The daughter of Limerick man Jason Corbett killed by his American wife and father-in-law Molly and Tom Martens has released a tell-all book about her life before and after losing her Dad.
The late Mr Corbett and his late first wife Mag’s children, Sarah Corbett Lynch, 18 and her brother Jack, 20, were in the North Carolina house at the time of the father’s killing on August 2nd, 2015.
They have lived in Limerick with their aunt and uncle Tracey Corbett Lynch and her husband David in the years after his death.
Sarah, also a children’s book author and singer, sat her Leaving Cert last June and is now attending college.
Her book, A Time For Truth, marks 10 years since her father’s death reveals “a decade of grieving, a decade of justice denied, a decade being silenced,” according to the Facebook support page Jason’s Journey.
The page points out that “this is the year Sarah Corbett Lynch gets to speak her truth, her lived experience. This is the year Sarah’s book is being released ‘A Time For Truth’.”
A synopsis from the book details who Sarah was 12 weeks old when her mother, Mags, died and eight-years-old when her father was killed by Molly and Thomas Martens.
“The Martens made me an orphan. They took away my father, my only constant, the only loving parent I had,” she recounts in the book which also formed part of her Victim Impact Statement given in North Carolina Superior Court in 2023
Sarah and her brother Jack were also in the house that fateful night, asleep upstairs.
Now the young woman shares her earliest memories of her beloved Dad and her life with him, Jack and Molly Martens in their home in North Carolina, and gives her account of the events leading up to the night that changed everything.
She remembers the aftermath of her father's death, and how her words were “weaponised amidst lies and deception during her family's gruelling nine year battle for justice - and the devastation they shared when Molly and Tom Martens were released from prison in 2024, after serving just three and a half years."
Drawing from diaries she has kept since she was eight-years-old, Sarah also writes about her journey of grief and recovery from trauma, as she and Jack were welcomed into the safe, loving home of her aunt Tracey, her father's sister, in Ireland.
The book blurb calls it: “Raw, powerful and inspirational, A Time for Truth is an unforgettable story of heartbreak and loss, but also of strength, love and courage as this remarkable young woman has survived, healed and thrived - against the odds.”
The Martens father and daughter pleaded guilty to killing Mr Corbett in a plea deal admitting his manslaughter in a second trial in late 2023.
Mr Corbett was killed in his home in Panther Creek, North Carolina in the US eight years ago by his second wife American Molly, 40, and her father a former FBI agent Tom Martens, 73, by the pair wielding a paving stone and baseball bat as he slept in bed.
The father and daughter served 44 months in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in their first trial in 2017 where they received 20 and 25-year sentences. However, their convictions were overturned following court appeals.
In a second trial the pair were jailed for a minimum of seven months and a maximum of 23 months at Davidson County Court in November 2023 for the manslaughter of Mr Corbett.
Prison authorities released the pair in June last year.
The book is available to pre-order on Amazon and through Easons.
