attempt and larry's arrest were, in a way, a rebirth. and now she finally feels free. she's writing a book about her experiences. thanks for joining us. it was all surreal. it still is. things like that don't happen to small town people. i was very scared. i was worried that i was going to be next. >> he was the friendly farmer about to make it big on reality tv, a hit show called "pitching in". >> he was going to be this famous person. he loved being on tv. >> a success to celebrate after so much loss. his first wife killed in an awful fire. >> i was devastated. this is my sister. she was just a sweet, wonderful, giving person. >> they called it a horrible accident. but here's the thing -- accidents just seemed to keep

happening, deadly ones. >> these thoughts kept coming up, an intuition that something just was not right. >> wife number two had a growing suspicion and she also had a plan. >> i had actually watched an episode of "dateline." i had this revelation. >> a dangerous mission. was her own life at risk? >> this is a mystery novel that won't end. you couldn't write this story line. >> tonight, there is a whole new chapter. >> this has haunted them. it's simply the right thing to do. >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's andrea canning with a tale of "deadly deceit." snapshots of a time gone by. capturing a life that could have been. now all that's left are the burned out remnants of a life that's gone. >> i have seen the destruction to my family. i have seen my parents fall

apart. >> i didn't think my life was going to turn out like this at all. >> had this not come to a head now, the mystery would have lived on, the karlsen family would have always wondered what really happened. >> the story begins here around the finger lakes, a stunning part of ohupstate new york. this is are where the karlsen family put down its roots. >> all right, karl! >> it's here that karl karlsen brought his bride christina to meet his family in 1986. his brother mike took to her right away. >> tiny girl. a sweetheart he of a kid. >> christina and karl met in north dakota where karl was in

the air force. when he was discharged they came to his home to make a life. >> they drove in a pickup truck from north dakota. >> how did she handle being thrust into the karlsen family. >> i think at first she was confused. just trying to keep names straight was a challenge. she was the type of kid that her glass was always half full. >> was she a good fit to the karlsen family shh? >> absolutely. she would give it out, and take it, laugh on the way. >> stand there, chris. karl, get with her . >> they were a cute couple. christina the cheerleader and karl the country boy. christina's sister colette liked the way he made christina laugh. >> he was a big guy and my sister was 4'11". >> he got work in the stone quarry and soon they had three kids, aaron, levi and katie. >> she would be on the floor

with them, teaching, instructing them, coddling them. it was it was not just her kids but all of the kids. >> look at those lovely people. >> christina seemed happy, but rl karl wanted more than a life working the quarry and christina's father gave them a way out, working in the heating and air conditioning company. >> if you need a job, come to california and you can work with me. >> so they moved across the country to an old mining town in the sierra foothills. karl found them a ramshackle house at the top of a long winding road. it wasn't much but it was closer to colette and christina made it special. >> she went into home decorator mode, started painting, sewing curtains. every time i went up, wow, this looks good. >> reporter: christina and karl celebrated christmas with christina's family in 1990. just a week later their lives

would change forever. it was new year's day 1991. >> i came outside and i could see the smoke from the house . >> 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 oh their bedroom are windows. they were that happening but christina was trapped in the bathroom. the fire raging just outside the bathroom door. the window was boarded shut from the inside. by the time art arrived the paramedics were already on the scene. >> got in the ambulance, looked around and said, where's chris? they told me. one of the kids said, she's with god or oh she's -- the angels took her. something like that. that's when -- i don't -- she wasn't there. >> art could only imagine the

terror of her last moments on earth. he placed one of the toughest calls he's ever made. >> i need to tell you something. he said there was a fire at chris's house and everyone got out but chris. i said, are you kidding me? he said, no. >> back in upstate new york the karlsen family got the terrible news. mike and his sister-in-law flew to help karl and his children who were all under 7. >> tell me what to do. he was just numb. he was more of a zombie. he just said, i don't know. >> are you thinking how in the world is my brother going to take care of these three little kids? >> i had no clue. >> 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 details with friends and family. mike sensed it was hard for karl to deal with anything important. so after a while, mike prepped him a bit. >> what are we doing? if you're staying in california you have to arrange for an apartment, get supplies, get the house settled. the kids need some form of oh stability here. that's when he said, i just want to go home. >> 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 blow for christina's grieving family. >> my sister and i had made a commitment that our kids were going to grow up knowing each other and then it was stripped in five days. >> all christina's father had left of his beloved daughter wascharred photos he rescued from the house, reminders of her and the grandchildren he loved.

>> after her death i was probably more dead than alive. didn't pay attention to a lot of things that i should have. >> i just muddled through. i didn't care. >> hobbled by grief he 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 outside the window. if somebody wanted to take a board off a window, just pull it off. >> art would contain his anger and keep the family peace. what happened on 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.

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the finger lakes region of upstate new york was karl karlsen's family home. 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. >> karl's family was gone but he had his kids to think about. >> he went back to work at the stone quarry for a while and saw an opportunity at a local glass manufacturing plant that had just opened. >> was there concerner for karl having just lost his wife? >> i think everybody realized this poor guy isn't going to do it on his own. >> people helped out. it's that kind of place. there is even some hollywood lore. the town of senecale falls is said to be the model for bedford falls, a movie where a troubled george bailey discovered that after all he did have "a wonderful life". >> help me, clarence. please. i want to live again. >> 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 at a line dance. >> he told me he lost his wife in a fire and he was a single dad raising three kids on his own. >> cindy got an instant family when she married karl in 1993. they bought a farm after that. between the farm and the glass job, karl was busy. cindy was desperate to have a child so she and karl went through in vitro fertilization. >> you were going to have the baby you always wanted. >> happiest time of my life. >> the big kids were happy when baby brother alex was born. >> what do you think, levi? >> as the years went by alex said he and levi developed a special bond. >> he was always there for me. loved to hang out together. >> 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 pranks ter but had my sister's sweet spirit. >> what's the matter, levi? levi had problems inle school. he and karl began to butt heads. >> i think levi bucked the system a little bit. he was a typical teenaged boy who matthew the answers. thor more levi struggled in his world, karl held him down rather than pick him up. >> the rift widened. in may of 2002 when levi was 17 he left home. uncle mike watched it happen with sadness. >> he dropped out of school which didn't help things at all. he jumped and didn't look where he was jumping to. he didn't have a job. he floated from house to house. different family members. >> 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 hepburnremembers it karl was just coming to bed. >> he sat up right, looked out the window and said, oh, my god, call 911, the barn is on fire. >> cindy called 911 and her brother-in-law. >> what did karl say when you arrived? >> he mentioned the horses were still in there. >> the karlsens had been breeding belgian horses. their loss and the loss of the barn was devastating to the family. when levi got the bad news he exploded, said terrible things. he and karl came to blows. >> levi got in his truck to get away from karl. karl chased after him. i was yelling at karl, just let him go. leave him alone. let him go. >> 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. >> like many kids, levi started to grow up. he got his ged, started working and tried hard to be a good dad. perhaps in being a father, his anger with his own father began to soften. >> i corner a little bit. could see a path in the direction for his life. >> levi had his own place now. he would drop by the old house to see the family and help karl with some work with. on november 20, 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 had been gone for about four hours. >> karl told me he was going to let levi know we were home and check on him. >> cindy went into the house. suddenly, karl came rushing out of the barn. >> he came banging on the win

dow and door, told 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 like an intuition that something just wasn't right. >> a private investigator is about to enterer the picture when "dateline" continues. n' and i was like 'why?' and then sprint was like 'so you can spend money on stuff you want'. but, we have all the stuff. we're rich. where are we even going? a basketball game. sports! some people are stupid rich. for the rest of us, there's sprint. bring in your verizon or at&t bill turn in your old phone and we'll cut your rate plan in half. switch now and we'll pay whatever it costs for you to come to sprint. people love their hellmann's. keith told us it's one of the greatest things ever

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okay. are you with your son right now? >> he's -- he's not alive.

>> is he breathing? >> no. >> he is not breathing, okay. >> no, 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 -- he's probably been under here for hours. >> karl's brother mike rushed over. >> they were just bringing levi out on the stretcher and putting him on the ambulance when i got there. >> 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 throwing himself up against the wall. he was on the ground. >> 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. >> were you thinking levi should have known better than this? >> absolutely. >> he knows his way around. >> absolutely. >> now, once again, karl karlsen had to pull himself out of the depths of tragedy. it should 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 thorknew york restaurants. he and cindy were starring in an episode of "pitching in". >> i love my ducks. they are pampered, bathed. >> finally with the food network show, karl's metrodomeoment had come. >> i think he had visions of being a rich and famous person. >> cindy watched her husband's ego swell with the attention.

she was happy for his success but said something was nagging at her. >> just like an intuition that something just wasn't right. >> she kept thinking about the day levi died and how he dieded. >> i was telling myself, it's just you, you know? you're being paranoid. so i would forget about it for a while again. >> 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. i was in the room with levi. karl came in the room. i don't know what i wanted him to say, but he said, how do i explain this? >> what did he mean by that? >> i have no idea. >> mike didn't share misgivings about karl with cindy. 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.

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. >> oh officials called it an accident and yet -- >> again, the thoughts kept coming up. kept sinking more into a depression. eventually ended up using alcohol as a way to cope. >> cindy confided in a couple of oh friend friends. they dismissed her fear but someone suggested she call a private investigator. that's how she met steve brown. >> she walked in the door. she looked very frail physically, emotionally, just sickly, weak. >> cindy told the private investigator about her crazy fear that her husband had killed his own son. >> cindy proceed ed to tell me what happened that day in 2008. >> she remembered something. before she and karl left for the funeral he went to the barn to see levi.

for a few minutes he was alone there with his son. >> karl said he wanted to check on levi before they left. karl had came back to the vehicle and they drove off to the funeral. karl seemed fine the entire time. normal behavior. >> 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. it set his mind racing about karl. >> i was pretty quiet the rest of the night just dissecting how could that be? how could somebody do something like that? >> steve started looking through insurance documents and phone and medical records. he didn't want to contact the police until he had more evidence. 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. >> despite that, the cousin promptly called the sheriff's office. detective john clear took the call and wasted no time in phoning cindy karlsen. >> how did that go? >> fist thing she said is thank god you called is. >> thank god you called. i was so relieved. >> coming up -- >> i had actually watched an episode of "dateline." i like had this revelation. >> could "dateline" somehow help in this case? exactly what was she planning? today, i'm going to fight hunger. today, i don't want to be hungry. we just have to buy food. my family gets the food we need. i'm so glad we could help. i'm so glad someone helped. hunger lives closer than you think. purchase participating items at walmart and you can help secure a meal for someone through feeding america food banks.

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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. >> from his conversations with cindy karlsen and steve brown, detective clear learned karl helped levi sign up for the policy. the beneficiary, karl himself. >> he 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. >> karl told levi he would hang onto the money for levi's daughters but detective clear learned the girls never got a dime. >> there was money spent on a multitude of things -- home improvement. karl spent a lot of money on the duck business. there were huge payouts on that. >> as he dug deeper, detective clear discovered that karl karlsen had collected on a gnu of -- number of insurance policies over the years.

in 1986 karl's charger caught fire. karl collected $10,000. the barn fire paid out nearly $14,000. karl had taken out policies on levi's two little girls. karl had no idea he was being investigated. cindy wanted to get away from him. she moved out of the house. after she did, karl sent her a text saying he heard she had been snooping around. she said 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 anymore. >> she immediately called her son alex, then 16, and told him he had to leave town. >> she came and got me. i came out to the car and saw she had packed our suitcases and our dogs were in the car. she told me there was an investigation going on because they thought my dad had killed my brother. >> they started living in hotels.

cindy dodged karl's calls and so did alex. after a few months of that, cindy decided to do something a little more proactive. she had an inspiration. >> i had actually watch withed an episode of "dateline" where this woman was recording her mother. i had this revelation and said, you know, i'm going to start record aring conversations with karl. i thought if i could just get him to confess about the barn fire that would show his character. >> cindy knew karl wanted to see her, maybe get back together. she went to meet him at a local restaurant with a small voice recorder tucked under her bra. >> i started telling him 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 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 we skipped right over the barn fire. i might be able to get him to confess about levi. i asked him, so, did you push the truck? was it hard to push? he said, no. it wasn't. >> was that a confession? cindy felt like it was. she rushed the recording over to the police. but it was inaudible, 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. >> cindy put on oh 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. >> abigail's restaurant near seneca falls would be the meeting place. it was mid-november 2012.

>> you had under cover officers in the restaurant. >> we had four in there. >>er were they diners, waiters? >> diners. >> there was 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 suspicion. >> part of me feels like i'm walking into a booby trap. >> i can imagine you would feel that way. >> i had to convince him that, you know, it wasn't a trap. i offered him to check my purse. >> 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. i said i had nothing to do -- but i said i took advantage of the situation once it happened. and that's 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. >> 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, karl. >> hours of tension in the interrogation room. could police get him to talk? >> he has an ego ohand it's a big one pt that's the strategy that we shifted to. >> when "dateline" continues. it sounds like some weird multiple choice test. yea, but do i pick a, b, or c. for me it's all of the above. i pick, like the best of everything. verizon. i didn't. i picked a. maybe c. and how'd that work out for you? not so well. can i get a do-over?

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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 when 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. >> it was no confession but detectives believed they had enough to bring in karlsen for questioning. >> go ahead and have a seat, karl. >> it was the moment of truth. if karlsen refused to speak or 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, iworked my ass off. >> we were talk ing about his favorite subject -- him. >> karl said he found levi dead after returning home 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. >> karlsen insisted levi's death was an accident. it couldn't have been anything else. >> you don't kig your son. you don't kill anybody for money. >> detective clear decided to change tactics. >> there is not a conscience to play to, there is not empathy to play to. what does he have? he has an ego, a big one. i gave him a lot of sympathy and attention. >> it seemed to work wo. as the hour s 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 ohgo to the funeral. >> i made a decision to walk out on my son and not get him out from underneath the truck. >> why?

>> i panicked. >> at that point there is no doubt in my mind what happened here. >> 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 link linkage for the [ bleep ] truck. when i did, it tipped and it just [ bleep ] fell over. >> 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. whatever your intent was -- >> i -- >> the action you took caused the truck tole fall on him. >> the action i -- yeah. >> and the inaction of leaving him there. >> right. contributed or whatever, yeah. >> 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 are under arrest. i think you knew that was coming. >> when karlsen was charged with second degree murder, he pleaded not guilty. mike karlsen didn't rush to his brother's defense. >> i would never think anybody could do that to his son. >> 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. >> 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. >> 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 question. 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. >> back in 1991 karlsen told investigators and his family that the pets had knocked a container of kerosene onto the carpet a couple 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, realized the house was on fire. said he ran around and broke the windows in the kids' rooms, got the kids out, but couldn't get

back to her . >> 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. there was a silent response. he said, she couldn't get out the window. the window was boarded up. that just didn't make sense. >> 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 oh was telling me about a fire with your are first wife. >> new suspicions about the 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.

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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.

she's just a great human being who had everything to look forward to in life. >> investigator arnold p ored over reports that went back two decades and paid particular attention to the work of ken busky, a forensic electrical engineer hired to investigate the fire when it happened. >> you know, i had spoken to him 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. >> when ken looked into the fire back in 1991, he heard about karl's version of events -- how the pets had knocked over a container of kerosene in the hall way near the bathroom. but the pour pattern looked more deliberate. >> there was a distinct pour of what i appeared to be kerosene in kind of a u shape going across the bathroom door and then around to the other side

toward the laundry room are. >> and he said it looked like the kerosene was ignited right after it was poured, not a few days after the spill as karlsen claimed. >> the edges were 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. >> 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, 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. >> once the fire took off, christina was trapped inside the

bathroom by that boarded-up window. >> that was also looking at the 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 are, not into wood. >> he 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 christina is in dire need of his help. he doesn't even reach for one with tool. >> the conclusion? the kerosene was intentionally poureded 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 speaking to 7-year-old erin after the fire. >> she said, i heard mom calling within an hour, you know, i'm hearing my niece tell me, hey, mom was alive when he drove away. >> ken 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 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. >> ken was surprised and disappointed that law enforcement didn't pursue karlsen to new york. >> it was something i really thought was inappropriate and wrong. >> the state declared the fire an accident.

despite busky's report, the insurance company paid out on christina karlsen, $200,000. it went to karl. but now, two decades later many in a seneca county interrogation room, karlsen would finally be asked 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. >> arnold was looking for inconsistencies, lies. he asked karlsen about the window. >> when did you board that up? >> way before. >> a day before? >> oh, no. months before. >> we have a witness on the house on the 31st of oh december, one day prior and the window was not boarded up. >> karlsen also told arnold he suffered awful injuries as he rescued his children and that

the fire was so intense he couldn't save christina. >> what happened is the wood, when i broke the window, i got hit with a fireball. it took me right in the face. blew me off the front porch, burned my eyelids together. burned skin off my face, burned my mustache, any whiskers, hair. >> did they take you to the hospital? >> oh, yeah. >> what hospital did you go to? >> um, i don't even know. >> arnold had evidence that karlsen escaped the fire with only a small burn. after he listened to karl talk about the fire, the window and the rescue of his children, he fired back. >> your wife is in a boarded-up little room and you hear her calling your name. >> it wasn't calling. it was screaming. >> screaming your name. yet you are able to get blown off the porch, open your eyes, your son's uninjured. you are able to grab your uninjured son without a mark on oh him, take him out of the

house, run around, save your two daughters and let your wife perish in the fire. >> i didn't let her -- >> with no attempt to rip a plywood board off the house, get in and help her. >> by that time the fire was all the way around? what am i going to do? >> karlsen insisted his first wife's death was a tragic accident -- the same thing he was saying about levi's death. that is, until november of 2013 when he kneadmade the surprising decision to change his plea in levi's case to guilty. >> karl karlsen pled gill toy the murder in the second degree in seneca county court. taking responsibility for the death of his son levi. >> it's called depraved indifference murder. >> in exchange for the plea barry porsch said karl karlsen would be given the minimum sentence, 15 years to life. in a letterer to "dateline," karlsen said he regrets taking the plea and the death was an accident.

to his daughters, justice had been done. they thanked the investigation team. erin turned to the tragedy that shattered her childhood and changed her family forever. >> we have been waiting just about 24 years now for closure for things that transpired in california. you know, things i will never forget. things that my family will never be able to overcome. >> in august of 2014, that wait ended. the calaveras county district attorney charged karl karlsen with first-degree murder in the arson death of christina karlsenment if convicted he could face the death penalty. california is moving ahead with extradition proceedings and karlsen is expected to enterer his plea when he's arraigned in calaveras county. jeff arnold won't be satisfied until karlsen is prosecuted for christina's murder. >> it's simply the right thing to do. christina karlsen deserves that.

>> how do you want people to remember her? >> if you go on the facebook page and read comments about her, they talk about how she just had this incredible laughment that's how people remember chris. that's the person they will never forget. what a wonderful with, wonderful sweet person chris was. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll be back again sunday at 7:00/6:00 central. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good

now at 11:00, a virginia college student accused of killing his roommate and running away from a crime scene. the latest on the investigation and what we're learning about the young woman who died. plus, the owner of a local hot spot in trouble.