Model to murder probe: who is Molly Martens?
To her family she is the ideal student who grew up to be the perfect mother, but others recall a party girl with a darker and more explosive side
SMOULDERING eyes and cascading blond hair, Molly Martens stares seductively into the camera. Her flowing white crop top and matching skirt show off her tiny belly button and washboard stomach, and she leans back sexily to look down into the lens. This is not the Molly Martens we’re used to seeing.
It’s a very far cry from the public image the American has been portraying since the August 2 death of her Limerick husband, Jason Corbett, in their North Carolina home. Police say both Molly and her father, retired FBI agent Thomas Martens, are ‘persons of interest’ in the murder investigation. Jason died of head injuries inflicted by a baseball bat.
Immediately following the horrific death in their posh Winston-Salem house, however, Molly began trying to gain custody of her two step-children, Jack and Sarah, who were born in Ireland to Jason and his late wife, Mags.
Molly has repeatedly insisted that they are her children and the centre of her world; when a judge ruled against her and decided Jason’s sister, Treacy, could take the children back to Ireland, her efforts to prove herself a devoted, loving super-mom intensified. Her posts this week on Facebook have been epic, as she describes in great, great detail, memories of trips or day-time fun with the children – addressing them directly to Jack and Sarah. She has posted her mobile number repeatedly during the week; when contacted, she says it’s just so the kids can get in touch with her, and she declines interviews.
Roasting marshmallows, going to the beach, building snowmen and playing with the family dog: based on Molly Martens Corbett’s photos, she really does look like the All-American mom. But in court filings, Jason’s family and friends describe a volatile, controlling drinker who is obsessed with the children – whom Jason allegedly refused to let her adopt, despite her repeated requests. So just who is Molly Martens? The wholesome, happy family impression she gives is perhaps unsurprising, given her own upbringing; together with her parents and brothers in Tennessee, they come off as typical of the All-American family.
Born around 1984, Molly grew up in Farragut, a small suburb of Knoxville, Tennessee, the daughter of Thomas, now an ex-FBI agent, and Sharon, who teaches at a local community college. The town is prominent and close-knit with expansive four and five-bedroom mansions. Both of Molly’s parents served on Farragut’s Parks and Athletics Council. That fits in with the family’s penchant for sports; Molly’s younger brothers were star baseball and soccer players.
Molly too was well-toned and athletic. She was a member of the swim team at Farragut High School, preparing her to be an instructor in her North Carolina neighbourhood years later. ‘She was a very, very good student,’ says her maternal uncle, Michael Earnest, who lives in Virginia near Washington DC and is also a federal agent.
He says Molly ‘is vivacious, has always been pleasant to be around, from when I first knew her as a baby growing up.’
One classmate who remembers Molly from Farragut says that she ‘ran with a dramatic crowd’. ‘I remember her being a fun, crazy party girl,’ said the classmate.
The family were well known and respected; Thomas Martens, after retiring from the FBI about eight years ago, took a job at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Counterintelligence. He has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation into his son-in-law’s death.
Mr Earnest describes Tom Martens, who is married to his sister, as ‘one of the finest people I have known. He says: ‘He’s the quintessential father. He’s been a coach for all of his children. Even with his demanding FBI work, where he was a supervisor during the majority of his FBI career.’
Following Molly’s time at Farragut High, which she graduated from in 2001, she attended Clemson University in South Carolina.
Her uncle says that then, for a few years, she worked in childcare jobs. She also dabbled with the idea of modelling; the sultry photograph shown here was posted with others on the website Explore Talent, an internet resource for auditions, jobs and casting calls which was set up in 2003.
‘I don’t think I was aware that she had a modelling profile,’ Mr Eastern says, before adding: ‘Now that you mention it, maybe I recall something. That didn’t immediately come to mind.’
By 2008, however, she had been hired through a service to be an au pair in Ireland for Jason Corbett, whose wife Mags died of an asthma attack not long after the birth of her second child.
While she took care of Jack and Sarah, she and the widower struck up a relationship, and the family all moved to North Carolina in 2011.
Molly and Jason married in her hometown of Knoxville, in a lavish ceremony in which she wore a billowing, princess-cut gown.
They bought a home in exclusive Wallburg in Winston-Salem, an upmarket and family-friendly neighbourhood. Molly was heavily involved in the children’s lives, volunteering at school, coaching at the local swimming club and socialising with neighbours. Her uncle says Molly ‘is extremely well read, she’s exceedingly polite, she’s honest, she’s a welcoming host – but all of these attributes pale in comparison to how she has been as a mother with these children.’
He explains: ‘I think that Molly really came to be who she always hoped she could be when she came into Jack and Sarah’s life. I think she has been, and is, the quintessential mother.’
Both her family and the Corbetts, however, claim all was not what it seemed inside this typically American Norman Rockwell-esque household. According to allegations made in custody documents by Treacy Lynch, family members over a number of years witnessed Molly exhibiting volatile and worrying behaviour.
Molly’s lawyer, David Freedman, categorically denies all the claims, saying the court clerk found both parties fit to have custody of the children but ultimately made the decision to put the children in the care of their Irish relatives based on Jason’s will.
And the story being told by Molly Martens’ family is far different from the one coming from her late husband’s relatives. As she battles for custody of the children and insists she has been the only mother they’ve really known, her relatives have come to her defence. Molly’s cousin, Amanda Mui, who lives in Florida, posted a supportive message on Facebook last week. She wrote: ‘After surviving years of emotional and physical abuse from her late husband, she [Molly] is now fighting to retain custody of the children she’s raised for years now.
‘Should two children lose the only parent they have left? Should two children be separated from the only real mother they’ve ever had?
‘Molly is a wonderful mother; it’s the love she has for her kids that has given her the strength to
‘I remember her being a fun, crazy party girl’ ‘She’s well read, she’s polite, she’s honest’