no strings attached. >> reporter: years before levi karlsen would die underneath that truck, karl karlsenperience loss >> when levi died, i'm sure, i assume it was some sort of a deja vu moment for karl, that he'd been there before in '91. he had lost his wife and lost his home and everything they owned. >> there's beautiful mommy over there. y mom's name was christina. but everybody who was really e s sie homemar, and er chris. that was chris. the other one was a little sports jock. and that was collette. >> she was three years older than me. everybody knew i was her little sister. she didn't see bad in anyone. even though somebody could have done something horrific, she would find a way to find something positive about them. >> karl met his first wife, christina, when he was in the air force. >> she had told me she'd met a nice guy, and so i asked some questions about him. she seemed very, very excited about this particular person. and then when she told me they were getting married, you know, i wished her the best and as soon as i could get out there to see her, i got out there. >> kar

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. here in seneca county, karl was surrounded by an extended family where the name meant something. it seemed to come together for him when he met cindy best at a line dancing party in 1992. >> he had told me that he lost his wife in a fire, and he was a single dad raising three kids on his own. >> 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 sh