A NEW Netflix documentary on the killing of Limerick man Jason Corbett has been released today (Friday May 9).
A Deadly American Marriage describes Jason’s violent death at the hands of his wife and father-in-law, Molly and Tom Martens.
The streaming platform said the documentary “sheds a bright light on the many questions that have lingered since the shocking events of that night”.
The 39-year-old father of two from Janesboro, the documentary outlines, was beaten to death with a concrete brick and a baseball bat by his American wife Molly Martens and her father, former FBI agent Tom Martens, in August 2015.
The Netflix documentary, which was in production for over four years, features never-before-seen footage and interviews with Jason’s children, Sarah and Jack Corbett, his sister Tracey Corbett Lynch, Molly and Tom Martens, and US law enforcement agents and court officials.
Speaking to the Limerick Post, co-producer Brian Carroll for the Irish unit of the documentary, said the production features “lengthy interviews that were carried out after the sentencing hearing”.
The interviews with Tom and Molly Martens were carried out by an American unit, “in the interest of impartiality and fairness”, Brian says, while he co-produced the interviews from the Corbett family, as well as other supporters, including one of Molly Martens’ bridesmaids.
Molly and Tom Martens were were convicted of second-degree murder in 2017, however, in 2021, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned their convictions.
The father and daughter were sentenced to a minimum of four years and three months in prison at a hearing in November 2023, including time already served, after both accepted plea deals of voluntary manslaughter.
Molly and Tom Martens were released from prison in June 2024 after serving a shorter sentence than originally imposed.
At the time, Jason’s daughter Sarah, from his first marriage to the late Limerick woman Mags Fitzpatrick, was sitting her Leaving Cert exams from a hospital bed in Galway.
Molly travelled to Ireland to be an au-pair for the Corbett children after Jason’s first wife Mags died after suffering an asthma attack.
The four later moved to North Carolina, where Jason and Molly were married.
The documentary sees Jack and Sarah remember their beloved dad, giving their recollection of the events of the traumatic night of his killing, and detail how they were allegedly coached as young children by Molly to make up stories about their late father as they grieved his death.
“I want people to know the truth and I want people to know my dad as a person. My dad was a really amazing person and what happened to him shouldn’t have happened to him,” Sarah told interviewers in the documentary.
A Deadly American Marriage is produced and directed by Jessica Burgess (Rich & Shameless, American Monster) and Jenny Popplewell (What Jennifer Did, American Murder: The Family Next Door). It is streaming now on Netflix.
