by Andrew Carey
JACK and Sarah Corbett are coming home to see their father buried beside their mother.
The two young children at the centre of a bitter custody battle in the US are set to return to Limerick after guardianship was awarded to their aunt.
Tracey Lynch, who is a sister of Jason Corbett, the Limerick man murdered in a domestic incident at his home in North Carolina, was said to be elated when she was told that ten year-old Jack and eight year-old Sarah were to be released into her care.
She was phoned with the news after officials from the Department of Social Services in North Carolina travelled to the town of Monroe where the children had been staying with their stepmother Molly Martens since their father’s death on August 2.
They told Ms Martens that Davidson County Superior Court Clerk Brian Shipwash deemed it in the best interest of the children that Tracey Lynch and her husband David be appointed as guardians of the children. Ms Martens was also ordered to hand over the children’s Irish passports.
Jack and Sarah were brought to the department offices in Lexington where they played for a number of hours before Tracey and David Lynch were allowed collect them.
On Tuesday, Molly Martens was granted a one-hour supervised visit to say goodbye.
Meantime in Limerick, more than 600 people gathered at the steps of City Hall for a vigil in support of the Corbett family.
Supported by her 80 year-old husband John, 74-year-old Rita Corbett said that the Martens family didn’t even sympathise with them on the death of their son and that it had been a “nightmare all the time” for herself and her family.
“They didn’t even sympathise with the family or anything – anyone with any human nature in them at all would do that much. I don’t care what happens them now as long as my grandchildren come home”.
The last time she saw her son alive was last summer when they went to Spanish Point for a short break and described him as “gentle, loving and good-natured person”.
“We are weary – it should never have come to this and those people should just let those children home and away out of that atmosphere.
Jason’s twin brother Wayne, who was with him on a two week holiday shortly before his death, spoke of the family’s appreciation for the support.
“The whole of Limerick has been very supportive and we thank them very much as a family We are just trying to cope for our elderly parents and then we can bury my brother as he should be buried,” he said.
Jason (39) died after what was initially described as a “domestic dispute” in his home on August 2, although a later police report revealed that he died following an assault.
Details of a 911 call emerged this week in which Molly Marten’s father Thomas, a retired FBI agent, told the emergency operators that he had been in an argument with his son-in-law and struck him with a baseball bat.
Tracey and David Lynch travelled to North Carolina to secure custody of Jack and Sarah in accordance with instructions in Jason’s will which stated that in the event of anything happening to him, his children should be placed in his sister’s guardianship.
Jason’s first wife and Jack and Sarah’s biological mother, Mags, died in 2006 following an asthma attack. Molly Martens who had been employed as a nanny for Jack and Sarah married Jason and they moved to the US four years ago.
The day after Jason’s killing, for which both Molly Martens and her father Thomas are said to be “persons of interest’, Ms Martens went to court to apply for guardianship, custody and adoption approval.
She had been trying to adopt Jack and Sarah for the last number of months but it is understood that Jason had been against this.
It is understood that the judge presiding over the case will now dissolve the custody and adoption hearing in light of the order by the Clerk of the Superior court.
Jason Corbett’s remains were repatriated last week with the help of the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust but the family said his funeral would not take place until his children were home.
Thomas Fitzpatrick who is a brother of the late Mags Corbett said they hoped to have the children back in Limerick by the weekend.
