protecting you and keeping faith with that sacrifice. >> congressman jason crow, thank you very much for joining us and appreciate your perspective. >> thank you for having me.smal. i was very scared. i was worried that i was going to be next. a success to celebrate after so much loss. his wife killed in an awful fire. >> i was devastated. this is my sister. she was a sweet, wonderful,

giving person. they called it a horrible accident. here is the thing, accidents just seem to keep happening. deadly ones. >> it kept coming up. intuition that something was not right. i actually watched an episode of "dateline" and i had a revelation. a dangerous mission. puts her whole life at risk. hello and welcome to "dateline." the death of a young mother in a house fire is almost too much for her family to bear. years later, another devastating

accident this was bad luck or the work of a calculated killer? >> snapshots of a time gone by. capturing a life that could have been now all that is left is the burned out remnants of a life that is gone. >> i seen the destruction to my family. i've seen my parents fall apart. >> i didn't think my life was going to turn out like this. at all. had it not come to a head now. the mystery would have lived on. the family would have always wondered. the story begins here around the finger lakes. a stunning part of upstate new york. this is where the karlsson family put down its roots.

it's here he brought his bride to meet his family in 1986. his brother mike took to her right away. >> she was kind. not very tall at all. a very simple sweet heart of a kid. christina and karl had met in north dakota where karl was stationed in the air force. he was discharged they came to his home to make a life. she could fit across -- >> absolutely. she would give it out as well as take it. they were a cute cup. christina, the cheerleader from california. christina's sister liked the way karl meat chris laugh. >> they would laugh and joke and the barrel chested guy and my sister at 4'11". he got work at the local stone kwaur i are and it wouldn't be long before he and christina had three kids.

aaron, levi, and katie. >> she would be on the floor playing with them and teaching them and instructing them. coddling them. it wasn't just her kids. it was all of our kids. she seemed happy but karl wanted more than working in the kwaur i are. and christina's father offered a future. working with his heating and air-conditioning company. >> come out to california and you'll have a job. they moved across the country to murphy's. an own mining town. karl found them a ramshackle house at the top of this long winding road. it wasn't much but it was closer and christina made it special. >> she went into decorator mode and started painting and sowing curtains. every time i would go up it was like wow that's really good.

just a week later, their lives would change forever. it was new year's day, 1991. >> reporter: karl and christina's house was on fire. karl said he was outside, but he rushed toward the flames. he led the kids out of their bedroom windows. they'd been napping, but christina was trapped in the bathroom. the fire raging just outside the bathroom door. the window was boarded shut from the inside. by time art arrived, the paramedics were already on the scene. >> got in the ambulance, i looked around. i said, where's chris? and they told me, one of the kids said she's with god or she's -- the angels took her or something like that.

and that's when i found out. it's worse than death. >> reporter: art could only imagine the terror of her last moments on earth. they hen placed one of the toughest calls he's ever made. >> i need to tell you something. there was a fire out at chris' house and everyone got out but chris. and i said, are you kidding me? and he said no. >> reporter: back in upstate new york, the karlsen family got the terrible news. so mike and his sister-in-law flew to california to help karl and the children who were all under the age of 7. >> i said, i'll help when i can. tell me what to do. and he was just numb. he was more of a zombie. he just said, i don't know. >> reporter: are you thinking

how in the world is my brother going to take care of these three little kids? >> right. i had no clue. >> reporter: karl spoke briefly with fire investigators. he said he wasn't sure how the fire started, but he knew why it moved so fast. the pets had knocked over a container full of kerosene a day or two before. karl didn't share many other details with friends and family, and mike sensed it was hard for karl to deal with anything important. so after a while, mike pressed him a bit. >> what are we doing? if we're going to stay in california, you need to arrange for an apartment. you've got to get supplies, get the house settled. the kids need some form of stability here. that's when he said, i just want to go home. >> reporter: the calaveras county sheriff said there was no evidence of foul play. four days after the fire, karl packed up his three children and flew back to upstate new york. it was yet another blow for christina's grieving family. >> my sister and i had made a commitment to each other that

our kids were going to grow up knowing each other. and then it was stripped in five years. >> reporter: all christina's father had left of his beloved daughter was this box of charred photos that he rescued from the house. reminds of her and the grandchildren he loved. >> after her death, i was probably more dead than alive. i didn't pay attention to a lot of things that i should have, but i just muddled through. i didn't care. >> reporter: hobbled by grief, he also felt a helpless and maybe pointless anger toward his son-in-law and wondered why didn't karl do more to save christina that terrible day? >> there was a pick laying in front of a tree up in front, if somebody wanted to pull a board off a window, all they had to do was take a pick and pull it off. >> reporter: for the children, erin, katie and levi, art would contain his anger and keep the family peace. but what happened in that little house on the hill would come back to haunt christina's family in the years to come. another painful loss is about to hit this family. one that none of them expected. when we come back -- >> we just got home. and i don't think he's alive. >> you don't think he's alive?

>> no. >> a new tragedy will launch a whole new round of questions. fight for blast offs fight for piggyback rides fight for 7 am makeouts. every year, walgreens helps millions of people fight the flu. fight to protect the ones you love. walgreens. be a flu fighter. get your free flu shot today at your neighborhood walgreens. it can cause damage to the enamel. with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. with pronamel repair, more minerals are able to enter deep into the enamel's surface. the fact that you have an opportunity to repair what's already been damaged...it's amazing.

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ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. here's to you. the finger lakes region of upstate new york was karl karlsen's family home. and now he was back to stay. here in seneca county he would rebuild his life among the farms, the fields, the vineyards and old friends. does everyone in this area know

the karlsen family? >> probably most of seneca county knows one or all of us. >> reporter: karl's wife was gone, but he still had his three little kids to think about. >> he went back to work at the stone quarry for a while. and he then saw an opportunity at a local glass manufacturing plant that had just opened. >> reporter: was there a lot of concern for karl having just lost his wife? >> i think everybody realized this poor guy isn't going to do it on his own. >> reporter: so people helped out. it all seemed to come together for him when he met cindy best at a line dancing party in 1992. >> he told me he lost his wife in a fire, and he was a single dad raising three kids on his own.

>> reporter: cindy got herself an instant family when she married karl in august of 1993. they bought a farm soon after that. and between the farm and the glass job, karl was busy. cindy was desperate to have a child of her own, so she and karl went through in vitro fertilization. you were going to have the baby you always wanted. >> happiest time of my life. yep. >> reporter: the big kids were happy, too, when baby brother alex was born. >> reporter: as the years went by alex said he and levi developed a special bond. >> he was always there for me. we always loved to hang out together. >> reporter: levi, erin and katie's family stayed in touch. aunt colette got to know the girls and got a kick out of levi. >> levi had a quirky personality. he was a prankster, but he also had my sister's very sweet spirit. >> what's the matter, levi? >> reporter: but levi's life wasn't easy. he had problems in school. and he and karl started to butt heads.

>> i think levi bucked the system a little bit. he was a typical teenaged boy who knew all the answers. the more levi struggled in his world, karl held him down rather than try to pick him up. >> reporter: the rift widened. in may of 2002 when levi was only 17, he left home. his uncle mike watched it happen with a tinge of sadness. >> he dropped out of school, which didn't help things at all. he jumped and didn't look where he was jumping to. so he didn't have a job. he floated from house to house, to different family members. >> reporter: levi eventually met a girl named cassie and was living with her when disaster struck the karlsen family again. it happened in november of 2002. as cindy remembers it, karl was just coming to bed. >> he sat upright and kind of looked out the window and said, oh, my god, call 911. the barn's on fire.

>> reporter: cindy did call 911. and her brother-in-law. what did karl say to you when you arrived? >> he mentioned that the horses were still in there. >> reporter: the karlsens had been breeding belgian horses. their loss and the loss of the old barn was devastating to the family. when levi got the bad news, he exploded. said some terrible things. and he and karl came to blows. >> levi got in his truck to get away from karl, and karl chased after him. i was yelling at karl, you know, just let him go, leave him alone, let him go. >> reporter: but levi was never able to stay away for long. he and cassie included karl and the rest of the family in their wedding in 2003. the young couple soon had two daughters. it may have been too much too fast. the marriage didn't last. >> it was just a bad divorce. neither one of them was nice to each other. >> reporter: but like many kids, levi started to grow up. he got his ged, started working and tried hard to be a good dad.

and perhaps in being a father, his anger with his own father began to soften. >> i think he had rounded the corner a little bit. could see some sort of a path and a direction for his life. >> reporter: levi had his own place now, but he would drop by the old house to see the family and help karl with some work. on november 20th, 2008, levi came over to work on a truck in cindy and karl's new barn. cindy remembers she and karl had just come home from a funeral. they'd been gone for about four hours. >> karl told me that he was going to go out and let levi know we were home and check on him. >> reporter: cindy went into the house. suddenly karl came rushing out of the barn. >> he came banging on the window and the door and telling me to call 911. >> what's going on? >> the truck fell on my stepson.

coming up -- >> the truck was jacked in a very precarious, dangerous scenario. >> yet another deadly accident? how could that be? >> these thoughts kept coming up just like an intuition that something just was not right. >> a private investigator is about to enter the picture. okay. ♪

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>> no. >> he is not breathing? okay. >> no. >> another catastrophe had struck the karlsens, levi was trapped under a truck in the barn. >> his chest is crushed. >> his chest is crushed. >> his chest is crushed? >> there's no -- he's probably been under here for hours. >> reporter: karl's brother mike rushed over. >> they were just bringing levi out on the stretcher and putting him in the ambulance when i got there. >> reporter: levi was taken to the hospital but the family knew it was hopeless. 17 years after his mother's terrible death, levi karlsen had died at the age of 23. cindy said karl came unhinged. >> he was actually like throwing himself up against the wall, and he was on the ground. >> reporter: so many tears and so many questions. how could levi have been so

careless? >> we went into the barn to see the truck was jacked in a very precarious, dangerous scenario. no blocks under it. flimsy little jack holding it up. >> reporter: you're thinking levi should have known better than this. >> absolutely. >> reporter: he knows his way around. >> absolutely. >> reporter: now, once again, karl karlsen had to pull himself out of the depths of tragedy. it would take a while, but this time he seemed to come out of it a changed man. karl got fired up by a new plan to start a gourmet duck farm and began raising thousands of ducks to sell to new york restaurants. he and cindy even found themselves starring in an episode of "pitchin' in" a food network candidate series. >> i think he had these visions that he was going to be this famous person, rich and famous. >> reporter: cindy watched her husband's ego swell with all the attention. and she was happy for his

success. >> just like an intuition that something just was not right. >> reporter: she kept thinking about the day levi died and how he died. >> reporter: it turns out mike was uneasy about it, too. what did karl say to you after levi's death? >> not a lot. i went to the hospital, and i was in the room with levi. and karl came in the room. and i don't know what i wanted him to say, but he says, how do i explain this? >> reporter: what did he mean by that? >> no idea. >> reporter: mike didn't share his misgivings about karl with cindy, but she had plenty of her own. she fought them for a while until one day she had to admit to herself -- >> oh, my god, i think he did it. you know. but then i would also talk myself out of it. i would tell myself, you know, you're crazy. we weren't even home at the time. >> reporter: officials called it an accident. and yet --

>> again these thoughts kept coming up. kept sinking more into a depression. and eventually ended up using alcohol as a way to cope. >> reporter: cindy confided in a couple of friends. they dismissed her fear, but someone did suggest she call a private investigator. that's how she met steve brown. >> she walked in the door and she looked very frail, physically. emotionally just sickly, weak. >> reporter: cindy told the private investigator about her crazy fear, that her husband had killed his own son. >> cindy proceeded to tell me what happened that day in 2008. >> reporter: and she remembered something. before she and karl left for the funeral, he went to the barn to see levi. and for a few minutes she was alone there with his son. >> karl said he wanted to check on levi before they left, and

karl had came back to the vehicle and he drove off for the funeral. karl seemed fine the entire time. normal behavior. >> reporter: cindy knew it sounded crazy, but she wanted steve brown to understand -- she believed karl might have done something during that moment in the barn to cause levi's death. the private investigator found the story troubling. and it set his mind racing about karl. >> ways pretty quiet the rest of the night just dissecting how could that be? how could somebody do something like that? >> reporter: steve started

looking through insurance documents and phone and medical records. he didn't want to contact police until he had more evidence but in february 2012, the decision was taken out of his hands when cindy confided in her cousin. >> i had told her my suspicions, but i asked her not to say anything. coming up -- >> i had actually watched an episode of "dateline." and i just like had this revelation. >> could "dateline" somehow help in this case? exactly what was she planning? do suffer if there is options that they don't need to. i think dentists will want to recommend sensodyne rapid relief. sensodyne rapid relief builds a layer fast on the tooth's surface over those sensitive areas, which means patients are going to get fast relief from their sensitivity. sensodyne rapid relief is clinically proven to work in 3 days. i think dentists will want to recommend this product because it's going to help their patients and that's what we are trying to do is help patients. [ soft piano music playing ] mm, uh, what do you do for fun? -not this. ♪ -oh, what am i into?

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i'm dar are a brown. president trump continues to have questions about a whistle blower's credibility. and a federal judge has locked the trump administration's attempt to increase the authority of immigration officers to deport people without allowing them to appear before judges. now back to "dateline."

welcome back to "dedicaatel" armed a few tactics she learned from dateline. cindy would take on a dangerous mission. they came up with an awe dish dedication plan. >> i said what if i go under cover and befriend, karl, as you will as a promoter for your duck

business. he came to the house. i had to pretend i was meeting him for the first time. >> i said where are you now? where do you want to be in a couple of years. karl started telling his vision and dreams about the duck business, if you will. >> after that, steve said he and karl would drive around the area talking business, mostly. one moment stood out when karl was talking about killing farm animals. steve didn't want to contact the police until he had more evidence. but in february of 2012, the decision was taken out of his hands when cindy confided in her cousin. >> i told her my suspicions but

i asked her not to say anything. >> despite that, the cousin promptly called the sheriff's department. john clear was the detective who took the call. wasted no time in phoning cindy karlsen. how did that go? >> first thing she said was thank god you called. >> thank god you called. i was so relieved. he paid particular attention when he said levi who never had much money taken out an enormous life insurance policy. >> the most useful piece of information was about a $700,000 plus insurance policy that was paid out on levi karlsen. >> reporter: from his conversations with cindy karlsen and steve brown, detective clear learned that karl helped levi sign up for the policy. the beneficiary? karl himself. >> he actually takes him to see

an insurance agent and takes out approximately a $400,000 life insurance policy with a $300,000 accident rider. 17 days later the fatal accident happens. but detective clear learned the girls never got a dime. >> there was money spent on a whole multitude of things. home improvement. karl spent a lot of money on the duck business. there was some huge payouts on that. >> reporter: as he dug deeper, detective clear discovered that karl karlsen had collected on a number of insurance policies over the years. in 1986 karl's new dodge charger caught fire. karl collected $10,000. the fire that killed the horses and took down the barn paid out nearly $115,000. clear also learned that karlsen had taken out policies on levi's two little girls. karl had no idea he was being investigated, but cindy still wanted to get away from him. so she moved out of the house. after she did, karl sent her a

text saying that he had heard she'd been snooping around. she says it scared her. >> it was a threatening text. i can't remember exactly what he said, but it was enough to make me feel like i just couldn't do it any more. >> reporter: she immediately called her son alex, then 16, and told him they had to leave town. >> she came and got me. and i came out to the car, and i saw that she had packed all of our suitcases and our dogs were in the car. and she had told me that there was an investigation going on because they thought my dad had killed my brother. >> reporter: they started living in hotels. cindy dodged karl's calls and so did alex. but after a few months of that, cindy decided to do something a little more proactive. and she had an inspiration. >> i had actually watched an episode of "dateline" where this woman was recording her mother,

and i like had this revelation and i said, you know, i am going to start recording conversations with karl. i thought if i could just get him to confess about the barn fire, that this would show his character. >> reporter: cindy knew karl wanted to see her, maybe get back together. so she went to meet him at a local restaurant with a small voice recorder tucked under her bra. >> i just started telling him that i was considering getting back together with him, but that i couldn't even consider it unless he started telling me the truth of things that he did. and he said to me, it sounds like you want me to say that i had something to do with levi's death. well, at that moment, i knew that we skipped right over the barn fire. i might be able to get him to confess about levi. i had asked him, so did you push the truck or was it hard to push. and he said, no, it wasn't.

>> reporter: was that a confession? cindy felt like it was. she rushed the recording over to the police, but it was inaudible and, therefore, useless. still, detective clear believed her enough to ask her to do it again. >> at our request she agreed to be wired up to do a second interview under controlled circumstances. 1992 she was working with the police to take down her own husband. she got away with it once would karl catch on the next time around? coming up. >> he had to convince them it wasn't a trap. >> one intense interrogation leads to another. when "dateline" continues. when "dateline" continues. from an infection, human papillomavirus i knew that hpv could lead to certain cancers. i knew her risk for hpv increases as she gets older. i knew there was a vaccine available that could help protect her

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now if verizon 5g can do this for the nfl... imagine what it can do for you. cindy was willing to play the sympathetic life of the man she had come to fear and hate. that's how badly she wanted her husband out of her life and locked away. >>. >> i was calm. i know karl believed i had story of wanting to get back together. abigail's restaurant was the meeting lace. it was mid november 2012.

>> you had undercover officers in the restaurant. >> were they diners or waiters? >> diners. >> reporter: there was very little evidence against karl karlsen, so the detectives desperately needed cindy to get him to repeat what she said was his confession to levi's murder. karl seemed suspicious. >> part of me feels like i'm walking into a booby trap. >> yeah, i can imagine you would feel that way. i had to convince him that, you know, it wasn't a trap. i offered for him to check my purse. >> reporter: then she got him back on the subject of that day in 2008. >> i asked you if you pushed the truck and you said yes. >> i didn't push the truck, i said. no, i said i had nothing to do with it. but i said i took advantage of the situation once it happened. and that is exactly what i said to you. >> karl, you told me that you didn't set it up that way, but when you were in there you saw the opportunity.

>> no, after it had happened. then i panicked and saw the opportunity. >> at that moment i felt like i understood him to a degree. >> that said, the exchange with cindy was no confession and the evidence, so far, was circumstance substantial. still, dcs believed they had enough to bring him in for questioning. karlsen couldn't resist talking about himself. >> you know, i work multiple

jobs and stuff like that. i mean, i did. i worked my ass off. >> we were talk ing about his favorite subject -- him. >> reporter: karl said he found levi dead after returning home just like he told the police in 2008. >> went out there and found him. and that, you know, when we went to oh the hospital. >> what do you mean you found him? >> i found him dead. the truck was on him. >> reporter: karlsen insisted levi's death was an accident. it couldn't have been anything else. >> you don't kill your son. you don't kill anybody for money. >> reporter: detective clear decided to change tactics. >> there's not a conscience to play to, there's not empathy to play to. what do we play to? what does he have? he has an ego. and it's a big one. that's the strategy i shifted to. i gave him a lot of sympathy and attention. >> reporter: it seemed to work. as the hours ticked by karlsen's story began to change. and then he dropped a bomb shell. >> version two came out where he admitted that he -- that levi was already dead before they left to go to the funeral.

>> i made a decision to walk out on my son and not get him out from underneath the truck. >> reporter: why? >> i panicked. >> at that point there is no doubt in my mind what happened here. >> reporter: detectives continued to push. as the interrogation stretched into its eighth hour, karlsen finally broke. he admitted he didn't just find levi under the truck. he saw the truck fall, and he may have even caused it to fall. >> i opened the truck door because i had to get to move the linkage for the [ bleep ] truck. when i did, it tipped and it just [ bleep ] fell over. >> reporter: and then clear pushed a little more. and that's when karl admitted he left his son to die. >> the brutal truth is you did kill him. whether, whatever your intent was -- >> i -- >> the action you took caused the truck to fall on him. >> yes, you're right. >> and the inaction of leaving him there. >> right.

contributed or whatever, yeah. >> reporter: so he wasn't painting himself as a cold, calculated killer. >> no. he seemed to think it was a better picture to say i accidentally caused this thing to fall and walked away, left him to die on the floor. come with me. you're under arrest. i think you knew that was coming. >> reporter: when karlsen was charged with second degree murder. not long after that, he got a lawyer. when he came to court, he used a walker claiming old injuries got the best of him. his attorney said police coerced karl. his worst fear was cemented. his own brother was a killer.

and now he had a new fear. >> as the trial approached, did you think the evidence was overwhelming and it was pretty clear that karl was going to go away? >> i was probably more scared that as it approached it wasn't a slam dunk. coming up. a surprise inside and outside the court. >> we've been waiting about 24 years now for some closure. >> and a haunting new question. when "dateline" continues . line" continueuestion aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. i was on the fence about changing from a manual to an electric toothbrush.

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welcome back. after more than eight hours in the interrogation room, karl admitted that he caused the truck to fall on his son levi then left him to die. was it an accident or cold-blooded murder? as investigators went about the task of proving their case, they also had questions about that other mysterious death. karl's first wife, christina, which had haunted the family for more than 20 years. with the conclusion of deadly deceit, here is andrea. >> in the winter of 2012, as the district attorney was preparing to prosecute karl karlsen for

the murder of his son levi. new york investigators had become deeply interested in the long ago california fire that killed levi's mother, christina. they were suspicious about karlsen's behavior that day. her family was more than suspicious. they were certain karl killed christina. jeff arnold was the new york state investigator. he thought so, too. >> why did you take an interest in christina's death when you're here in new york state. that case is in california. >> it became personal because he's a great human being and everything to look for in life. >> he was asked to help out early in the investigation and he took a particular interest in christina and the fire that killed her. >> there's an inferno outside

the door and you turn to the only window in the bathroom and it's covered with a sheet of plywood. >> the investigator said pretty much everything that karl said about the fire is a lie. beginning with the kerosene that fuelled it. >> he said it got spilled in the house on sunday. >> that was a few days before the fire. but a california arson investigators found carpet stains that showed a second spill happened moments before the fire started. he told law enforcement it could have been a utility light that touched off the blaze. they could find no accidental ignition source.

the conclusion, the fire was deliberately set. and the coroner's report said christina died of smoke inhalation as opposed to burns. raising the question did karlsen have time to save his wife? >> he's standing on the porch within the foot or two from the plywood-covered window where she is in dire need of his help. he doesn't even reach for one tool. her sister colette had her own suspicions about karlsen, especially after she spoke with 7-year-old erin karlsen right after the fire. >> she said, i heard mom calling for daddy, but daddy just drove away. so within an hour, you know, i'm hearing my niece tell me, hey, mom was alive when he drove away. just four days after the fire, karl abruptly left california with his three kids.

aaron, katie, and levi. sources told us once karlsen was back in new york, investigators begged their bosses to let him follow him there for questioning. they say they were told no. that the county couldn't afford it. >> the investigators wanted to go to new york. they wouldn't let them spend the money. >> just weeks after they left, colette learned that karl had taken out a $200,000 insurance policy on christina's life. and the policy paid off. colette came to believe and investigator arnold believes that carlson killed christina for the same reason he killed levi. money. two decades after christina's death, as karl karlsen dualed with detectives in the interrogation room, he suddenly had to face questions about the long ago fire. well prepared jeff arnold.

arnold was looking for inconsistencies. lies. he asked him about the window. >> we have a witness at the house one day before the fire and the window was not boarded up. >> he told arnold he suffered awful injuries as he rescued his children and the fire was so intense he couldn't save christina. >> what happened when it broke >> what happened is when -- when i broke the window, i got a fireball. got me in the face. blew me off the front porch. glued my eyelids together, burned my mustache, any whiskers i had. >> you were in the hospital? >> oh, yeah. >> what happened to you there? >> i don't even know.

>> reporter: arnold had evidence that karlsen escaped the fire with only a small burn. so now after he listened to karl talk about the fire, the window and the rescue of his children, he fired back. >> your wife's in a boarded-up little room and you hear her calling your name. >> it wasn't calling. it was screaming. >> screaming your name and yet you're able to get blown off the porch, open your eyes, your son's uninjured, you're able to grab your son out where this explosion just took place without a mark on him, take him out of the house, run around, miraculously save your two daughters and let your wife -- and let your wife perish in a fire, with no attempt to rip that board off, that plywood board off that house and get into that bathroom and help her. >> i went but by that time the fire was all the way around. what was i going to do. >> reporter: karlsen insisted his first wife's death was a tragic accident. the same thing he was saying about levi's death.

on november 6, 2013, the very day his trial in levi's case was supposed to begin. he surprised nearly everyone and took a plea. >> karl karlsen plead guilty to second degree in court. taking responsibility for the death of his son levi. >> it's called depraved indifference murder. >> reporter: in exchange for that plea, seneca county d.a. periporsche said karlsen would be given the minimum sentence, 15 years to life. at that same news conference, his sisters, erin and katie, thanked the investigation team but then erin turned to the tragedy that shattered her childhood and changed her family forever. >> we've been waiting just about 24 years now for some closure for things that transpired in california. you know, things that i will never be able to forget. things my family will never be able to overcome. >> erin's aunt believes that the

county failed her sister and family. she wants karlsen prosecuted for the murder of her sister and keeping the pressure on in part with this facebook page devoted to christina and levi. >> i think they need to right the wrong. >> it appears someone was listening. in 2014, karl karlsen was charged with first-degree murder in the 1991 death of his wife. he was extradited to california where he awaits his trial. karlsen plead not guilty and if convicted, he could face the death penalty. >> you don't get a free pass because you commit a second one. you don't get a free pass because 20 years passed. it's time that karl is held accountable for what he did to christina in 1991. >> how do you want people to remember her? >> go on the facebook page and read the comments. they talk about how she just had this incredible laugh. that's how people remember chris. that's the person that they'll

never forget. what a wonderful, wonderful sweet person she was. >> that's all on this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. ine. i'm craig melvin thank you for watching melvin. and i'm natalie morales. and this is "dateline." i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." i didn't see it coming. it was shocking. >> i had a bad feeling. >> she did say he had a gun and i'm afraid he might use it. >> a story of sand, sunsets, and fatal attraction. she had so much to give. >> she would make everybody feel special. >> successful at everything except love. and then she found him. >> she said she felt so good in his arms. >> he was handsome, sophisticated, and crazy about her. there was talk of marriage and then suddenly there was talk of trouble. >> she was frightened enough not