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Jason and sister Tracey Facebook

Jason Corbett's widow 'heartbroken' after losing custody appeal

Molly Martens was named as a person of interest in the police investigation into Corbett’s death.

THE US WIDOW of the late Jason Corbett has failed to appeal the decision not to grant her custody of his children.

North Carolina newspaper The Dispatch reports that a Davidson County Superior Court judge yesterday upheld the ruling to award guardianship of the two children to Tracey and David Lynch, Corbett’s sister and brother-in-law.

Jack (10) and Sarah (8) returned to Ireland in August after their stepmother lost her custody case.

Molly Martens, who was Corbett’s second wife, took to Facebook last night to express her sadness over the decision.

“I am heartbroken and devastatingly sorry,” she wrote.

Our lives together may not have mattered in the eyes of the law, but they are what matters most to me.
Jack and Sarah – I love you and will always be your mommy.

Corbett (39) died in August from fatal head injuries he received in a domestic incident at the home he shared with Martens in North Carolina.

Martens has been identified as a person of interest in the police investigation into her late husband’s death but no arrests have yet been made.

Read: Seeing Jack and Sarah being taken from Molly was ‘the most heart-wrenching scene’

Read: Jason Corbett’s parents say his wife is ‘exacerbating’ their loss

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33 Comments
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    Mute Dan Higgins
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    Dec 9th 2015, 8:38 AM

    You’d really think those kids have been through enough without that idiot still trying to interfere with their lives!

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    Mute Amy Gaffney
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    Dec 9th 2015, 9:24 AM

    She won’t even give them their possessions. Their mother and father wedding rings, nothing. She is a heartless woman. Whoever controls the kids, controls the estate.

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    Mute Marc Walsh
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    Dec 9th 2015, 9:05 AM

    I wonder why they haven’t charged her yet.

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    Mute Alien8
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    Dec 9th 2015, 10:43 AM

    (Allegedly), it was her father, not her…

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    Mute Amy Gaffney
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    Dec 9th 2015, 9:32 AM

    This woman can tug at the heart strings all she wants, but to claim you love two children but refuse to give them any of their belongings even clothes toys and sentimental items is hypocritical. The children are orphans because of her and her father. Only reason no arrests have been made is daddy and uncle are FBI. She breaches their privacy daily on facebook, that’s only going to traumatise the kids more as they get older.

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    Mute Shane Hickey
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    Dec 9th 2015, 10:18 AM

    True. I wonder how much that link to the FBI has influenced the police investigation

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    Mute john p Corbett
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    Dec 13th 2015, 10:58 AM

    100,% True Amy…
    But justice will prevail….
    John P Corbett

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    Mute Orla Forkan
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    Dec 9th 2015, 9:05 AM

    It is dreadful how she constantly posts photos on Facebook of the children along with messages to them dragging them into the custody battle. Hopefully the children will get some peace now and the police will charge whoever is responsible for their fathers death

    197
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    Mute Kathleen Henderson
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    Dec 9th 2015, 9:31 AM

    Molly Martens is a piece of work….TG the children are with their biological family.

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    Mute Alien8
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    Dec 9th 2015, 11:04 AM

    Seems like there is as much vitriol for Molly Martens here as there is for the children’s Irish family in the media in Carolina. The proof of that is in this comment, which is bit insensitive to the thousands of adopted, step parents and step children in the country.

    Even if (and I’ll wait for a trial, not facebook) she was responsible for Jason’s death, it doesn’t take away from the fact that she was step mother to kids for most of their life. It seems like social media is her only avenue for communication, so I wouldn’t hold it against her (but then again, I wouldn’t follow her – facebook is full of vengeful divorced parents using kids against the other parent). I doubt the kids even get to see it, but it will be there when they are grown up when they can make their own minds up about her.

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    Mute sweets
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    Dec 9th 2015, 3:34 PM

    I agree, Im scalded about seeing comments about “blood” family . its ridiculous and very disrespectul to foster/step and adopted children. i know people who were adopted and it is very insensitive to say the least. these references need to stop.

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    Mute john p Corbett
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    Dec 9th 2015, 3:51 PM

    My young Murdered brother Jason Corbett would love to have the opportunity to voice his opinion on this absurd deluded saga..that is being played out in the Family Law Courts in North Carolina by this very warped cold individual Molly Martens!
    But… Jason was brutally taken from us,,,,and… Molly Martens was in the House when this happened….

    Let Justice be served with extras………….
    John P Corbett

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    Mute john p Corbett
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    Dec 9th 2015, 3:54 PM

    well said

    John P Corbett

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    Mute john p Corbett
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    Dec 9th 2015, 3:58 PM

    I am Blood Family…It is disrespectful to coldly murder the beloved father of my nephew and niece….

    John P Corbett

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    Mute Michelle Cronin
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    Dec 9th 2015, 9:23 AM

    A will drawn up before marriage is not strictly invalid. A spouse has a certain automatic legal right share over the estate that could trump any gifts in the will though. Being married to the parent of a child doesn’t bestow an automatic right to guardianship or custody where that parent dies. Thankfully. Especially in this particular case.

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    Mute Sophia Gracin
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    Dec 9th 2015, 12:05 PM

    I’m so glad this has happened. This is not about me being anti-stepparent or saying non-biological parents can’t love their kids. The fact she tried to stop the kids from talking to their family when their dad first died is a huge red flag for me. Also, her looking into adopting them and getting custody in the case of a divorce seems wrong. Yes, she’s been in their lives in some capacity for a long time. Yes, they had lives over there. But what good would it have done if they’d stayed with her and lost contact with all of their biological family? Because that’s what it looks like she would have done.
    But it also can’t be ignored that she and her father are persons of interest in the death of her husband, the kids dad, and that alone is a reason to keep the kids from her for now.
    I’d also like to add. The kids may love her and I’d say there is a chance they’ve seen her as a mother because she has been there for a while, at least some of her posts indicate that (the letters written by the kids). But there is something off putting about a woman who was married and never adopted the kids posting like she’d been a single mother for years and years. Maybe that’s just me.

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    Mute Missyb211
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    Dec 9th 2015, 11:41 AM

    I cannot understand this attitude of people. Everything Molly Corbett nee martins is doing is what any mother would do in her situation. Who of you mothers would not fight to keep your children? Who of you would not do anything you could ie facebook, to reach out to them and tell them that you are there, thinking about them, still loving them. Who knows if she had anything to do with the death of her husband, time will tell and the law will decide but the hatred people have for her is not even based on that. It’s irrational, it’s reactionary, it’s ridiculous! It’s because she is “not one of us”! You make a grieving mother into a villain. Shame. Here I was thinking the wicked stepmother was a thing of fairy tales! It’s nasty!

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    Mute Ian Walsh
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    Dec 9th 2015, 11:49 AM

    Go and read all the stories and then come back with your opinion.

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    Mute Amy Gaffney
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    Dec 9th 2015, 11:51 AM

    There are quite a lot of reasons why people dislike her. Aside from whether it was her or her father who killed Jason, she didn’t notify the family of his death til the next day, at which point it was her mother not her who called them and who told the family Molly had done it, before the story changed, prevented them from seeing his body and tried to have him immediately cremated until they got a court order to prevent it, blocked the family from access to the children for weeks after they arrived in the US until they again had to fight through the courts, refuses to give the children anything they have requested from her, even their own and their mothers jewellery, has completely written their father out of her little facebook stories in an attempt to give the impression she was a single parent, has called the children’s elderly grandmother in the middle of the night screaming obscenities at her, and is trying to rewrite history. She is not their mother, they have not called her mom for 8 years, she was a nanny up until 4 years ago. So no. The disdain for her is not irrational.

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    Mute Trev heff
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    Dec 9th 2015, 12:04 PM

    She grieves for the loss of the children but judging from her Facebook she seems to have erased her dead husband from her life

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    Mute jason stenson
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    Dec 9th 2015, 1:10 PM

    Memo to missyb211: she was not and never was their mother,what kind of a mother refuses to give her children’s belongings back although she seems to have gotten over her husband’s death quite well not even a solitary picture of him on the same Facebook page she does her incessant whining on

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    Mute john p Corbett
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    Dec 14th 2015, 12:24 PM

    Reality check..!..They are not Molly Martens Children..they are Jason Corbetts and Mags Corbetts children..real world fact!..
    I smile at some of the deluded comments from the people who can not see through the cold manipulative deceit from Molly Martens and her cowardly family…
    she is not a mother..she never has being..she has no children..she never will have any..fact!…
    I wonder if the very few deluded individuals who support Molly Martens are aware…that since the night of my bother Jason Corbetts brutal Murder.” 5 Months ago ” !..That she and her family has never shown any sign of remorse or empathy to my dear Mother and Father for the loss of their youngest son.. her suddenly deceased ” Husband” ..she has never mentioned Jason on her ongoing deluded barrage of comments on her Facebook page…??.. That she prevented the return of the children’s belongings to their real family.. No..not the normal characteristics of a Caring Woman…
    Justice will definitely arrive..the U.S. Justice system will prevail and take the freedom from those who cowardly Murdered my Dear Brother Jason Corbett
    John P Corbett

    17
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    Mute George Masterson
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    Dec 9th 2015, 9:12 AM

    I found it odd in this case that it was a will drawn up before the marriage that was used to grant custody to the aunt and uncle, as I understand things if this happened in Ireland that will would be invalid.

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    Mute Marc Walsh
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    Dec 9th 2015, 9:26 AM

    I’m sure the loss of his first wife was a devastating experience drawing up a will to make sure his kids were looked after by his family makes perfect sense to me.

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    Mute Margaret Goodman Lillis
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    Dec 10th 2015, 2:12 PM

    the judge did say it was not because of the will , he said he felt the parents jason and mags would want their children brought up in their own culture with their family in ireland , and he felt this was the best place for them …..

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    Mute Margaret Goodman Lillis
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    Dec 10th 2015, 2:15 PM

    the judge did say his decision wasent entirely based on jasons will he said in his opinion the children would be better off being brought up in their own culture with their own family …and thats what in his opinion their natural parents jason and mags would have wanted.

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    Mute David Clarke
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    Dec 9th 2015, 11:13 AM

    She raised the kids from when they were babies and if you know what happen please bring it to the cops

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    Mute Ian Walsh
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    Dec 9th 2015, 11:48 AM

    She did not.

    66
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    Mute john p Corbett
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    Dec 13th 2015, 1:18 PM

    Just to bring the brutal truth to this traumaticly sad on going real life event about my kid brother..
    A. Molly Martens was never the mother of my niece and nephew….never will be…
    B. She presumes to be so loving and caring…she is one of the main suspect’s in my beloved brothers brutal horrific Cowardly Murder….Yes Murder..! Jason is in a muddy hole in the cold winter ground..! Dead.! While Molly Martens is playing on Facebook!!… Jason was! Taken from us and his children forever…So in any normal way of thinking this makes Molly Martens not a nice person….who should never be allowed any where near any! Children…
    C.. this is not a debate on the qualities of step parents and blood parents….this is an on going real world brutal murder investigation…not a social media trial….
    E..Molly Martens and her delightful family prevented and delayed the release of my dead brothers body to my family to bring Jason home…Molly Martens did everything she could in the north Carolina family law courts to try and prevent my nephew and niece coming home to her real family in Ireland…the U.S. Justice system decided that the most natural decent normal loving thing to do….was for my nephew and niece to be nurtured loved and healed in Ireland for the rest of their lives away from the warped cold Martens Family….
    F.. Molly Martens is so full of care and love…she refuses to return lots of very personal sentimental items belonging to Jason and the children… this does not seem caring and warm to me..but cold bitter vindictive and premeditated…! She wanted to fly a plane over my family’s house with a banner message for Jack.. knowing that my brother is buried nearby!….the truth about this woman beggars belief….!
    So this is not a character competition….not a Molly Martens Facebook fairy story….!
    The real world story is…Jason Corbett my beloved brother…was brutally murdered.fact!…he did not murder himself…fact… Molly martens was in the house..fact..her father Thomas martens and co……. we’re also in the house..fact….
    You do not have to be a forensic scientist!! Wake up and smell the coffee!!!
    We will never! Rest until the cowards who murdered my brother are brought to cold justice…
    John P Corbett

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    Mute sweets
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    Dec 9th 2015, 3:15 PM

    ive been following this case from the start as it is a very strange one indeed and have read all media reports, including facebook posts…..IMO I think all the parties (and their friends) involved in this very sad case need to stop talking to the media, and most of all stop reporting on facebook. it is benefitting noone only inciting bad behaviour on both sides which is a natural response to anger. It will not make the case come to trial any faster, it will not influence the charges to be brought nor will it influence the eventual outcome. If anything, what has been posted on social media to date could potentially damage the case to be brought, supporters publicly posting about issues that are private includig about debating whether or not JC wanted to return to live in Ireland, his visa status, and autopsy reports and also the childish behaviour of some poking fun at the childrens lives and hobbies, none of this is helpful. MM nor her friends doesnt help themselves either. if MM makes phone calls to people, make a note of it, there is no need to post it on FB. If MM is witholding their possessions, seek out the proper channels to deal with it, not rant about it on FB. It is playing right into MM’s legal defence team. Everyone is speculating since the beginnig arguing about visas, residency, childrens possessions and that fact that she is not their mother. the world knows that . potential jurors cannot be biased. photos of the children are all over the internet posted by both sides in this matter whether on fb pages or media photos so this constant argument does not really wash. I hope the family get answers. i dont know either party and I hope the children can rebuild their lives privately. now that the custody issue is final, there should be a complete shutdown on social media, no more interviews to the press, posing for photos, be silent. she did raise them jointly so therefore she is allowed to miss them so let her. ensure nothijng posted esp on fb can be used, and no doubt some of it will, by MM’s legal team in building their defence. it needs to stop now. be patient and wait.

    18
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    Mute Rosa Parks
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    Dec 9th 2015, 7:26 PM

    Of course they werent going to give a person of interest custody! The cheek of her looking for it! Only in America….

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    Mute Margaret Goodman Lillis
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    Dec 10th 2015, 3:13 PM

    actually david clarke she was employed by jason as a nanny for the first 4 years in limerick….so she helped raise them for a wage

    14
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