An Irish businessman got killed by his American au-pair-turned-wife and her father, who claimed self-defense. The dead man’s sister is fighting to clear his name. “48 Hours” correspondent Maureen Maher investigates in “In Jason’s Name.” By the time Sarah Corbett Lynch was 8 years old, she had lost three parents, been moved back and forth halfway across the world twice, and experienced more loss than any of us do in a whole lifetime, let alone childhood.
Sarah’s birth mother passed away when she was just an infant. A few years later, her father Jason Corbett, a successful Irish businessman, tied the knot with their young, beautiful American nanny, Molly Martens. The newlyweds, Sarah, and her older brother Jack relocated from Limerick to North Carolina. Molly was the only mother Sarah had ever really known, and the two were incredibly close.
However, the married couple grew distant, and on Aug. 2, 2015, Jason Corbett was brutally beaten to death by Molly Corbett and her father Tom Martens. They argued it was self-defense. Following Jason Corbett’s death, an intense international custody battle unfolded between Molly Corbett and Jason’s sister, Tracey Corbett-Lynch. Corbett-Lynch emerged victorious, and the children suddenly moved back to Ireland to live with their aunt, uncle, and two cousins. Molly Corbett and her father were found guilty of murder and handed down sentences of 20 to 25 years in prison. In March 2021, the North Carolina Supreme Court ordered a new trial, leading to their release on bond the following month. In October 2023, Molly Corbett pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, and Tom Martens pleaded guilty to the same charge, resulting in a second-degree murder charge being dropped. They each received additional sentences of 7 to 30 months in prison. By June 2024, both had served their time and were released from prison.
You might anticipate a child exposed to such immense loss and pain from a violent act to lash out at some point, but for Sarah, the pen became mightier than the sword. At 13 years old, the young author released a series of children’s books. “Some kids have a really gentle, fun life. For some of us, we are not so lucky,” she shared with The Irish Times. Maybe the way she lost her parents was unique, but Sarah understood that the overwhelming feelings of loss were not. “Noodle Loses Dad,” the first book of the Boogawooga series, narrates the story of young brother and sister wolves whose father is taken by an evil vulture, never to be seen again. The scared cubs find refuge with a kind family of monkeys, consisting of a mother, father, and two boys, who reside “across the pond” on an island. Despite the simple words and soft pastel illustrations, the parallels between Sarah’s real-life drama and the hardships faced by the adorable forest animals are evident.
These stories serve as a way for Sarah to share her experiences in recent years, turning her story into something relatable for other children dealing with loss, grief, blended families, and being relocated due to personal circumstances, as stated by Sarah’s uncle, David Lynch. In the end, the orphans in the book learn to adapt to a very different life than what they had envisioned. This marks a fitting conclusion for the book and a promising start for a teenager who was recently honored with the Limerick Garda Youth Award for Most Courageous and Inspiring Young Person. Sarah Corbett Lynch’s most recent book, “A Time for Truth: My Father Jason and My Search for Justice and Healing,” hit the shelves in March 2025.
