[EPISODE 110] A Deadly American Marriage: Piecing Together Jason Corbett’s Final Weeks

Adam Cox: [00:00:00] One of the officers told Sarah that they needed to leave the house and that he was going to take her downstairs she chose to be carried, and as he did, the officer held her close, gently pressing her head into his shoulder to stop her from seeing the blood splattered and stained walls.

Kyle Risi: Oh my God.

Adam Cox: Sarah and Jack remained confused. Their stepmother, Molly Martins looked distressed. It was shortly after this that Molly told the kids what had happened, that she and their father had gotten into a fight.

And when she pushed him away, he hid his head and died. Oh, the dads died. ,

to the children , it sounded like a tragic accident. but for any adult at the scene, there was plenty that didn't add up.

This wasn't a typical domestic violence case. There's something much sadder and more sinister at play.

[00:01:00] Welcome to the Compendium, an Assembly of Fascinating things, a weekly variety podcast that gives you just enough information to stand your ground at any social gathering.

Kyle Risi: We explore stories from the darker corners of true crime, the hidden gems of history, and the jaw dropping deeds of extraordinary people. I am Adam Cox, your ringmaster for this episode, and I'm your co-host, Kyle Reese, your resident

confetti compliance officer for this week, the most critical role in the entire circus, Adam, I doubt that, but go on. Okay. So without me. The whole place would be literally bankrupt by Tuesday especially now with shrink inflation and inflation and deflation and everything, it's like it's going outta control.

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Kyle Risi: No, not terrible roles, Adam. When you focus on the minor details. This is how you survive in this economy. That's why there's no circuses around these days,

Adam Cox: right? Because they're not hiring glitter people.

Kyle Risi: They're not hiring essential team members to make sure the longevity and success of the circus. That's me. Okay.

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Kyle Risi: Alright, freaks. That's enough. The housekeeping. Adam, you're in the driving seat today. What have you got for us?

Adam Cox: today, Kyle, we are diving into a seemingly happy romance. A tale of a perfect family, a beautiful home, and the night everything unraveled in blood. Oh, interesting. So it's the 2nd of August, 2015 when Sarah and Jack Corbett age eight and 10 were awoken by police officers. They were confused.

One of the officers told [00:05:00] Sarah that they needed to leave the house and that he was going to take her downstairs and gave her two choices. Mm-hmm. She could walk down backwards or he could carry her. Ah. She chose to be carried, and as he did, the officer held her close, gently pressing her head into his shoulder to stop her from seeing the blood splattered and stained walls.

Kyle Risi: Oh no. Is this the poor girl's parents?

Adam Cox: well, the kids don't know that yet , but yes, it is.

Kyle Risi: Oh my God. So we've got like another family annihilator situation on our hands here.

Adam Cox: we dunno exactly what's happened at this point, but obviously something catastrophical you are gonna tell us, right?

Yes, of course. Sarah and Jack remained confused. Their grandparents were fine. They were staying over, and their stepmother, Molly Martins looked distressed. It was shortly after this that Molly told the kids what had happened, that she and their father had gotten into a fight.

And when she pushed him away, he hid his head and died. Oh, the dads died. , their dad is dead, and the stepmother and the the grandparents are fine. Okay. To the children who loved their stepmother, [00:06:00] it sounded like a tragic accident. It was hard for them to make sense of what was going on, but for any adult at the scene, there was plenty that didn't add up.

This wasn't a typical domestic violence case. There's something much sadder and more sinister at play.

Kyle Risi: I think I might know a little bit about the story and I don't know a huge amount, but am I right in thinking that it's one of those stories that a first glance feels like it's the classic American fairytale, you know, like the picture perfect family on the outside, the couple falls in love, they've built a life together, they've got a couple kids, but then underneath it all, there's obviously some very serious problems and eventually it's ended in tragedy.

So while this seems like an accident, am I right in thinking some dodginess has happened here, it's a murder story.

Adam Cox: you're absolutely right there. ', it's a case of like, well, who's telling the truth here? What really went on?

Yeah, there is a lot of twists and turns.

Interesting.

This is the story of Jason Corbett's Deadly Marriage and the slow chilling puzzle in the lead up to his death.

So our story today [00:07:00] begins in Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s in a small area just outside the city of Limerick. That's where the Corbett family lived. So Jason Corbett was one of six children. He grew up in that quiet neighborhood surrounded by fields and farmland. Life was simple and like many kids in Ireland at the time, he had a close relationship with his family

after finishing school, Jace moved out of his parents' house and he didn't go far. He moved in with his older sister, Tracy and her boyfriend, Dave Lynch, who would later become her husband. And the three of them got along well. Jason and Dave quickly became good friends. In February of 2006, Jason met a woman called Margaret, and everyone called her Mags.

They started dating officially that August and things moved pretty quickly and before long they were living together in an apartment. And in natural fact, that apartment was right above where Tracy and Dave lived. The four of them were close. They spent a lot of time together, and Jason and Mags would often babysit for Tracy and Dave's kids.

In 2002, during a [00:08:00] trip to Barcelona, Jason proposed to Mags, she said, yes. And they got married that following June.

Kyle Risi: So it's like a classic case of you've got these young people, they grew up in the same area, they become really good friends, they move in. It's like an episode of friends, basically.

Adam Cox: Yeah. It's that time of your life where friends become family. Yeah. Although they're it's family involved in this, but Yeah.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, exactly. And so growing up together. They're going through these big milestones in their life and they're living in Ireland, which, an idyllic place in the world to live.

Adam Cox: Yeah. And their family started to grow soon after. This is Mags and Jason. Mm-hmm. And in September, 2004, they had their first child, a son called Jack, and two years later, in September, 2006, they welcomed a baby girl called Sarah. Around that time, they moved into a small bungalow to make space for their growing family.

Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: Life was good for the corots. Jason had a good job. Mags was a devoted mother, and the family was happy. Everything seemed perfect, but of course, the happiness didn't last. Just 12 weeks after their baby daughter, Sarah was born, [00:09:00] tragedy struck. On November the 13th, mags collapsed. She had been sick and the medicine she'd been taking wasn't helping Jason panicked and called for help.

But by the time that the ambulance arrived, mags was already unconscious. She was rushed to the hospital, but sadly there was nothing the doctors could do. Max had passed away that day from an asthma attack. She was just 31 years old.

Kyle Risi: asthma attack. Mm-hmm. And did they know that she had asthma? Was it a known thing?

Where was her inhaler?

Adam Cox: she had been taking the inhaler,but I don't think it was working. So they,got into a car,and I think they tried to meet the ambulance on the way because whatever the medication that she should be having just wasn't taking effect,

But yeah, she died from an asthma attack and that's awful. Leaving behind her two young kids and Jason. So the loss is pretty devastating.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. So what age is Sarah and the other kid at this point?

Adam Cox: Sarah had only recently been born, she was three months old and I think Jack must have been a couple of years at this point.

Kyle Risi: Oh. Can you imagine, like, does he keep his kids and do they stay with him or do they go to the [00:10:00] grandparents or what? Oh yeah.

Adam Cox: it's, the news is obviously devastating and Jason, he's heartbroken, but he's committed to being there for his two young children. He still wants to be a good dad and Make sure that they're okay. His wider family, thankfully, because he is got that close network. and along with Mag's, relatives, they step in to help and there's often someone around to help with the children, whether it's like picking them up from daycare, whatever it might be.

So that Jason can continue to work and support his family.

Kyle Risi: And that's the thing though, like in Ireland, they tend to have a more of a closely tight knit family kind of unit set up. So a lot of the time you do have extended family that are able to kinda help you, but In the rest of the world, like in America, here in the uk, sometimes it's a lot harder.

Like people don't have their grandparents And I guess this is why a lot of people rely on like their close knit relationships with their friends to assist,

so that's good. he's got some help there in this tragic fallout of what's just happened. Him losing his wife.

Adam Cox: Yeah, he does. but I think he still struggled. Jason wanted to do more, and I think he felt a little bit guilty by putting the burden of childcare on the rest of the family.[00:11:00]

He wanted to be more independent, and still build that sort of stable home for the kids. So for him, what he was starting to think of was that to make that possible, he wanted to hire an au pair. someone that could help with childcare and maybe some of the housework and living actually in the house with him.

Kyle Risi: Sure.

Adam Cox: First he hired a few young people who wanted to improve their English, so they were from Europe. Yeah. I don't think it really worked out. I think just the language barrier was a bit of a problem. Mm-hmm. , so we started to look for someone more experienced and that could, fluently speak English.

and in February, 2008, an application came in from a 20-year-old woman named Molly Martins from Knoxville, Tennessee, in the United States.

Kyle Risi: Okay.

This is the woman that he's gonna marry that I'm assuming?

Adam Cox: Yeah, that's how they first meet. Hmm. So Molly Martin's, was determined for a fresh start in Ireland.

She'd been accepted for the job as an au pair with Jason Corbett's family. And in March, 2008, she booked a one-way flight from the US to Ireland. there was a bit of a problem. Molly didn't really have a work visa, and when immigration officials at Shannon Airport saw that she only had a one-way ticket, [00:12:00] they basically sent her back.

Kyle Risi: Oh, really?

Adam Cox: and they refused her entry, so she had to go back to the us. but she didn't give up. she quickly booked a new flight and this time to Boston and landed in Ireland again soon after. But I think because she went through a different route, they didn't pick it up.

Kyle Risi: So she was chanting it basically, I guess.

So she was being calculated. Yeah. But can you imagine as a dad, oh, I really need some help. I just need a 20 minute nap. I cannot wait for the bear to arrive. And then she like gets turned away. Yeah. Or goddammit. Yeah. but she's got in though, is that an indication of her personality here?

is she, I don't know. That sounds a bit dodgy. Why is she not following the rules?

Adam Cox: I'm not sure, whether it was just like an accident or there's something here that we, she kind of makes her way over it. I dunno. So,

Kyle Risi: so we are treating this at face value. It's just Someone who is a little bit naive, didn't know that she maybe needed a visa rather than this is a calculated move for her to just get into the country.

Yeah.

Adam Cox: And I think she just was really determined to get there and get this job. So nothing was gonna stop her from doing that.

Kyle Risi: Because I'm getting the sense right now that she's the villain of the story. So I'm trying to paint her in [00:13:00] maybe a negative light and the visa issue for me, that just stood out as something that be calculated.

But it's not, is what you're saying? No. Okay. just an innocent mistake. Let's leave it at that for now. Okay. So she's not traveling the world to go kill people. a no disguised, as an not pair,

Adam Cox: so at first Molly was quiet. Jason's sister Tracy later said that she seemed shy And didn't really share much about herself, but she was polite, she was friendly with the children, and most importantly, Jason was happy. So the family welcomed her in. They were living under the same roof.

Molly was helping to raise the children, and Jason and Molly started to become very close very quickly. Mm-hmm. And just a few months after Molly arrived, Jason's siblings started to notice they were more than just employer and employee. Oh. Like, like subtle

Kyle Risi: little touches and like laughs and like glances.

Little flicking the hair back and forth. Yeah, yeah. .

Adam Cox: So the relationship, between them was moving much faster than anyone expected, which felt odd. But Jason's family began to see glimpses of the old Jason coming back. And when he became involved with Molly, his sister said that he didn't seem so sad all the time, and Molly [00:14:00] was actually having a positive impact on him.

So maybe some reservations about her, but overall, the family's doing well.

Kyle Risi: Yeah.

Adam Cox: Jason himself did feel like things were moving a bit too quickly and suggested that to ensure things worked, that they needed to spend some time apart and have separate lives, at least for a while. So Molly agreed to that.

She got herself another job. She found her own place to live , and then, they could just progress things a bit more naturally.

Kyle Risi: so in the pursuit of keeping things a bit professional, he obviously sees a potential future with her. He wants to start dating her. It's not professional that they're living together under these circumstances.

So it's like maybe it's best that you get another place we live separately, and then we can let things happen organically. Flourish from there. Yeah. Okay. Interesting.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Otherwise, it's gonna be a bit odd, if they are romantically involved and then he's her boss.

Kyle Risi: so she's not even gonna be the kid's au pair anymore?

Adam Cox: Yeah. The idea is that she gets her own place at a different job so they can have a little bit more separation. She might still help out, but she needs to have something else as well.

By 2010, their relationship had grown quite serious. And on Valentine's Day, Jason proposed at a [00:15:00] local restaurant and they set their wedding date for June the following year.

Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: After they got married, the plan was to move to United States after the wedding.

And Jason's company thankfully had a manufacturing plant in Lexington, North Carolina, which was only a few hours from Molly's hometown in Knoxville, Tennessee. So it seemed like everything was falling into place.

Kyle Risi: Sure. Interesting. So . Has he met all of her side of the family?

I'm assuming that they have gone over to the United States and they're very friendly with their family and stuff, so he knows what he is stepping into. He knows their family.

Adam Cox: I think they had met and obviously their family all met up at the wedding as well,

Kyle Risi: oh, of course.

This is always the wedding.

Adam Cox: For Tracy and Dave and the rest of Jason's family. it was hard. No one wants to see a close relative move so far away. Mm-hmm. Especially not when young children are involved. They're gonna miss out on like their years growing up. But they could see that it was an exciting new adventure for them all.

And whilst they still weren't entirely sure about Molly, some stuff just didn't add up for the sake of Jason and the kids. They accepted that's what Jason [00:16:00] wanted.

Kyle Risi: I love the foreshadowing there. Thanks a couple times. You dropped that in. Thanks. They're not quite sure about Molly. Yeah. Her eyes are too close together.

Few question marks.

Adam Cox: . Yeah, there's just something that don't add up and we'll go into those little things a little bit later.

Kyle Risi: Okay.

Adam Cox: so thanks for the sale of his house in Ireland. Jason was able to pay for their new beautiful home in America in full no mortgage.

So he's doing well for himself. Wow. To be able to support that family.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. American properties are just way bigger, way better, way more lavish

Adam Cox: yeah. Molly was given tens of thousands of dollars to decorate the house however she liked she got in U car. From who? From Jason. Oh, from Jason.

Yeah. He is like, you know, you take care of this project. Here's the money. You're American, you've got style,

Kyle Risi: you are Pinterest. Ready.

Adam Cox: Just go.

Kyle Risi: run with it.

Adam Cox: And the kids are super excited. Their bedrooms felt huge in comparison to their home in Ireland.

Everything about being in America just felt exciting and on paper it looked like a perfect start to a new life. And some of the challenges whilst together in Ireland just went away. Nice. The family had settled into the new life in North Carolina. The kids went to a school and [00:17:00] daycare.

Molly took a part-time job as a swim coach at the local pool, and Jason got to know his neighbors really well, especially the men who lived on the street. And then Molly would also chat with some of the other moms and women in the community. So Molly made some good friends with those women. and as her friendship grew with these women, she felt more confident in confiding what was going on in her marriage.

Okay. that perhaps the picture perfect family, uh, life that they were portraying outside wasn't as perfect as it seemed.

Kyle Risi: Oh, interesting. So before we get onto that though, have they never decided to have any kids of their own?

Adam Cox: That's a good point. I don't know where that decision come from, whether they were just happy to have those two kids.

Whether they didn't feel at the time that they needed to have children together.

Kyle Risi: I'm assuming it's still quite early in their marriage as well, . Yeah. I

Adam Cox: think at the moment it's more about just building their life in America.

That's their main focus,

Kyle Risi: but cracks are starting to form. So what's she saying to these other women?

Adam Cox: Molly would reveal that Jason sometimes drank too much. That he had a bit of a temper. She often showed, bruises as proof to some of the neighbors. Which they [00:18:00] of course, found very concerning for her wellbeing.

But others were a little bit confused because Jason just didn't seem like that kind of person. No, but that's often the case. people aren't really, aware of what goes on behind closed doors.

And obviously Molly loves Jason, but we don't really know what's exactly going on. Did he have a temper? Yeah. , so now

Kyle Risi: I'm thinking that Molly might not be the villain here.

Adam Cox: meanwhile inside the home, a different picture was unfolding. Molly began hiding recording devices around the house, and some of these recordings were later released.

Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: In one clip, the family is in the kitchen and Jason asks if they can all sit down and just eat together. But Jason becomes really frustrated when it appears Molly, talks over him or is, just talking to his children and he raises his voice and you can hear what sounds like a hand slamming on a table or a countertop.

So Jason's the only one yelling in this tape. And so was this something that Molly was doing to try and get proof that actually Jason did have a temper and actually she felt like she didn't feel safe and she was using these recordings as a bit of a backup?

Kyle Risi: Sure. [00:19:00] So we've seen this a couple times, like in cases.

So the one that springs to mind is, the Amber heard. Case. And of course we would never go into that because it's very complicated. But she was making these recordings of Johnny having these very violent outbursts verbally. But then also you've got another situation in the OJ Simpson situation with Nicole Brown, where she was keeping evidence and logs of the injuries that she was sustaining from him.

So it was like an, or almost an insurance policy. If she needed to get out or something bad happened, then it could point the fingers potentially at Jason.

Adam Cox: Yeah. So she could have been doing this to cover her own back and to help herself through something bad happened in the future.

Kyle Risi: But what are the chances, and I'm still trying to give Jason the benefit of the doubt here. What are the chances that these are fabricated?

Adam Cox: we'll have to get into that. Okay.

Interesting. Plus more pressure was building up within their marriage. Jason appeared to be stressed out about money and even though the house was fully paid off and he had a good job, Molly was just spending a lot between January and August of [00:20:00] 2015, she spent over $90,000 and Jason had told her that just needed to stop.

They couldn't keep spending like this. One weekend, Molly's parents, Tom and Sharon had come over to stay, and when they pulled up into the driveway of the Corbet home, they found Jason outside on the decks sitting with his next door neighbor.

The two men had just finished mowing their lawns and were having a few beers afterwards. Jason got up, greeted them, and everyone went inside the family together, had a few more drinks and eventually everyone went to bed.

Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: Pretty standard family evening.

Nothing outta the ordinary. What happened after that though? None of the neighbors could have ever seen coming. Okay. Tom and Sharon, Molly's parents were sleeping in the basement guest room, and at around 3:30 AM on August the third, Tom said he was woken by the sound of a struggle upstairs.

Kyle Risi: Oh, hang on. This murder is happening now.

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: God. Okay. I thought there'd be more buildup here. I was about to say like, I'm flip-flopping. I don't know if I trust her. If I trust him. I don't know. There's too many twists going on here, but now we're in the action. We're

Adam Cox: getting into the [00:21:00] action. , so Tom had told the police that he grabbed a baseball bat, a small black one, that he had brought with him as a gift for Jason's son, Jack, and ran to the master bedroom there.

He says he saw Jason with his hands around Molly's neck, repeating that he was going to kill her. Tom said he tried to intervene, but Jason moved pulling Molly into a headlock and backing towards the bathroom.

Tom said that he swung the bat at Jason's head and kept swinging until Jason was on the ground. A brick was also used in defense to ensure Jason could not hurt Molly. Tom said that once Jason was no longer moving, he and Molly left the room and called for emergency services.

Kyle Risi: Okay. Where did they get the brick from?

Adam Cox: That's an interesting point. We'll come back to that. Okay. during the 9 1 1 call, which lasted 15 minutes, the operator instructed them to begin CPR until help arrived. Meanwhile, Sharon, Molly's mother told the police that she remained downstairs the entire time and hadn't seen anything.

She just had a cup of tea,

Kyle Risi: What's all the commotion upstairs?

Adam Cox: The kids of course are upstairs and thankfully were fast asleep. They didn't hear a thing that was [00:22:00] going on. They were woken up by the police officers. That's when Sarah aged eight, remembers those moments vividly, instantly, she trusts the police officer. That's by her bedside. And as she gets outta bed, she didn't know why they were exactly there.

she thought maybe that there'd been a burglary.

Kyle Risi: Yeah.

Adam Cox: The police officer gives Sarah that option to walk downstairs or be, carried. And she asked to be carried. The police officer picks her up and holds her tight, gently forcing her head into his neck. Like I said, not allowing her to peek through whatsoever.

She recalls all the footsteps in the house and the noise of the police radios going off as she was taken down those steps. When she gets to the bottom of the stairs, she remembers how everything went silent. No footsteps, no voices, no radios, no white noise, nothing. Mm-hmm. And that continued until she and her brother were escorted out of the house.

And then all those police radios and voices just resumed. So this really eerie silence. There's an

Kyle Risi: airiness. Yeah. Is it strange that the kids didn't hear anything? Because there was clearly a big altercation with a baseball bat. And the kids did not hear that. [00:23:00] is that something to be concerned about?

Adam Cox: the interesting thing is that the grandfather is in the basement .

Kyle Risi: I see.

Adam Cox: And so he heard commotion up in the master bedroom, but the

Kyle Risi: kids didn't. But then at the same time, I completely get it. I'm such a deep sleeper that once we had a bomb scare, . I don't think I've ever told you this, but growing up I vividly remember someone had called up my mom and I dunno, they were being threatening towards her. She has no idea who it was to this day.

And they basically told her that there was a bomb on the property and my mom had to call the police. The bomb squad came and we all had to be evacuated. I did not know that any of this was going on. until my mom came to wake me up. So I didn't hear anything.

Wow. So it's such a random story and I swear it's true. I need to probably find out a bit more about what happened there. Yeah. And share with maybe an all the latest things, but I can totally get how a young kid could potentially sleep through all that commotion.

Adam Cox: Yeah. I mean it's not uncommon and this is what exactly happened in this situation, but let's put a pin in that.

we'll second back to that story later. I'll call my mom straight after [00:24:00] the show.

Kyle Risi: So we have a situation here where the kids have slept right through, but granddad has obviously heard it because he was in the basement. He's a light sleeper.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Sarah looks back at the house as she's taken away and recalls seeing Sharon, her grandmother, through one of the windows. She's just reading a book, an image that would reveal far more about what was really going on.

Once some of the jigsaw pieces begin to fit together. Wow.

Kyle Risi: So we have a dodgy grammar on our hands.

Adam Cox: There's something dodgy up, right? Because sadly, for Jack and Sarah, they had just lost their father. The first responders that arrived at the scene described the scene as horrific with blood everywhere.

At first glance, it looks like a case of self-defense with Tom protecting his daughter, Molly and Grandma reading a book and grandma reading a book. And they would stand by this when things would eventually go to court. But had Molly been in a really violent relationship with Jason, or was there more going on than people on the outside could see?

shortly after Jason's death, his own children, Jack and Sarah, his flesh and blood gave revealing [00:25:00] statements to the police. When they were asked by a social worker what happened when their dad got angry, Jack responded that his father would get physical pulling Molly's hair and hitting her.

Kyle Risi: Wow, okay. God, this is so many twists and turns. What's the truth? It's

Adam Cox: pretty damning evidence, right? When you've got your own kids, admitting that Yeah, their dad was agressive ,

Kyle Risi: but is Molly lying to the kids telling that these things happened?

Adam Cox: Yeah. Did Jason really have a darker side, or was Molly doing something to provoke his behavior?

Yeah. What was going on Now feels like a good time to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to have to travel back to before Molly even met Jason, because there's a whole lot more to this woman than meets the eye.

Kyle Risi: Oh my God. Okay, let's do this.

Adam Cox: Okay, so we're back. What are you thinking, Kyle?

Kyle Risi: I'm thinking that there are far too many twists and turns in the story. I think that we are going to uncover some really dodgy setups here.

Adam Cox: Very intuitive. I think so. You're [00:26:00] absolutely right.

what we know so far is that Jason and Molly got together really quickly. Much to everyone's surprise. They married, they moved to the us and at first life seemed pretty rosy. There were a few warning signs, some money issues, some odd comments about Jason drinking too much or having a violent temper.

Mm-hmm. And now it appeared, all those suspicions were confirmed when Molly's father struck Jason over the head with a baseball bat, claiming he was saving his daughter from being strangled. And

Kyle Risi: a brick was involved

Adam Cox: and a brick was involved. And even the kids have backed it up at this time saying that their father had been violent towards their stepmother.

Kyle Risi: So that's a bit of pretty concrete circumstantial evidence. When your kids are saying, 'cause kids are like, let's be innocent, but at the same time, kids can be influenced.

Adam Cox: Plus you've got all the bruises that, Molly had shown to her friends. You can

fake a bruise. well, as I said, there's more to this story, much more, and to really understand it, we have to journey back in time, back to before Molly even met Jason, so before she took that job.

Molly was with [00:27:00] another man.

Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: So that's not unusual, obviously, however, her willingness to an unmarried woman with another woman, with another man. Yeah. But that's not the unusual part. What is unusual was her willingness to uproot and leave him behind.

In fact, she was engaged to him and was willing to leave behind her fiance, Keith, imagine, or Meghan,

Kyle Risi: Megan Ma.

Ma. Imagine.

Adam Cox: Imagine Megan. They had met over year earlier online and after just six weeks of dating, they moved in together. So , a very rushed, so quick operator. A romance. Yeah. Again, according to Keith, things weren't always easy. In interviews with the Irish Independent, he said that Molly had struggled with her mental health and had been diagnosed as bipolar.

He claimed that she had even stayed in a mental health facility just weeks before moving to Ireland.

Kyle Risi: Okay. So we have some potential, mental health issues going on here at play that we're trying to pull into the story.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Plus, when Molly was on her medication, Keith said she was happy and fun to be around, but when she wasn't taking [00:28:00] it, things changed.

Their relationship was full of arguments. And while it never became physical, Keith said that Molly wouldn't let things go, and when they argued, he tried to leave the house to calm down, but she wouldn't let him. Keith also shared that Molly had suffered a miscarriage during their relationship, and he felt that they weren't ready for a child emotionally or financially.

Kyle Risi: So he was a little bit relieved. I'm assuming

Adam Cox: he was, but the loss actually hit Molly really hard. Mm-hmm. Afterwards, she blamed him for many of the problems in their relationship. I think Molly just really wanted to have kids and have that family.

Kyle Risi: Yeah.

Adam Cox: Before leaving. Marley told Keith that she was thinking about going to Ireland for a few weeks to take up a nanny job.

And he didn't believe that she would, that she'd follow through. I guess she, maybe she made these empty threats multiple times. She often talked about big plans.

Kyle Risi: you don't do the washing up, I'm gonna get a job as a nanny in Ireland.

Adam Cox: Exactly like that.

Kyle Risi: Why would he even entertain that?

you can't, we're married. You can't just go and take another job as a live-in nanny in another country.

Adam Cox: Well engaged. They're engaged. At this point

Kyle Risi: it doesn't matter. We are [00:29:00] committing to living our lives together. How is that going to work if you are halfway around the world in Ireland?

Adam Cox: , living with another

Kyle Risi: man where we know he's a widower and we know he's vulnerable and we know you guys are gonna be spending so much time together that a friendship is gonna flourish, which could turn into something more and it's happened.

Adam Cox: I don't think he's even thinking that far ahead.

I think she makes these empty threats. Multiple times that he's just yeah, you're not gonna follow through.

Kyle Risi: So are we saying here potentially that when she then did go to Ireland, it was on a whim, she bought a one way ticket. She didn't do much planning or research or anything.

She just found the application, she booked her ticket. She just went, because of course she'd been threatening these types of things all the time.

Adam Cox: Yeah. I dunno if it was on a whim, , she planned to go. She was willing to leave Keith behind and basically end her relationship with him.

That's, would you let me,

Kyle Risi: uh, go to Croatia to pick up nanny job?

Adam Cox: No, I'm going to Croatia. Ben was going to Croatia with me.

Kyle Risi: No, we're both going, we're both falling in love with the sexy young widower and raises kids as our own.

Adam Cox: that's a whole nother story that is. But of course,her threat [00:30:00] wasn't a threat.

She went through with it. Mm. And 10 days later, after she was gone, Keith received a message from her on Facebook and that was it. She had left without warning and that's how she communicated what she had done.

Kyle Risi: Do you think you was sitting at home going,

Adam Cox: where's money?

Kyle Risi: It's been 10 days. It's been 10 days.

Adam Cox: They're washing up. Stacking up.

Kyle Risi: Hey, sexist men can wash up too.

Adam Cox: Yes, that's right.

Kyle Risi: use the washing machine. No, no. I can't navigate those controls.

Adam Cox: Okay, so she's gotta spend in 10 days. In 10 days. And, she'd arrived in Ireland.

And Molly had never told Jason or anyone in his family about her past, not the fiance, and not that she had mental health struggles.

So as far as they knew, she was just a young American woman looking for a new opportunity.

So this is the first clue that Molly is not all that she seems.

Kyle Risi: I'm really intrigued to find out what she looks like. Do you mind if I find a picture of her? Mm-hmm. Okay. So I've just had a look at her on Google and yeah. Classically she looks American. She's blonde, she's beautiful. lovely teeth as Americans are very famous for having, [00:31:00] and yeah, I can see her with her dad like a little gray head.

So do I get au pair vibes from her? No. I get more like marketer selling some kind of wellness product. Not au pair.

Adam Cox: No, maybe not. she's a young, attractive woman. And, she looks harmless,

Kyle Risi: There's no red flags in the way she looks, but it's interesting to now put a face to the name. Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: So now that she's met Jason, things are moving very quickly. And like I said, Jason's family noticed some things about her, which were a bit odd. she didn't always engage with them, but overall, Jason was happier and they let it slide. So that's the only thing that at the moment that's just a bit odd when they first meet, is that just quiet and reserved.

So Molly's behavior did start to change towards Jason.

She often argued with Jason became upset when he spent time with anyone else and struggled to get along with his friends and family. By the time the wedding arrived, things were getting tense to Sarah and Jack because they're kids, they're kind of oblivious to this largely in terms of maybe all the,underlying tension and arguments and things like that.

Kyle Risi: [00:32:00] and it's probably good that you protect your kids from these types of, like tensions and things like that. Yeah.

Adam Cox: But the adults in the family, Molly was racking up a lot of issues. Was it the stress of the wedding becoming a Bridezilla or was it something else?

Oh, Molly reportedly screamed at Jason's brother-in-law, Dave, on the wedding day. Molly also told one of her bridesmaids to leave, she overreacted when Jack was drinking from a McDonald's cup, So to Jason's sister, Tracy, the kind Molly that they had welcomed into their family seemed to have gone.

Yeah. She's evolving, but then it is a

Kyle Risi: stressful day is you're planning for your wedding. You want everything to be perfect.

Adam Cox: Yeah, true. Maybe you could let that slide, but then there were some other rumors which were beginning to surface. Okay. Molly had been telling people's stories that just weren't true.

She had told friends in the US that she had been best friends with Mags, Sarah and Jack's biological mother,

Kyle Risi: but she wouldn't have

Adam Cox: ever met them Exactly. But she said that they were pen pals and she had promised to take care of the children if anything happened to her.

Kyle Risi: So is that true? Were they pen pals? Oh, no, not at [00:33:00] all. She never, so she definitely has never met her. She's never met Max. Oh, I thought this was another, like, deeper conspiracy level.

Adam Cox: No.

in other versions of her events to her friends, she claimed that she had been named the children's godmother.

And in one instance, she told someone that she was actually the biological mother of the children going so far as to describe her, so-called pregnancy and labor.

Kyle Risi: Okay.

Adam Cox: Interesting. Jason's best man, a childhood friend named Paul had some serious doubts and on the wedding day, yeah.

You know,

Kyle Risi: that's

Adam Cox: about What about Molly? Like, um, she was saying all these things.

Kyle Risi: I thought you meant doubts about the labor and the pregnancy.

Adam Cox: Well, yes. Well, I guess all the lies he'd maybe some of them. Yeah. The lies. The lies of

Kyle Risi: general. Okay.

Adam Cox: And on the wedding day, right up until the ceremony began, he reminded Jason that it wasn't too late to walk away.

Kyle Risi: No. Of, yeah, sure. But then, your mates say those things, right? People tell me that all the time. Right? Maybe, but

Adam Cox: you're, you're a different kettle of fish.

Kyle Risi: No, you are the different kettle of fish.

Adam Cox: But for someone to say that to, if the groom, if you're the best man or whatever on the wedding day, to say it's not too late, you can [00:34:00] step up.

You know, that's, that's quite serious. Because you wouldn't really say that on the wedding day. You wouldn't leave it up till that point,

Kyle Risi: If I'm honest, I just think that's just what you have to say.

Adam Cox: Just are you sure you wanna do this?

Kyle Risi: Are you sure you wanna do

Adam Cox: this? That's what you would say.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, yeah.

Adam Cox: But the thing is,

what Paul didn't know was that the wedding ceremony was actually just symbolic. Jason and Molly had already been legally married in a civil ceremony. So the wedding was just for appearances and it was too late anyway to get back on it.

Kyle Risi: And that's the thing though,that's so common in the United Kingdom, right?

Because I don't think you're allowed to get married outside. So if it's an outside wedding It's not law for you to get married outside. So if you are attending to get married outside, then you have to get married beforehand. Yeah. so many of our friends, their wedding day that we attend isn't actually their wedding day.

They've been married like three weeks before.

Adam Cox: yeah, exactly. So it

Kyle Risi: could be a situation here, like you can sit down and say it's not too late to back out. And then Jason's like. I married her three weeks ago. Yeah, it is too late. It's far too late. thanks. Where were you three weeks ago?

Adam Cox: So for [00:35:00] Jason, it's not understood how much he knew prior to this about what Molly was doing, what she was saying. Perhaps it felt a bit too late to back out. because they were legally married.

Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: , it's not quite clear, but maybe deep down as a family unit, things were fine.

Largely it felt solvable. Plus he didn't want his kids to lose another mother. he's going in, you know, it's not easy just to get rid of a relationship. he's committed, he wants to work through it. It also seemed that Molly let on, that her mental health problems were only recent and that she didn't reveal that she actually had been in a mental health facility in the past.

Mm-hmm. , Also up until meeting Jason, I believe she was on regular medication to treat her bipolar. But after moving to Ireland, she slowly seemed to come off them, which perhaps explains why her personality started to shift.

Yeah. And she slowly changed. and the family noticed this change in her. So

Kyle Risi: why did she come off the medication? Was it that because she was in another country, it's difficult to get those prescriptions refilled? Or was she thinking, ' cause it happens all the time when you do have mental health issues, sometimes you think, I'm doing so much better.

and like I'm [00:36:00] thinking clearer. And so then you decide, let me wean myself off or let me just come off altogether. 'cause it's great. And then before you know it, you're backing that right again.

Adam Cox: I think that is, quite common for that to happen. So regardless, the two were now married and they'd moved to the US for a new start. But for Molly, this was not enough. She turned her focus onto something else, something she'd wanted. For a long time, Molly wants to become the children's legal mother.

Kyle Risi: I thought she wanted to be their godmother.

Adam Cox: she said she was a godmother, but now she wants to be the legal mother. So what about Keith? . He's gone, he's outta the picture.

Kyle Risi: he got the Facebook message tag. I found a new life. I'm getting married to Jason and he's like probably just like good. He might be relieved, I dunno.

Yeah. He might be relieved. But the washing up still stack up and I How to use a washing machine, please? Can you write me some notes?

Adam Cox:

as I said, she wants to become the children's legal mother, and she'd already told some people that she was obviously we, we know some about those lies around the wedding. Um, shortly after the wedding, she visited a lawyer to ask what would happen in a custody situation if she and Jason ever divorced.

When she found out she had no [00:37:00] legal rights to the children whatsoever, even though their mother had passed away and their father was still alive, he was fully responsible and she wasn't pleased. So she wanted to adopt them and have that sort of legal, guardianship.

Kyle Risi: Okay.

So what I'm getting here is potentially us plotting out a motive for what's happened here. I'm assuming when she floats the idea, he's not up for the idea of adoption.

Adam Cox: Yeah. He had never agreed to that in the first instance.

And it might be that would eventually happen, but it's still relatively early, I guess in the grand scheme of things.

Kyle Risi: would be married like three weeks. Yeah. Calm down.

Adam Cox: And so that tension in the household was growing because she was like, oh, why don't you want me to be their legal mom?

Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: At one point Jason actually asked a lawyer a very specific question. He wanted to know, if I signed adoption papers for Molly to adopt the children, would she still have rights to them if we ever divorced? Interesting question. And I guess you do need to think about these questions when you're in a relationship, different scenarios if the worst happens,

maybe he does [00:38:00] suspect something's up with her.

Kyle Risi: Yes. The fact that he is asked the question is telling that there are some kind of rifts forming.

So what did the lawyers say?

Adam Cox: I think the fact is that, um, they, she doesn't get adoption rights and so therefore, if she did then I think there would be some sort of,

Kyle Risi: she would have some kind of rights as an adoptive parent if they ever did split up.

Adam Cox: Yeah,

so what Jason did is he actually took the children's passports and stored them in a safe deposit box outside the home.

which hinted he was worried Molly might try to take the kids without his consent, should things end badly for them. This perhaps went from a precaution to more of an exit plan.

'cause Jason made a major investment in a childcare business back in Limerick, a joint venture with his childhood friend. Jason was thinking of a life back in Ireland and those plans didn't seem to involve Molly.

Kyle Risi: Oh, interesting. So they've only been married a very short period of time and he's now already.

Potentially thinking about the advice that may gave him on his ceremonial [00:39:00] day. Yeah. When it was too late going, are you sure you wanna do this? And he's probably been modeling things over. Because now also at the same time they're in the United States, that's Molly's domain where Molly also has her parents and her friends and everyone that she's connected to.

I can understand how it can be quite isolating and worrying to all of a sudden be out of your comfort zone where you don't have any allies, none of your friends. And now the kind of tables have almost turned. They're all like in her court now. Exactly. She's the one with the support system. And , it's now potentially much easier for her because of everything that she's got to gaslight him a little bit.

Adam Cox: Yeah, absolutely. and these are the kind of manipulative games I think she was doing behind the scenes to make him feel more isolated. She would take,the mick out of his weight. All these kind of things. and that just made him basically crumble inside.

one of the final nails in the coffin I think was,when he had learned that what Molly was doing and saying to Sarah and Jack behind his back, Molly would often take her anger out on Jack, verbally and physically, sometimes prompting [00:40:00] Sarah to step in as a child herself, to defend her big brother, but get tossed aside.

Oh. So Molly was being quite violent with them. So we have an evil stepmom. Mm-hmm. Molly had repeatedly told them that their father was the reason their biological mother was dead. And it's the thought that this, this information, , in the lead up to his death when he learned about it, this is what kind of put everything into motion for him having that exit plan.

Kyle Risi: This is sick. So he knew about that. And I guess Sarah had maybe mentioned it like. Dad did. Are you the reason why Mommy's dead?

Adam Cox: Yeah. I dunno if she used those words, but there's an interview where she says that, one day she just cuddled up with her dad and basically asked her, how did mom die again?

Because I guess she had dealt what Molly was saying, but she's a child and like she just needed some reassurance.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Because as a young widow, well,raising a young daughter, she's gonna get to the point where she's gonna very much know that she doesn't have a biological mom, just like all her other kids.

and naturally what a dad is gonna do is do you know [00:41:00] what, let me tell you a story about your mom. She was really beautiful. She really loved you. She really cared for you. It's such a shame that she's not here, but she wants you to be happy. You're gonna tell all these lovely things, right?

And that's going to directly contradict. What Evil Stepmom has said, right? Potentially. Yeah. So I imagine her going, tell me a bit about how Mom died, or Tell me some more stories about mom so she can rationalize what's happening between these two conversations that she's having.

Adam Cox: Yeah. And I think even the dad, Jason, he's like,

Why am I having to go over this? And so it's just, he's a smart guy. Sarah even recalls, there are times where she saw her father with red eyes and upset, and she would go over to comfort him and give him a hug, not really understanding the turmoil he was going through.

Mm. So he was not in a good place up until his death. And so Sarah sensed that, his heart was breaking and he was struggling with things.

Kyle Risi: That is so sad. How old, remind me is Sarah, at this point,

Adam Cox: she'll be about eight.

Kyle Risi: She's extremely connected and intuitive. Mm-hmm. At this. Point. And they often say kids are, but this feels very apparent.

Adam Cox: I [00:42:00] think kids always are,

Kyle Risi: for sure. Yeah.

Adam Cox: So Jason brings the passports back to the house. he had been researching flights back to Ireland and had let his family, know that he was coming home with the kids, but Molly was not included in those messages. Something they had instantly had picked up on. Picked up on. He had also,had their suitcases packed ready.

He was trying to do all this without Molly really catching on with what was going on because he feared what she might do if she found out.

Kyle Risi: That's such a bizarre thing to do as well because clearly if he's being quite incognito with it all. He must have some kind of fear about her. He must get a sense that she's potentially capable of violence or harming him or harming the children.

For him to take this incognito stance we're trying to get out.

Adam Cox: yeah, he hid the passports, so he didn't trust what she could do.

Kyle Risi: Just as it looked like he was about to leave. Conveniently, perhaps Molly's parents visited that weekend and that was the weekend that Jason died. So what [00:43:00] happened that weekend?

I know what happened.

Adam Cox: of course, Molly and her parents maintain it with self-defense. Molly tells the kids that she and their dad were fighting, she pushed him away and that their dad had fallen, had hit his head, and sadly died.

But her actions in the days after don't really add up. And I'm gonna list these off pretty quickly. 'cause there's just so much evidence here that suggests, this just doesn't make sense.

Kyle Risi: Okay.

Adam Cox: so firstly,it's Molly's mother, actually, Sharon, that breaks the news to Jason's twin brother Wayne, back in Ireland, telling Jason had been drinking all day, got violent was shoved away by Molly to protect herself, and he hit his head.

When Wayne's asked to speak to Molly, Sharon refuses and hangs up.

Kyle Risi: Okay. So I get that maybe Molly is just too distraught,

Adam Cox: Possibly

Kyle Risi: What's next?

Adam Cox: When Jason's family got to the us, Molly didn't even let them see his body at first because she was listed as next of kin. She had full control over the funeral arrangements. She didn't tell the corbetts which funeral home Jason had been sent to.

And when they found out she had him moved instead of a funeral, Molly planned a memorial [00:44:00] service and Jason's own family wasn't even invited. Mm-hmm. Eventually, they were granted a private viewing at the funeral home, but it was clear Molly didn't even want them involved.

Kyle Risi: Crazy. But the thing is that it sounds like the Corbett family were trying to maintain, even though they had their reservations about modeling, they were trying to remain cordial because the fact that's Jason's.

Wife, right? So there was no like, anger or kind of fighting in between them. There was just like, we don't really trust you. But now she has taken stringent actions against them. Yeah. Unwarranted.

Adam Cox: I think this looks odd. And plus, I don't think they believed what happened on the night,

So for them, there's a couple of things they need to do. They wanna get Jason back, and they need to look after the kids.

Kyle Risi: What's next?

Adam Cox: Molly had, the place professionally cleaned as soon as possible after the police had arrived. So removing any potential forensic evidence,

Kyle Risi: suspicion.

Adam Cox: Within 30 hours of Jason's death, Molly had filed for custody of Jack and Sarah. She claimed she was the only mother that'd ever known.

Molly took the children and went to stay with her [00:45:00] brother, shortly afterward, Jason's family was horrified. They were like, we wanna see the kids. And so whether you believed Molly's versions, events or not, the fact remained she was the person responsible for the death of their father, yet she was now trying to obtain full guardianship Yeah.

Of his children.

Kyle Risi: I mean, that's an reasonable thing to do, but not a reasonable thing to do so quickly. Mm-hmm. Like that's paperwork that can be done. Months. Yeah. Years. Exactly. So you are clearly afraid that those kids are gonna be taken away from you. Because there's a reason for that to potentially be the case.

Yeah. And you're trying to protect that.

Adam Cox: Yeah, exactly. And what's worse, I think, is hearing from Sarah's experience whilst at Molly's brother's house life for them carried on as normal. No one really comforted them. No one asked them how they were. And if they brought up grandma's reading

Kyle Risi: a

Adam Cox: book, she's reading a book.

And if they brought up their dad, Molly would just say, get over it. Oh,

That's

Kyle Risi: horrible.

Adam Cox: They were discouraged from talking to each other in case of perhaps fear of confiding in what really went on. They described that time as horrible.

That's

Kyle Risi: the time that they need each other, the [00:46:00] most.

Adam Cox: Molly's not nice.

Kyle Risi: No.

Adam Cox: And that she gives this illusion that she's caring, but when you hear all this It's it's so fake.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. It's like the smoke and mirrors. It's like the perception that you give to the world versus what's actually going on behind closed doors.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Exactly. And this is probably the worst bit. 'cause when I was listening to this interview, from Sarah, this bit actually choked me a little bit because. before the break I had said that the kids had given a statement that they had seen their father hit and hurt Molly. Yeah, you did.

Well, that was all lies they later admitted to, because they were coached for years on what to say and were manipulated into repeating back and following her guidance on what their father was like.

Kyle Risi: Okay. So what we have here is a very potentially premeditated calculated series of, this is not impromptu, she's been doing this for years because she's been thinking about various scenarios, et cetera.

And do we think this is all censoring around her just wanting to be the legal guardian of these kids? She wants to be their mom. But they don't even like her

Adam Cox: and I dunno if she even [00:47:00] likes them. that's weird. Yeah. it's really hard to try and fully understand Molly because yes, she had a miscarriage and yes, she wanted a family and maybe this was her way of getting into a family and having that relationship really quickly.

But I. I dunno if even buy it. Almost. No, it doesn't seem genuine, does it?

Kyle Risi: It doesn't. Clearly there's some kind of mental health issue there because like, why would you, if you really love these kids, you would be nurturing them and you would love them. It just sounds like she's fixated on just being a mom.

Yeah. And she'll go at any extent. she doesn't wanna be a mom in practice. She wants to be a mom on paper.

Adam Cox: mom in practice. She just doesn't have the, I dunno, emotional intelligence or anything.

Kyle Risi: doesn't sound like it.

The thing is, Sarah and Jack, they didn't really believe some of the things that they were saying or really understand, but Molly was the closest they had to a mother figure. And they say that they lied for Molly because they loved her and because someone they loved, and trusted was telling them, to carry out this lie mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: To someone else that they loved and trusted. And so they were just really torn and so, you know, they just went with what Molly was suggesting.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, sure. [00:48:00] You're gonna trust an adult, right? Yeah.

Adam Cox: Molly would get Sarah to tell the police officers that her dad would scream at her mom every day or sometimes twice a day and would fight with her and say that Jason would stand on her foot, call her bad names, all these things. And that the children even say that they remember, being coached by Molly's mother, Sharon, to call her and use the Code Wars Peacock and Galaxy if their father ever turned violent.

So planting these seeds in their minds that their dad was violent.

Kyle Risi: So how do we know that he definitely was never violent?

Adam Cox: Well, they did admit that they lied. And thankfully those statements were never used in court.

And I think when you hear all the character witnesses and just people that knew who Jason was like, he never did this. Sure.

I think the thing to add to that is that Molly's dad also, did admit to disliking him. I think they even interviewed,some of his coworkers , they always used to say that he hated his,son-in-law. and he would just say, he was a bit of an Irish drunk making mean-spirited jokes at Tom.

And yeah, he did say that he didn't like him, but he was [00:49:00] civil to him. But it wasn't a secret that Tom didn't like Jason.

Kyle Risi: I see.

Adam Cox: Which to me points all signs that Holly's parents were probably in on this murder. Yeah. I mean, in case you haven't suspected it,

Kyle Risi: grandma's reading a book, granddad's got a brick

Adam Cox: and a

Kyle Risi: bat.

Adam Cox: They come over to stay on A weekend where things are really troubling for Jason. Exactly.

And Jason's family knew something was up , , no way were they gonna let Molly become legal guardian of Jack and Sarah.

So they hired a family lawyer and prepared for what would be a long and emotional court battle. And in August, 2015, a custody hearing was held In North Carolina, and Jason's will named his sister Tracy and her husband as guardians for the Kids.

Kyle Risi: Great. He's put it in his will.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Molly fought to keep them claiming they wanted to stay with her, and that she'd been a loving mother. She admitted to past mental health issues, but said she was stable and some neighbors backed her, where others didn't, they didn't believe her whatsoever. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tracy and her childhood friend of [00:50:00] Jason's gave testimony that painting a very different picture of him, including Molly's volatile behavior with the kids.

And according to Jason's sister, Tracy, Molly was slowly Undermining Jason's confidence throughout that time. she hide his keys or his wallet and call him stupid. she left out important information about the kids' schedules and he wouldn't know about school events or sports activities.

And then Molly would act like he was being careless or uninvolved all while trying to say that she was like the perfect mother.

Kyle Risi: Yeah.

Adam Cox: Molly even made claims that she was an Olympic swimmer to fostering children. She was a fantasist basically. Yeah. And after two days, the judge ruled in Tracy and Dave's favor. Molly broke down as the kids were taken into care. And Jake and Sarah was sad because they didn't really fully understand maybe, what Molly was doing.

They had loved her, but the decision was final. And the next day they flew home to Ireland. And on that same day, Sarah's first night at her aunt's, who she now calls her earth mom, felt instantly safe. She said like it just had this smell and she like slept for 16 hours.

And she just know [00:51:00] that actually this was the place that she needed to be

Kyle Risi: her earth

Adam Cox: mom,

Kyle Risi: though.

Adam Cox: Yeah. It's interesting term phrase. I guess she's not her biological mom, then she had a stepmom, but then she's just the one that's raising her, I guess is why she calls her earth mom.

Kyle Risi: Is it because her, obviously her other mom is in heaven, so is earth as in like here on the planet.

Adam Cox: Oh, that makes more sense. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: Not like, here's my mom and she's just covered in

Adam Cox: mud. Yeah. I don't think she was like dirty or anything.

Kyle Risi: That's sweet. So that's good.she's now feeding comfort for the first time in a long time.

Adam Cox: Yeah. And at this point there's no mystery about who had caused Jason's death, but

what the investigators still need to figure out was how it really happened. And was there enough evidence to suggest it was self-defense? Jason's injuries were so severe,supposedly forensics, couldn't tell how many times Jason had been hit to the head with the bat.

His skull was shattered in so many places. Oh my God. and according to the doctor, some of the blows appeared to have be inflicted after Jason had already died because [00:52:00] there was a lack of bleeding from these wounds. in contrast, Tom and Molly appeared mostly unharmed.

They had barely any scratches or any bruising or anything like that.

Kyle Risi: how could it be self-defense basically?

Adam Cox: Exactly. it's an unwarranted level of violence for someone that's fighting for their lives or whatever.

Kyle Risi: Can they tell, was he hit from behind or from the front?

Adam Cox: I think it's several directions.

They end up analyzing the blood splatters. and they can tell when and exactly where he was hit. So I think they say he was either in bed or getting out of bed when he's first hit. And then there's, blood and tissue that they find on Tom's boxer shorts, which suggest the blood was going in an upwards direction.

So he was already on the floor being hit. So it's quite, incredible what we're able to tell.

Kyle Risi: there's no like defense there. Like he's getting outta bed and he's already on the ground when he's being hit.

Adam Cox: The other thing is that when paramedics arrived on the scene, Jason felt cool to touch. How long had he actually been dead for? The lights were also off and, pools of blood had started to congeal and didn't look like they were [00:53:00] disturbed.

Which seems really odd seeing as they were supposedly giving him CPR whilst help arrived.

Which actually brings up your point is were they actually doing it?

Kyle Risi: Yeah, they were not doing it. So he'd been dead a while.

Adam Cox: the person on the 9 1 1 call, I think even said it sounded like Molly was trying to make it sound like they were doing CPR by doing like the counting and stuff like that.

It felt a little bit over the top.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. I have no idea how you would fake that. I dunno what that would even sound like. I wouldn't be able to say that sounds over. Are you acting Molly?

Adam Cox: Yeah. Are you doing it? Tom was supposed to be doing the CPR, but he wasn't out of breath when the paramedics arrived and considering he would have been doing chest compressions

it doesn't seem like he'd been doing that for 15 minutes.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, sure.

Adam Cox: there was then the convenience of Molly's parents being over that night. Tom claimed that he and Sharon had planned to visit friends.

Kyle Risi: When

Adam Cox: those plans fell through, they decided at last minute to drive more than five hours to visit Jason and Molly because, you know, aspontaneous road trip for five hours.

It's just something you do really, isn't it?

Kyle Risi: What is that conversation that they've had like on the phone? Molly's called them up and like,tonight's the [00:54:00] night, I'm gonna do it. You need to come now. Or like,what? What have they said? Or if she called them up and gone, me and Jason, are we having real trouble?

I think he's gonna take the kids. will you come and maybe reassure him, tell 'em not to do it. I just need your help. That sounds plausible.

Adam Cox: .

Kyle Risi: My point is, I don't think it started out as a premeditated murder.

I think it was still something that probably just happened that night. But she called the parents because she knows he's gonna take the kids and she's always wanted to be a mom.

Adam Cox: I think she is concerned that he's gonna take the kids and I think having her parents, there might have been a way of preventing that maybe ,

detectives were also granted access to bank records, email accounts, social media, and phone records during their investigation,for both Molly and Jason. And during the search, it was discovered that Jason's laptop was missing along with a piece of jewelry that had belonged to his late wife Max. And so that necklace had been meant for his daughter, Sarah, one day

Kyle Risi: Uhhuh.

Adam Cox: So Molly had to later return that jewelry, but only after an unrelated court hearing. So she was starting to pinch things and take things for [00:55:00] herself, In the trial, the toxicology report showed that Jason had a low level of alcohol in his system.

But this disproved what Sharon had claimed that he had been drinking all day. Sure. Yeah. And that,again, something that Tom had said that he'd been drinking and had been a bit drunk. So the court heard about, the condition of Jason's body and the extent of the injuries and how brutal the attack had been when Molly was examined for the strangulation marks on her neck.

the paramedics noted that they were fading quite fast and that she was always scrubbing her skin around her neck to make it look like it was sore and red so when she was being spoken to at the scene, she just couldn't stop touching her neck essentially.

Kyle Risi: What is that implying?

Adam Cox: that if you have strangulation marks, you're gonna have some severe bruising and marks around your neck. All she had was some light red marks.

Kyle Risi: Okay.

Adam Cox: From her scratching of her neck.

Kyle Risi: Oh, I see. So it was just her doing it. Mm-hmm. So while she's talking to the police, she's just keep on scratching at it to just try and exasperate that a bit more.

Yeah. She should've just got her dad to strangle her a little bit.

Adam Cox: I mean, it would've been more convincing, I [00:56:00] guess. Um, not only that, she denied going to hospital and she'd signed a waiver form to say that she didn't need medical attention. But if you've been seriously strangled, you'd have injuiries to your throat.

Your voice could be affected Exactly. To the

Kyle Risi: point where you've had to kill your husband. you like, and this is the reason why I've killed him, babe.

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: You're gonna need some ethical attention shortly.

Adam Cox: Yeah, exactly. you're gonna have bruising, whatever. It's gonna be way more obvious. I.

She was also spotted, sobbing, but there was no signs of tears during those sobs as well. So she was putting on a show.

It was also noted she was wearing a thin bracelet around her wrist, after the attack. Which showed no signs of damage, which was really odd considering the violent struggle she claimed had taken place. , I think she had a few ripped clothes, but her appearance doesn't match this crime that's supposed to happen.

Yeah.

Kyle Risi: if your clothes got ripped, then that little bangle that would've been ripped off.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Molly was questioned about the murder weapon of the baseball bat and the brick that was found. Mm-hmm. Molly told the court that the brick had been inside the bedroom because she and the children were using it for an [00:57:00] art project and wanted to keep it dry.

But prosecutors found that explanation pretty suspicious. Yeah. Because there was no evidence of any painting or artwork involving bricks was ever produced, and it was like that was on standby. Ready to be used as a weapon.

Kyle Risi: yeah, for sure. Unless it was like pre-planning of the project. Oh, let's just get our materials ready.

Oh, we're gonna need a brick. Yeah. Let me store that in the bedroom. Let keep it dry. Yeah. You put in the airing cupboard. Everyone knows that.

Adam Cox: The trial of Tom and Molly Martins continued into the second week, and as the evidence piled up, it became harder and harderfor the defense to hold their story together. When the prosecution rested, the defense asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that there wasn't enough evidence to prove this wasn't self-defense. They claimed that Molly had nothing to gain from Jason's death.

Kyle Risi: Oh. She had a couple kids to gain

Adam Cox: and it was revealed she would be the beneficiary of his life insurance policy, which amounted to $600,000 a possible motive, especially if he was gonna escape back to Ireland, leaving her nothing.

Kyle Risi: Sure. Yes. I was gonna say if he [00:58:00] wasn't planning on escaping then it's not a smoking gun. Because of course there husband and wife. But yeah, the fact that he's going Makes her sound a bit suspicious.

Adam Cox: Exactly. And having legal guardian rights over the children could also secure her Right.

To any money that could be passed to them. Mm-hmm. Speculation, not proven, but you know, it kind of makes sense. Sure. The defense team argued that Jason's plans to flee back to Ireland were unclear, pointing out that flights he intended to book were never actually confirmed. Plus they noted his kids were due to return to school after the summer break.

So they were saying that he was never actually gonna escape. ,

Kyle Risi: if you're taking your kids out the country to escape, I wouldn't even bother canceling their schooling. I'd just take them.

Adam Cox: Interestingly though, the defense's argument backfired because it turned out that Molly had already registered Jack and Sarah into a new school, but not the one locally.

It was around 110 miles away near her brother's home. Oh, interesting. So why move the kids so far from where they lived? It strongly suggests that Molly [00:59:00] was planning a new life with the children and without Jason,

Kyle Risi: and we know that she is likely to do that type of thing because that's what she did with Poor Keith.

Adam Cox: Yeah, of course we know that Molly struggled with mental health issues and part of me feels, should we be more understanding? She has suffered a miscarriage and was clearly in a difficult place emotionally. Maybe her family should have done more to support her. Mm-hmm. But I just couldn't find enough evidence to suggest her mental health played a significant role in what happened or that she was in such a state that it could be used in her defense.

Mm-hmm. She appeared to be sound of mind enough to be fully responsible for her actions.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, that's crazy.

Adam Cox: In court, a victim statement was read aloud, written by Jason Corbet son, Jack. He was 13 at this point in time. Oh, I hate

Kyle Risi: these. These are so sad.

Adam Cox: He described the heartbreak of losing his father just nine years after his mother had died.

And he said his dad, was always there for him. Mm-hmm. That, he's now never gonna see him grow up.

Then he turned his words towards Molly and he said that she would never be part of the Corbit family. Instead, she'd always be remembered for what [01:00:00] she did for murdering her husband. Mm-hmm. Without any good reason

And as the statement was read, Molly broke down, wailing in court. Unsurprisingly the judge agreed with the prosecution.

Tom and Molly Martins were found guilty of second degree murder and was sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison. And grandma, she didn't get anything. She was reading her book, but I guess she didn't, I dunno, there's not enough evidence to

Put on her so second degree. I bet you though she's culpable though still because she must have known, oh, it's conspiracy or something like that, right? Yeah. But I dunno, she got nothing. Yeah. so second degree murder, for those that don't know, means that they intended to cause harm but not death.

Mm-hmm. But I think there's so much evidence to suggest that this was premeditated and that the death was intended. Unfortunately, I would love to say that justice was served, but the courtroom drama didn't end with that guilty verdict.

Kyle Risi: No. Really?

Adam Cox: Yeah. Just days later, the defense filed an appeal and claiming that jury misconduct and arguing statements made by Jack and Sarah had been wrongly excluded.

IE them saying about, that their dad being violent. They also floated an [01:01:00] unproven rumor that Jason was somehow responsible for his first wife's death, hoping it would justify Tom's mindset during that killing.

Kyle Risi: Oh, I see. Interesting. Yeah. But we know that's, it's not true shit because she had an asthma attack.

Yeah. And there were plenty of paramedics involved and they were in the hospital and stuff and all that. They approved. That was what happened.

Adam Cox: Yeah. on October the 30th, 2023, Molly and Tom Martins took plea deals. They admitted to voluntary manslaughter, and in return, the state dropped the murder charges.

Mm-hmm. And in early November, Tom pleaded guilty and Molly pleaded no contest, meaning she accepts the crime but is not admitting guilt. And then they were both sentenced to between 51 and 74 months in prison. And by that time, they pretty much served most of it. And so they were released last year.

Kyle Risi: Are you kidding me?

No, that is horrendous. I cannot imagine what Sarah and Jack must be going through knowing that they've gone through all of this. Their [01:02:00] entire lives have just been so tumultuous over the last what, Decade or so. And that's, this is horrendous. So she's a free woman.

Adam Cox: As of last year, and I think they've got, like 12 months of being like under, I dunno.

Parole, yeah. but that's it for them. So now 19 years old and 17 years old, Jack and Sarah finally had a chance to speak for themselves face to face for the people who took their father's life. Sarah talked about the years of therapy, about her childhood statements were twisted and used in court.

about Molly showed no remorse. Took off her Wedding ring right away and coldly told her to get over her father's death. Jack asked the judge not to be fooled. He called Molly a monster who abused him and used his words to get away with murder. Since then, they've revealed how Molly taught them to fake emotions, how to cry on cue, how to deceive.

Molly encouraged Sarah to vomit when stressed and when her and Jack didn't perform to her liking, they didn't swim fast enough or they didn't tow the line, she would stop feeding them. So she was manipulative and just horrible throughout their entire childhood.

[01:03:00] Wicked stepmother, the epitome

Kyle Risi: of it.

Can you imagine encouraging your kids to vomit When they feel scared or sad or

Adam Cox: when they were stressed, they would vomit.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Like,can you imagine someone going, do you know what, it's really gonna help with your stress. It's just make yourself vomit.

Likethat's so twisted. Poor Jack. They tell me that they're okay now. tell me they're building a life.

Adam Cox: they started to live with Tracy and Dave and earth mom. Yeah. And Dad. I think they are in a much better place. I think they still got upset and obviously of course, it's a lot to deal with.

But I think they're in a much better place considering they have such a loving family now to

Kyle Risi: help them. They're lucky that they have an extended Irish family, I think. Because they just seem to just know how to do families. Yeah, that and Italians, except the difference is with Italian families.

There's a lot more shouting, but there's a lot more love. And spaghetti.

Adam Cox: And spaghetti, more importantly. Meatballs. Meatballs. Yeah.

To be fair, there's no amount of time that would ever be enough justice for Molly or Tom to ever serve. Four years is definitely not it, of course. to me and to many [01:04:00] others, Molly seems like a narcissist. Fantasist who latched onto a grieving family so she could pretend their family was her own.

she isolated Jason from his real family and fabricated wild stories about him lying to his children and mentally manipulating them. She was provided with an affluent lifestyle and all the important accessories to go with her image. And when she realized Jason was going to leave her and that she could have no parental rights after their divorce, she conspired with her father to kill him.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. the simple word that comes to mind is parasitic. She's a parasite on this young, vulnerable family. That she identified an opportunity to infiltrate at a moment where they were at their most vulnerable. And that is sad because it's not like it's something that was identified very quickly.

It's something that went on for years and years and probably did lasting damage on them, not just from the fact that they've lost their father, but also psychological damage on them. Everything that Molly put them through and made them like [01:05:00] vomit on cue and whatever.

Horrendous.

Adam Cox: So there is a new Netflix documentary called A Deadly American Marriage,

And unlike,previous shows that have covered this story, Jason's family is at the heart of it.

Kyle Risi: Good.

Adam Cox: So his children, Jack and Sarah, who were just telling eight, when. Jason was killed, will be the central voices in the documentary. Really? Wow. And it's the first time they'll get to tell their side of the story on camera.

Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: Uh, even more, strangely, I'm really interested to see this, there's gonna be exclusive interviews with Molly and Tom in it, which is must gonna be hard to watch for the family.

But because they're released, probably keep them separate, right? I would've, yeah. I would just assumed so. But

Kyle Risi: this is, do you know what? I just know how it's gonna go because they're obviously got a twisted reality in their own minds. And I bet you any money, it's gonna be so obvious and so apparent that it's going to make a mockery of them when they sit there and they splitt their lies and whatever, in complete opposition to everything that's been done.

And the evidence set that's been delivered. Mm-hmm. I imagine it coming at the very end. Do you know what I mean? Where [01:06:00] they go, where it's like everything's silenced and you see someone walk in and then the lights come on and they're like, are you ready? And then Molly's yeah, I'm ready. And then she tells her a bit, and then it's just so stupid.

Yeah. What she says. Do you know what I mean?

Adam Cox: It could be like that, how they'll portray them. Yeah. Unless there's some new evidence that we just don't know about. But I doubt it though. I don't think so. Like,

Kyle Risi: it's so cut and dry.

And there's two innocent kids at the heart of this that grew up without their mom and a lot of their formative views without their father. Yeah. They're gonna do that and good. Because this sounds horrendous.

Adam Cox: And Sarah actually has released a book before this, called A Time for Truth, where she finally gets to tell her side of the story and celebrate her loving father for the person.

He truly was something she wasn't able to do properly during the court case as a child. Mm-hmm. She admits to her mistake in lying something she has to live with,

Kyle Risi: she was manipulated into doing that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I get why you would feel guilty, but justice, I mean, not the justice that she wanted in the end, but it did all come out in the end.

Yeah,

and the main thing is that [01:07:00] even though the justice system didn't give them more of a sentence, she will have that against her for the rest of her life. She'll be known as this person who essentially killed these two young kids', father.

Adam Cox: And the truth is out there, which is the most important.

And the, the truth is out there.

So I also heard, whilst listening to her podcast during this research, and I think this, comes from Tracy's book. So she, released a book, Jason's sister, Molly had gifted her a book as a present before they moved to the us. Oh God, what is it? The book is a fictional novel called A Reliable Wife.

and Tracy didn't really know much about the story when she first received it, but the general synopsis is as follows. It takes place in 1909 Wisconsin. Where a successful businessman, Ralph Truitt waits on a train platform for the woman who answered his newspaper ad for a reliable wife.

His Chicago born bride arrives, and she's not the simple, honest woman Ralph was expecting. Instead, she has a dark past and plans to seduce and poison him leaving town a rich widow So that parallel is eerie.

Kyle Risi: It [01:08:00] is eerie,

Adam Cox: yeah. And does that mean that Molly was plotting this whole time? or did she get inspiration from that story?

Mm-hmm. Who knows?

Kyle Risi: Yeah.

Adam Cox: And that is the story of Jason Corbett and Molly Martin's, the stepmother from hell.

Kyle Risi: That's not what I expected it to be. And for me that was really way more heartbreaking than I thought.

And I think it's just because it's such a recent story as well, and also fresh. Yeah. That's sad. Poor Sarah. Poor Jack. Yeah. I really hope they can build their lives. So they're only young adults now. They're what, in their early twenties? Or just about to turn? Yeah, I think so. Into the twenties.

Yeah. thanks for that, Adam.

Adam Cox: I think it's an important story, about resilience as well for the kids and how they've come through this, but also

Kyle Risi: betrayal as well. especially when it comes to a family, like when you have a deep betrayal like that,it's just the worst.

Because it is supposed to be your family members that are looking after you and looking out for you and they're not, they're just using you for, I don't know, to get hold of you,

Adam Cox: Yeah. Very [01:09:00] sad.

Kyle Risi: poor Jason.

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: Let's run the outro for this week, Adam.

And that brings us to the end of another fascinating foray into the compendium, an assembly of fascinating things.

If today's episode sparked your curiosity, then do us a favor and please follow us on your favorite podcasting app. It really does make the world a difference when you do and helps other people find the show.

Adam Cox: And for our dedicated freaks out there, don't forget. Next week's episode is already waiting for you on our Patreon.

Kyle Risi: Of course, if you want even more, then be sure to join our certified freaks to unlock our entire archive and delve into exclusive content and get sneak peeks of what's coming next. We would love you to be part of our growing community.

Adam Cox: We drop new episodes every Tuesday and until then, remember, it's not always the monster under the bed that you should be concerned about. Sadly, for some it's the one that could be tucking you in at night.

Kyle Risi: Ooh, Adam.

That's scary.

Adam Cox: Yeah. see you next week. See you. [01:10:00]