n an old antique pickup truck from north carolina. >> reporter: how did she handle it all suddenly being thrust into the karlsen family? >> i think she was a little confused even trying to keep names straight was a challenge. but she was the type of kid that her glass was always half full. >> reporter: was she a good fit to the karlsen family? >> they could take it as well as dish it. >> reporter: they were a cute couple. christina, the little cheerleader and karl the rough and ready country boy. his sister colette liked the way they would laugh. >> they would laugh and joke. he was a big barrel-chested guy. >> reporter: he got work in the local stone quarry. it wouldn't be long before they had three kid, aaron, levi and katie. >> she'd be on the floor playing with them teaching them or instructing them or coddling them. it wasn't just her kids it was all of our kids.

>> look at those two lovely people over there. >> reporter: christina seemed happy but karl wanted more than a life working the quarry. and christina's father art alexander, offered a ticket out. the job was a future working in his heating and air conditioning company. >> if you ever need a job, come out to california and you'll have a job because you can work with me. >> reporter: so they moved all the way across the country to murphys, an old mining town in the sierra foothills. karl found a ramshackle house at the this long winding road. it wasn't much but it was closer to colette and christina made it special. >> she went into like home decorator mode and started painting and sewing curtains. every time i go up wow, this looks really good. >> karl thank you, darling. >> reporter: christina and karl celebrated christmas with christina's family in 1990 but just a week later their lives would change forever. it was new year's day 1991. >> i come outside.

i saw the smoke from the house. i could see where the smoke was out there. >> 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 sta 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 aaron, 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.

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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's that kind of place. there's even some hollywood lore. the town of seneca falls is said to be the model for the town of bedford falls. remember, the movie where a troubled george bailey discovered that after all he really did have a wonderful life. >> help me, clarence, please. i want to live again. >> reporter: here in seneca county, karl karlsen was hoping for his own wonderful life. he was surrounded by a big extended family in a place where the karlsen name really meant something. 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. >> what do you think, levi? >> 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 different 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 prek air yus, 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. are you with your son right now? >> he's not alive. >> is he breathing? >> 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 love my ducks. they are pampered they are bathed. >> reporter: finally with this food network show karl's moment had come. >> 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, but she says something was nagging at her. >> just like an intuition that something just was not right. >> reporter: she kept thinking about the day levi died and how he died. >> i was telling myself it's just you.

you know. you're being paranoid. you know. and so i would forget about it for a while again. >> 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. >> reporter: despite that, the cousin promptly called the sheriff's office. dngt john clear, 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. 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? the beast was as long as the boat. for seven hours, we did battle. until i said... you will not beat... meeeeee!!! greg. what should i do with your fish? gary. just put it in the cooler. if you're a fisherman, you tell tales. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance you switch to geico. it's what you do. put the fish in the cooler!

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cindy karlsen wasn't expecting the police to call her about levi's death, but she discovered she was actually relieved when detective john clear called her and asked her to come down to the station. >> 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. >> reporter: karl had told levi he would hang on to the money for levi's daughters. 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 carl senkarlsen had collected on a number of insurance poll sis 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. >> reporter: so cindy put on the wire and went to meet karl again for lunch. >> i was actually calm because i knew that karl believed my story of wanting to get back together. >> reporter: abigail's restaurant near seneca falls would be the meeting place. it was mid-november 2012. you had undercover officers in the restaurant? >> we had four in there. >> reporter: were they diners? were they 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. >> reporter: opportunity? his eldest son was lying helpless and dying under a three-quarter ton pickup truck. what kind of father would call that an opportunity? four years after levi's death, it was time to invite karl karlsen down for a conversation with police. coming up -- >> go ahead and have a seat. >> hours of tension in the interrogation room. could police get him to talk? >> he has an ego. and it's a big one. so that's the strategy that we shifted to.

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it may have been the most incriminating thing karl karlsen said to his wife cindy when she was wearing the police wire. >> after it had happened then i panicked and saw the opportunity. >> at that moment i felt i understood him to a degree. this is someone who doesn't think like we do. >> reporter: it was no confession, but still detectives believed they had enough to bring karlsen in for questioning. >> go ahead and have a seat, karl. >> reporter: it was the moment of truth. if karlsen refused to speak or if he called in a lawyer, the case could evaporate. 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, he pleaded not guilty. but mike karlsen did not rush to his brother's defense. >> i would never think anybody could do that to his son. >> reporter: mike found the news about the arrest sickening but not surprising. for years mike wondered about his brother. all those terrible accidents followed by all that money. >> didn't want to believe it. but it started to add up. the history of insurance, tragedy, payout. it happened several times in his life. >> reporter: and that brought him back to the death of his

sister-in-law christina more than 20 years before. mike had been haunted by christina's death and by his brother's behavior after the fatal tragic fire. aside from looking sort of lost like a zombie, was he acting like a grieving husband? >> his way of dealing with it was very somber, stoic. but not grieving, wailing, beside himself crying, no. none of that. >> reporter: mike clearly remembers how he gently tried to get karl to talk about how the fire started. >> i tried to get him to open up. just the logical questions any one of us would have had, that the family has is what happened. he went back to the kerosene fire. that there was a kerosene spill in the hall. >> reporter: back in 1991 karlsen had told investigators and his family that the pet hs knocked a container of kerosene on to the carpet a couple of days before the fire. a utility light or a spark from the dryer must have set it off. he told mike he was not in the

house when the fire started. >> he was outside and realized the house was on fire and said he ran around and broke the windows in the kids' rooms and got the kids out but couldn't get back to her. >> reporter: did he say why he didn't try to go back to get christina? >> i asked him why. he said, the fire was in the hallway outside the door. so my first thought is, well, go to the window. and there was kind of a silent response. he said, she couldn't get out the window. the window was boarded up. that just didn't make any sense. >> reporter: it was starting to make sense to investigators in new york however, because the more they learned about levi's death, the more questions they had about christina's. and those questions were about to circle back to karl karlsen himself. >> coming up -- >> tom was telling me about a fire with your first wife. >> new suspicions about that old fire. >> i was pretty amazed.

i never expected to hear from this again. >> will christina karlsen get justice? >> it's simply the right thing to do. >> a dramatic new development.

in the winter of 2012, the district attorney in seneca county, new york, was preparing to prosecute karl karlsen for

the murder of his son levi. at the same time new york investigators have become deeply interested in the long ago california fire that killed levi's mother christina. investigator jeff arnold was brought in to assist in the karlsen case. why did you take such an interest in christina's death when you're here in new york state, that case is in california? >> it became personal to me. because she's just a great human being who had everything to look forward to in life. >> reporter: investigator arnold pored over reports that went back two decades, and he paid particular attention to the work of ken busky, a forensic electrical engineer who was hired by the state farm insurance company to investigate the fire back when it happened. >> you know i had spoken to mr. busky on the phone. extremely bright. extremely confident man. >> i was pretty amazed that this would ever come back. i never expected to hear from this again. >> reporter: when ken busky

looked into the fire back in 1991 he had heard about karl's version of events. how the pet hs knocked over a container of kerosene in a hallway near the bathroom. but to busky the pour pattern looked far more deliberate. >> there was a distinct pour of what appeared to be kerosene in kind of a horseshoe, a u-shape going across the bathroom door and then around to the other side toward the laundry room. >> reporter: and busky said it looks like the kerosene was ignited right after it was poured not a few days after the spill as karlsen claimed. >> the edges were very distinct indicating the kerosene hadn't had very long to wick away from the area. so very sharp borders in what looked like a second spill of kerosene. it was very deliberate around that area. >> reporter: back in 1991 karlsen told law enforcement it could have been a dryer, a heater or a broken utility light

that touched off the blaze. but busky found no accidental ignition source. >> the house wiring didn't start it. the washer didn't start it, the dryer didn't start it the water heater didn't start it and the trouble light didn't start it because it wasn't on and the filament wasn't hot at the time of the fire. >> reporter: once the fire took off, christina was trapped inside the bathroom by that boarded-up window. >> i was also looking at that plywood. found it was nailed with 17 nails but none of the nails had gone into anything solid and the nails went only into the sheet rock and not in the wood. >> reporter: busky determined that someone, like karl karlsen could easily have pushed through the plywood and maybe saved christina's life. two decades later, jeff arnold took note. >> he's standing on the porch within a foot or two of a plywood-covered window where

christine is in dire need of his help. he doesn't even reach for one tool. >> reporter: busky's conclusion the kerosene was intentionally poured and ignited. and that boarded-up window made the tragedy all the more suspicious. christina's family couldn't have agreed more. 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. >> reporter: ken busky filed his report four months after christina died. by then karl karlsen had already moved back to new york with his three children, erin, katie and levi. sources in california told us that investigators begged their bosses to let them go to new york to confront karlsen. they said they were told no, the

county couldn't afford it. >> the investigators wanted to go to new york. calaveras county wouldn't let them spend the money. >> reporter: ken busky was surprised and disappointed that law enforcement didn't pursue carl sen to new york. >> it was something i really thought was inappropriate and wrong. >> reporter: the state declared the fire an accident. despite busky's report, the insurance company paid out the life insurance policy on christina karlsen, $200,000. it went to karl. but now, two decades later, in a seneca county interrogation room karlsen would finally be asked some hard questions. as karlsen duelled with detectives over levi's death, a well prepared jeff arnold entered the room. >> tom was telling me about a fire with your first wife that concerned him. >> reporter: arnold was looking

for inconsistencies, lies. he asked karlsen about the window. >> so when did you board that up? the day before the fire? >> oh no months before. >> months before. >> months before. >> we have a witness that showed up at the house on the 31st of december, one day before the fire, and that window was not boarded up. >> reporter: karls sen also told arnold that he suffered awful injuries as he rescued his children. and that the fire was so intense he couldn't save christina. >> what happened is when -- when i broke the window, i got a fireball. got me in the face. blee 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 mi tp wood board off that house and get into that bathroom and help her. >> i went bsh did i 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. that s until november of 2013 when he made the surprising decision to change his plea in levi's case to guilty.

>> karl karlsen pled guilty to murder in the second degree in seneca county 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. in a letter to "dateline" karlsen that he now regrets taking that plea that levi's death was an accident. to the two daughters justice had been done. 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 that my family will never be able to overcome. >> reporter: in august of 2014 that wait ended. the calaveras district attorney charged karl karlsen with first

degree murder in the arson death of christina karlsen. if convicted he could face the death penalty. california is moving ahead with extradition proceedings, karlsen is expected to enter his plea when he's arraigned in calaveras county. but jeff arnold won't be satisfied until karl karlsen is tried for christina's murder. >> it's simply the right thing to do. christina karlsen deserves it. >> reporter: how do you want people to remember her? >> you go on the facebook page and read the comments about her, they all talk about how she just had this incredible laugh. that's how people remember chris. that's the person that we'll never forget. what a wonderful, wonderful sweet person chris was. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us.

this sunday -- after charleston. the worst race attack since the civil rights era. >> racism is a blight we have to combat together. >> i'm be joined by family members of reverend daniel simmons, one of nine who lost his life. 2016 presidential contender mike huckabee joins me. plus the dynasty candidates is america ready to embrace or reject them. and brand new from our nbc news/wall street journal poll. convicters murderers and their regrets over ever picking up a gun. >> i took his buddy away from him. me? how does that sit with me? >> i'm chuck todd and joining me for insight and analysis this sunday are "the new york times" david brooks