The wife and father-in-law of Jason Corbett were attempting to resuscitate him when emergency services arrived on the scene, according to the report of North Carolina’s chief medical examiner.
Mr Corbett (39), from Co Limerick, was found on August 2nd last with fatal head injuries at a home he shared with his wife Molly Martens Corbett (31) and his two children from a first marriage at Panther Creek in North Carolina.
The probable cause of death is marked "pending" but the "manner of death" is marked "homicide" due to "blunt force head trauma", according to the report of South Carolina chief medical examiner Larry James, a copy of which has been seen by The Irish Times.
The description of the “means of death” is said to have been a “ball bat, [and] landscaping stone”.
Police were called to the house at 3.04am in response to a domestic disturbance. The 911 dispatcher was told by Mr Corbett’s father-in-law and retired FBI agent Thomas Martens (65) that he had been in “an argument with his son-in-law and that he had struck him with a baseball bat”, according to the police incident report.
Molly Martens Corbett and Thomas Martens were this week charged with second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter charges in connection with the killing of Mr Corbett.
According to the report both individuals were carrying out CPR on Mr Corbett when the emergency medical service (EMS) arrived on the scene.
“EMS advised that they arrived to find a female (wife of decedent) and another male doing CPR on the decedent which was located on the floor of the master bedroom,” says Mr James. “They assumed resuscitation and the wife and the other male were removed from the room.”
The report puts the time of death at 3.24am, and says Mr James was notified six minutes later at 3.30am. It was 5.35am when he viewed the body.
The report says the EMS removed the body from the house and placed him into the EMS unit where, based on the “rhythm asystole” - a condition in which the heart ceases to beat - and visible injuries, they “discontinued resuscitation”.
Mr James says in the report he was advised by emergency personnel “that the father of [the] decedent’s wife heard a disturbance and went into the bedroom to observe the decedent apparently choking the wife”.
He continues: “The father began fighting with the decedent and apparently struck him in the head numerous times with a bat and a landscape type rock.”
Mr James says the bedroom “had a large amount of blood on the floor, [and] spatter on the walls and furniture”. There were also “pieces of tissue and scalp” visible on the floor.
“The decedent had two areas of avulsion visible on his head with contusions visible under the right eye and on the back of the left hand,” it adds. Avulsion refers to the tearing away of a structure or part of the body.
Both Molly Martens Corbett and Thomas Martens were granted bail after they made their first appearances in a US court on Tuesday.
