Pilot murdered three of his neighbours to protect his reputation

Christian Martin’s fall from grace was spectacular

- GAIL SHORTLAND

Dressed in his PSA Airlines uniform, pilot Christian “Kit” Martin turned heads as he strode to the departure gate at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky on 11 May 2019. The former army major with a military career that spanned 30 years was ready to fly a plane to Charlotte, North Carolina, for PSA, a regional subsidiary of American Airlines. But as he got to the security checkpoint, ready to board the plane for the early morning flight, he was stopped by the police.

Suddenly heads were turning for all the wrong reasons. Martin was put in handcuffs, arrested, and publicly taken into custody. He would never fly again.

The charge? The triple murder of three of his neighbours. It was an enormous fall from grace, and it was only going to get worse for Martin. His past was about to catch up with him.

Four years earlier, Martin had been living in the small town of Pembroke, Kentucky. After a prestigious army career flying helicopters, Martin was in emotional turmoil.

His marriage to his wife, Joan, had ended and the split had turned bitter. Martin had also discovered that Joan had been married to another man when they wed in 2004.

She would go on to be charged with bigamy and was given five years “pretrial diversion” – a supervision program. But in turn, Joan accused Martin of being controlling and abusive.

As Joan moved out of the family home with her son from a previous relationship, neighbour Calvin Phillips, who lived across the road, helped Joan with her belongings. Calvin lived with his wife Pamela.