A FATHER who killed his wife and son got away with it for years – until the police discovered his shocking motive for killing his family.
The deaths of Christina and Levi Karlsen were initially considered accidents, but information eventually emerged that their husband and father Karl Karlsen had killed them intentionally.
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The shocking details of the Karlsen family saga are explored in a new episode of NBC Date Line†
The murders of Christina and Levi took place 10 years apart and were both initially considered accidents.
Eventually, someone close to the family came forward with information about Karl’s involvement, prompting an investigation that revealed the man had murdered his loved ones and used their deaths to secure hefty insurance payments.
Details about the case reveal a long history of physical and mental abuse that eventually resulted in an insurance settlement and two murders.
First, Christina died in a house fire on New Year’s Day in 1991.
Then, in 2001, Levi was killed by a pickup truck, with the fatal incident originally believed to be an accident.
But that conclusion turned out to be wrong.
“Researchers would later discover that both deaths had more sinister roots,” according to the Oxygen article.
“And a member of the Karlsen family was slowly killing his loved ones for financial gain.”
Eventually, a possible motive came to light, leading investigators to realize they had a murder on their hands.
According to relatives, Karl was mentally in control of his wife Christina and was bullying her.
There were also signs of physical abuse.
“He would tell her she was chubby,” said Colette Bousson, the woman’s sister in the episode “American Greed.”
“He knew because she was so sensitive to her weight that he could destroy her self-esteem.”
According to Oxygen, Christina went against the advice of loved ones and decided to stay with Karl for the kids.
A boarded-up window left Christina trapped in the bathroom and unable to get out when their California home went up in flames on January 1, 1991.
After the fire, Karl got $215,000 from an insurance policy and the family moved across the country to New York.
The family moved to the Fingerlakes area of New York in the town of Varick, where they lived on a farm.
The abusive husband became an abusive father, especially towards his son Levi.
“Levi would be smitten with everything my father had within reach. His fists, pipes, shovels, pitchforks, belts, electric cattle prods,” Erin DeRoche, one of Karl and Christina’s other three children, told the television series.
“You name it, it was used as a weapon against my brother.”
At one point, the family’s barn caught fire and several horses were killed, giving Karl another lucrative insurance claim.
In 2008, a pickup truck fell off a jack while Levi was working on it, crushing his body and killing him in what appeared to be another tragic accident.
However, a few years later, new information would surface that blamed Karl.
The woman Karl was dating at the time of Levi’s death eventually passed information to New York local authorities that raised enough questions to spur an investigation.
The Seneca County Sheriff’s Office eventually conducted a covert operation and collected enough evidence to convict Karl Karlsen for both murders and send him to prison.