On New Year’s Day 1991, Christina Karlsen, a 30-year-old mother of three, died after her family’s home became engulfed in flames. More than a decade later, her son passed away in a bizarre accident. Investigators then discovered that both deaths had the same cause.
A Love at First Sight
The romantic relationship between Karl Karlsen and Christina Karlsen began in the early 1980s. The couple met while Karl was an airman stationed in North Dakota, USA.
At that time, Christina was already engaged to another airman. However, this marriage was immediately called off as she met Karl and fell in love with him. The couple quickly started a new life together.
They went on to have three children and settled in New York, where Karl worked at a local quarry. The family often faced financial struggles.
Seeing this, Christina’s father arranged for his son-in-law to have a job at his metal business at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in central California. The Karl family then moved to Murphys, California in the late 1980s.
Finding his kids had nowhere to live, Christina’s father offered to let the family stay rent-free in a house he was renting out, but Karl declined, saying he wanted to provide for his wife and kids himself. Karl bought a run-down cabin-like home deep in the woods.
Though the living conditions were poor, Christina tried to make the wooded surroundings magical for her three children. “Mom would take us on walks all the time and we’d collect leaves, acorns, or whatever to press into little books. Sometimes she’d take us girls into downtown Murphys and to the candy shop or ice cream parlor,” Christina’s eldest daughter Erin DeRoche recalled.
The Freak Accident
Christina’s relatives were initially impressed with the man who had captured her heart, but after some time, they began noticing troubling aspects of the couple’s marriage. Christina’s brother said Karl often belittled and mentally abused his sister, mocking her plump appearance. There was one instance of physical abuse as well.
Aware of this, relatives urged Christina to leave Karl. However, Christina said she wanted her kids to grow up with both parents in the home. But she would not get that wish.
On New Year’s Day 1991, as the Karlsen family was enjoying a relaxing day at home, a raging fire broke out in their small rural California house.
At that time, Christina was taking a bath. She became trapped in the bathroom and died from smoke inhalation in the sealed room, Karl and three young children managed to escape.
The death of 30-year-old Christina was deemed a freak accident. The bathroom window had been broken out by Christina herself 3 days prior, so it was boarded up with wooden slats. The victim had mistaken a kerosene can for water and placed it in the bathroom hallway. Pets had then knocked it over, soaking the area rug. A shorted-out extension cord ignited the large blaze.
The fire department confirmed the fire was accidental. As a result, Karl collected $215,000 in insurance money. Less than a week after the deadly blaze, Karl packed up and moved the family to New York. It was here that the real horror began for the three children.
The Abusive Father
In their new home, Karl remarried to his second wife Cindy Best. What was hoped to be a fresh start for Karl’s three children turned out to be anything but.
Karl frequently unleashed furious rages on his kids. Whenever he was about to beat them, Karl would bring all the children into his room so no one could witness it. “He was very careful to conceal his actions,” Karl’s daughter DeRoche later said.
Of the three, eldest son Levi Karlsen endured the worst abuse, often in the family’s barn. “Levi would be beaten with whatever was within my father’s reach. That could be a fist, a pipe, a shovel, a plate, a belt, a cattle prod,” DeRoche recalled.
In 2002, another fire broke out in Karl’s horse barn, killing three horses. Again, Karl collected insurance money. But it was Levi’s own death six years later that would bring Karl the biggest payout.
Tragic Continuation
One day in late 2008, Karl called Levi to the farm to help fix the brakes on his pickup truck. By then, Levi was a divorced father of two with a strained relationship with his dad over the years. But he still agreed to help.
While his son worked on the vehicle, Karl and his wife Cindy went to attend a funeral. When they returned home, Cindy frantically called 911 reporting that the truck had crushed her husband’s stepson, running him over. Levi may have been dead for hours.
Authorities later concluded Levi died in a tragic accident, inadvertently crushed by the truck while working on it.
After his son’s death, Karl collected a $700,000 life insurance payout on a policy he had taken out on Levi just 17 days earlier. The money allowed Karl to live lavishly.
But in 2012, police received a surprise tip from one of Cindy’s relatives. The caller asked the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office to re-examine Levi’s death, saying Cindy believed Karl had killed his son.
Authorities quickly contacted Cindy, who confirmed the story and agreed to provide police with any information they wanted.
The Suspicious Accident
Previously, Cindy had always found Levi’s death difficult to understand and became increasingly suspicious of her husband, especially after learning he had taken out a life insurance policy on her that would pay out solely to him if she died. Cindy eventually left with her son.
Authorities quickly contacted Cindy. The woman then confirmed the story and agreed to do whatever the police asked, beginning to secretly record all conversations with her husband.
In those conversations, while Karl never directly admitted to killing his son, he told Cindy he had “taken an opportunity” with Levi’s death. But that was enough for investigators to bring Karl in for questioning.
Though he initially denied involvement in Levi’s death, Karl eventually confessed to getting into the truck and inadvertently causing it to fall on his son. Karl insisted it was just an accident and that he always blamed himself.
However, with the evidence gathered, investigators did not believe Karl’s claim it was an accidental death and arrested him for second-degree murder. It was only then that Karl’s family learned about the life insurance policy he had recently taken out on Levi.
The Truth Emerges
During the investigation, authorities also made a disturbing discovery. Karl had also purchased $350,000+ life insurance policies on his two young granddaughters, ages 4 and 6, naming himself as the sole beneficiary.
In November 2013, he pled guilty to second-degree murder in Levi’s death and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. “He was able to kill without emotion. To kill your own son and then show no remorse whatsoever, that’s not human,” prosecutor Barry Porsch stated.
This conviction caused investigators in California to take a new look at the 1991 case of Karl’s first wife Christina. With the assistance of investigator Ken Buske, who had retained the case files for decades, authorities determined the fatal fire had been intentionally set right outside the bathroom, trapping Christina inside.
In February 2020, a jury unanimously found Karl Karlsen guilty of first-degree murder in the 1991 case, sentencing him to life without parole.
Karl’s children have had to face the painful realization that their father is a cold-blooded killer. But they also feel relieved that Karl will never have the opportunity to orchestrate any more “accidents” for family members.
