jason Corbett was savagely beaten to death by his second wife, Molly Martens, and her father Tom in 2015. Molly was originally a nanny for Jason's two children, Jack and Sarah, after their mother Mags tragically died following an asthma attack. Jason and Molly got married in 2011 and relocated from Limerick to North Carolina in America. He was the breadwinner, while she was the doting stepmother. But a new Netflix documentary has recast the story as a 'Deadly American Marriage' telling how the former cheerleader and her father, a former FBI agent, bludgeoned Jason to death in his bedroom with a baseball bat and a brick. Multiple legal cases have followed, and while admitting to the killing, the Martens are already free from prison. Jason's daughter Sarah Corbett joined Kevin Doyle on the Indo Daily podcast to try and make sense of how she's feeling now that the whole world is watching her life story. Sarah recounts stories of how Molly Martens taught her 'how to vomit', told her that 'shoplifting was okay' and how she believes the killing of her father was recorded 'on a listening device.'
