Karlson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of his wife. He will start the sentence after serving the 15-years-to-life sentence he received for the murder of his son Levi in New York. Levi, who by then was a father of two young children, died in 2008 in an apparent accident when he was just 23.Ī truck fell on top of him while he was working underneath it doing repairs at his father's property. His death, like his mother's, was initially ruled an accident. Police started looking into the case when a family member tipped them off that Karlsen had claimed his son's $700,000 life insurance payout.
Karlsen was the sole beneficiary of Levi's insurance policy. Trapped: It was later determined that Christina couldn't escape through the bathroom window because Karlsen had boarded it up from the outside just days earlier Karlsen’s second wife, Cindy Best, told 20/20 that she learned about the insurance policy shortly after her stepson's death. 'It ended up being $700,000 because Levi died accidentally. So, that was a kind of a shock but … there was no reason for me to question anything at that time,' she said. 'I just trusted my husband and this insurance agent that they were setting it up … for the best of Levi's daughters.'īefore Levi was murdered, Karlsen's children long suspected their father was responsible for their mother's death.Ĭhristina, who was 30 at the time, died trapped in the bathroom of the couple's home after spilled kerosene and a faulty electric light ignited a fire. Karlsen was credited with saving his three children by getting them out of the burning home.
He told investigators at the time that he was not able to go back for his wife. 'My father had said "mommy's gone to heaven'. Even before the ambulance got there,' DeRoche recalled.Ĭlean break: Karlsen left California with his three children two weeks after the fire and used the $200,000 life insurance money to buy a home in New YorkĬhristina's younger sister, Colette Bousson, told 20/20 that she went to the house the day after the fire and couldn't understand why no one tried to save her sibling.
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