Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, Carl Carlson considers himself a country

gentleman. I think he strived to be the center of attention.

He runs a sprawling farm. He raises Belgian draft horses. My father liked to

keep them, and the bigger the better.

And he does it all on a factory worker's salary.

How? I mean, the whole thing just makes no sense.

The answer may lie in the so -called accidents that keep happening.

911, what's the location of your emergency?

Does anybody need an ambulance?

Accidents that claim the lives of his son and wife.

She's in there and she's stuck and she's going to die. I started screaming and I

couldn't even stop.

Accidents that always lead to a hefty insurance payoff.

Between the cars, the vacations, the duck farm, I really wondered.

Where he was coming up with the money. Will the authorities ever confirm what

his terrified children know to be true?

Tonight, the secrets of a man who sacrifices his loved ones for money.

human being is expendable for a check.

As told by the family members who made it out alive.

That man doesn't deserve to live.

Dad, he does not deserve to live.

It's 2008 in Berwick, New York, a rural town nestled in the Finger Lakes region

of the state.

In the rolling fields between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes sits the farm of Carl

Carlson.

Carlson is a factory worker, but the farm is his true passion. He raises

draft horses.

Our farm was a hobby farm. We usually had between 25 and 30 horses on the

The horses can weigh up to 2 ,000 pounds and cost up to $10 ,000 each.

The impressive horses fit right in with Carl's self -image.

He's actually very impressed with himself.

I think he had the tendency to be a little bit of a storyteller and a

in his own mind. Anything he could do to draw attention to himself.

Michael Carlson is Carl's older brother.

It's all about him.

And money and his success, his image, his prestige.

Carlson manages the farm on his own with occasional help from his four children.

Three are from his previous marriage.

Aaron, the firstborn, son Levi, and Katie, the youngest.

When times were good with Dad, they were really good.

So he and I spent an awful lot of time going across the hayfields on

tractors or, you know.

plowing the snow in the winter, and so there was a lot of good memories that I

have associated with stuff like that.

Despite his bucolic life, Carlson is sometimes at odds with his son Levi.

Levi, seen here with his high school sweetheart Cassie, doesn't fit in to

idealized view of his family.

Levi was into heavy metal. He hated country western, but Carl loved country

western.

Carl was into country western music, square dancing.

He very much considered himself a country gentleman.

Levi, now 23, moves out of his father's home at age 16.

He hopped for a bit. He would go stay with friends.

And then he, you know, met and fell in love with Cassie. He was different. And

he seemed very comfortable with being different.

I remember the first time I saw him, he was dressed in his goth gear and his

hair was blue. I found that, like, very interesting.

Shortly after she graduates high school, Cassie and Levi marry.

Our daughter was born about six weeks after we got married.

She was the best thing to ever happen to him.

He loved her so much.

The two eventually have two daughters, but the magic doesn't last.

They divorce after a few years of marriage, but remain on good terms for

kid's sake.

And there was always lots of kisses and lots of playing, and he was very active

with them.

They were his whole world.

Levi and his father Carl don't have much contact, but still see each other a few

times a year.

On this day, November 20, 2008, Carl calls his son and asks if he can help

up his old farm truck.

Levi has a knack for working with cars.

It was a big pickup truck, like one of those F -250s, something like that. Big

old farm truck.

The truck is a couple of decades old, but it's a workhorse.

Carlson uses it around the farm often.

Carlson says the truck needs repairs on its brakes.

He gives Levi 50 bucks for the job.

Levi was very well known for being able to help where he could.

When it came to helping his father with things, the way a lot of times that he

saw it was if he was helping, then the job was getting done.

When Levi arrives at the farm, the truck is already jacked up and ready for

repairs. The plan is for Levi to do the work while Carl and his wife Cindy,

Levi's stepmother, attend the funeral of a relative.

As Cindy waits in their car, Carl speaks to Levi in the barn.

Then he joins her.

And they drive off.

That was about noontime. Left with his wife to go to a funeral in Pan Yan.

Went to a reception after the funeral at the Moose Club. Acted like he always

acted. Laughed and joked because he always did.

When Carl and his wife Cindy return from the funeral, they're stunned at what

they find in the barn.

Levi is pinned underneath the truck.

Came home at about 3 .50 p .m., discovered his son, and screamed out for

wife to call 911.

911, what's the location of your emergency?

Yes, I live it.

Levi is dead.

So I was driving to my boyfriend's house at the time, and halfway there I got a

phone call from my grandpa.

And his exact words were,

Levi's gone.

While Carl is at the funeral, authorities say the thin, wobbly

that props up the truck falls over.

You know, it sounded like a tragic accident for everything that was

me, that the jack slipped is what I was told.

The jack slipped and the truck came down on him.

Cassie is so stunned she can't even tell her kids what happened.

It was awful.

It was absolutely awful.

I couldn't even gather myself up enough to be the one to tell my children my

mother told them.

Carl Carlson says he thinks he's cursed.

This is the second time a close family member of his has died in a tragic

accident. That was our life growing up. One bad incident after

another.

Carl Carlson and his family's accidents is a story that spans several decades

and thousands of miles.

In the early 1980s, Carlson is a cadet in the Air Force.

While stationed in North Dakota, working with nuclear missiles, Carlson is drawn

to the wife of a fellow cadet, Christina Alexander.

Despite her marriage, Carl sweeps Christina off her feet.

Carl and Christina have this whirlwind.

when they met on the Air Force Base in North Dakota.

Michael Carlson is two years older than his brother.

The first time we met her is when they came home.

We knew nothing about her other than he called my father and said, I'm going to

be a dad, and oh, by the way, I'm married. And when they got out of the

he came home with her.

Christina and Carl Carlson settled in central New York, close to where Carl

up.

Carlson's family is impressed with his new wife.

She's an amazing young lady.

Great kid.

The sun was always shining in her world.

Just always had a smile on her face.

The couple eventually have three young children, Aaron, Levi, and Katie.

Carl works at the local stone quarry, but money is tight.

We were all in the same mode in life.

Young kids ourselves, newly married.

I don't think any one of us had a nickel to rub between. You know, it's just we

were all trying to survive.

Christina's family lives out west in central California in the foothills of

Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Her father owns a sheet metal business. He offers his new son -in -law an

opportunity. You know, I told him, look, if you ever need a job, come on out to

California and you work with me.

In the late 80s, Christina and Carl take him up on the offer and relocate to her

hometown of Murphys, California.

Christina's sister, Colette, says Carl is charming.

He can be very friendly. He can be very funny.

So my first impression with him was that he had a great sense of humor and that

he made me laugh a lot.

Christina's father finds a home for the young family.

I had a house for them that I rented up above.

Murphy's on the highway or just off the highway.

So I thought it might be good for them, you know, save a little bit of money

that they could live in that house for free. But Carl doesn't like being under

his father -in -law's thumb.

He eventually finds his own home deep in the woods.

Pretty much like an old miner's shack.

Carl's mother -in -law is appalled.

And when I got there and saw the state of that house, that wasn't a house, it

was a shack.

Had water from the creek kind of thing. It was just all time living.

The status of the home was, it was a downgrade. So I was a little

when she told me they were moving. It was in not the greatest of condition.

What the family doesn't know is that the new home would become the site of their

first great tragedy.

Next on American Greed.

I got a phone call from my dad, and he simply told me there was a fire out at

your sister's house, and your sister didn't get out.

Situated in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, Murphy's, California, is where

the 49ers hunted for gold.

For Christina and Colette, it was a great place to grow up.

So we grew up nowhere near a city, very much outdoors.

For Christina Carlson, the opportunity to raise her own kids in this

is too good to pass up.

And then when I got the phone call that they were moving to California, I was so

ecstatic. because now I knew I could be closer to her.

The kids recall good times at the cabin.

My mom used to take us on walks all the time, and we would collect leaves or

acorns or whatever and press them into little books.

We would go downtown Murphy's and go to the candy shop or the ice cream shop.

We would play the hokey pokey on the record machine. She'd get out the record

and put it on, and we'd stand in the living room.

dancing to the hokey pokey.

But shortly after their arrival, Christina's family notices that all is

right with her marriage to Carl.

So he controlled my sister mentally because he would tell her that she was

chubby. He knew that because she was so sensitive about her weight that he could

destroy her self -esteem.

Carl had never allowed Chris to have any of the holidays with me.

Or go shopping with me unless he was there.

One year for her birthday, I bought her, back in the day they had these things

called glamour shots.

And so you would go to the glamour shot and they would do your makeup and your

hair and make you feel like a princess.

So we get back to my house and we walked in the door and he looked at her and he

said, you look like a whore, go take your makeup off.

And she just ran down the hall crying.

The Carlson's cabin is located about five miles outside of downtown Murphys.

To get to the home, one must drive down a long, winding road through the

mountains. They had one car, so he would take the car.

My sister and the kids were stranded out at this house, and it's not walkable,

so she was stuck out there completely by herself.

Collette says that Carl also physically abuses her sister.

She called me up one time and...

She said he knocked her so hard she flew all the way across the room. And I

said, you need to get out.

Like, you have got to get out of here because it's getting worse.

And she said, Colette, I don't want to be divorced twice. And how am I going to

take care of my kids?

The sisters keep their conversations to themselves.

I knew I couldn't react because if I had said anything, he'd have taken it out

on my sister.

In 1990, Christina's family goes to her mother's house outside Sacramento for

Christmas. But Arlene says the holiday visit is odd.

Even though the drive is just an hour and a half long, Christina and her

have never made the trip before.

On Christmas Eve, they came down for the very first time and all the time that

Chris lived there in Murphy's.

And I was puzzled by it.

I thought, Something is not right.

She says Carl's demeanor is pleasant during the visit, but something is off,

she can't put her finger on it. And I knew something was going wrong, but I

didn't know what it was.

Christmas was the last time I saw her.

One week later, on New Year's Day in 1991, Christina Carlson and her family

back home at their cabin outside Murphys, California.

The family is enjoying a lazy New Year's Day.

Despite being just six years of age at the time, oldest daughter Erin remembers

the day vividly.

So I remember that we were playing.

My dad rounded the three of us up. He took us out to the yard.

He had our Christmas tree out in the gravel driveway, and he said he wanted

to see how quick a house could burn. So he put some fuel over it and lit it up,

and we just kind of stood there and watched it.

Erin says that she and her two siblings go back into the cabin to take their

afternoon naps.

Erin shares a room with little sister Katie. While lying in bed, she recalls

hearing her mother yelling.

So I woke up and I went over to our bedroom door and it had been left ajar

could see that there was fire on the other side of the door.

The tiny cabin is on fire.

Erin wakes up her little sister Katie and runs toward the bedroom window, but

discovers that it's blocked by a dresser.

She says the dresser usually sits in the closet.

A dresser had been placed in front of the window, one of the windows in our

room, and I tried to push it out of the way, and I was too young to make it

move, but I gave it a go.

And shortly after that, my father actually broke through the window and

the dresser out of the way.

Carl Carlson pulls the two girls out of the window.

We had had a pickup truck that was in the driveway, and he put us in the truck

and, you know, told us to stay down, not to turn around and look. And shortly

thereafter, he came back with my brother.

The children's mother, Christina Carlson, is still in the house.

She is taking a bath when the fire breaks out. The fire is raging in the

just outside the bathroom.

She's trapped.

But as a child, like, I didn't understand what was happening. I knew

fire, but it never really crossed my mind that, you know, oh, my gosh, like,

mom is, she's in there, and she's stuck, and she's going to die.

Erin says her father runs to the bathroom window to try rescuing her

the window is boarded shut.

The glass pane was previously broken, and Carl temporarily patched it with

plywood.

He walked into the house, and he was kind of kicking at the concrete

And then turned around and came back after, you know, a few minutes.

He was just kind of standing there watching.

Christina Carlson doesn't make it.

She's overwhelmed by smoke and dies in the bathroom.

Before emergency crews even reach the cabin, Erin says her father tells the

that their mother is gone.

At the time, I didn't understand. He told us that Mommy had gone to heaven,

I didn't understand really what that meant.

Next on American Greed, without their mother around, the kids say Carl focuses

his rage on them.

He would utilize physical punishment as a mental punishment. So he would

have me carry 10 -gallon buckets full of water back and forth from the barn to

the house until my body would give out.

It's New Year's Day, 1991, in Central California.

Word of Christina Carlson's tragic death spreads to her family.

I got to my mom's house, went in, told her husband, I need to tell you

something, it's not good.

And I looked at her eyes, and I still remember to this day.

I started screaming, and I couldn't even stop.

And Colette kept rubbing my back and getting me to...

Calm down.

It's pretty hard to calm down when you're just told your daughter died in

fire. When Collette and her mother arrive in Murphys, they soon find Erin,

Christina's oldest daughter.

And she goes, Hi, Aunt Collette. Did you know Mommy's in heaven with baby Jesus?

And her next words were, I heard Mommy calling for Daddy.

And Daddy didn't do anything.

Colette says Carl is casually leaning against the wall.

I said, I want to go see my sister. And he said, you can't.

And I said, why not?

And he said, she's a crispy critter.

It's not only diabolically cruel, it's untrue.

Fire investigators say the flames never actually made it into the bathroom.

Investigators say Christina dies from smoke inhalation.

The broken window that was nailed shut with plywood sealed Christina's fate.

This here is a good bathroom where Christina was found.

And I realized that this fire that came through the house, it didn't burn up the

bathroom where my sister was.

So this whole she's a crispy critter thing is not resonating even worse at

point. Like, this is, something's wrong.

Investigators say spilled kerosene in the hallway outside the bathroom likely

started the fire.

With the cabin's sparse accommodations, kerosene was needed in the house to keep

it heated.

A kerosene heater, spam heater, sits on the floor.

Supposedly the kerosene had been spilled and maybe the dog. I never have heard

for sure how it ignited. And I knew there was a spill on the carpet. My

had put blankets and towels down like we were kids, right? So we were climbing

this blanket mountain and having the time of our lives because it was in the

middle of the hallway.

Investigators ruled the fire an accident.

The insurance company gives Carl Carlson a $215 ,000 payout for his wife's

death.

Just a few days after the incident, Carl is gone.

So we did a memorial service that was four days after she had passed away.

And that night, or the next day, Carl and the kids were on a plane

to New York.

The kids are young.

Erin's the oldest at six.

Christina's family doesn't even get a chance to say goodbye to them.

And our side of the family was really shocked by that.

I mean, those are our grandchildren too, okay?

So two weeks later, we did actually bury my sister.

Carl didn't come back for that.

Investigators in Calaveras County still want to talk to Carl about the fire.

But unfortunately, due to budget limitations, they're unable to fly to

and question Carl further.

Cal Fire also dropped the ball. The Cal Fire investigator asked to interview

Carl in New York, and they said there wasn't enough money. Their investigation

hits a dead end and is dropped.

Christina's family is devastated and confused by the sequence of events.

He murdered her. There was no doubt in our mind that he did this, and he did it

for the insurance money.

But we had to come to terms with the fact that he got away with it.

Meanwhile, in central New York, Carl Carlson begins rebuilding his life.

Using the insurance money from Christina's death, he purchases a farm

raises Belgian draft horses.

He marries a woman named Cindy Best.

As the kids grow up in their new home, old ghosts come back to haunt their

lives. Without their birth mother around, the kids say Carl begins taking

his frustrations on them.

When my father was going to beat us, he would send us all to our rooms, right,

so that there really wouldn't be any witnesses.

Unfortunately for Levi, he was often taken to the barn, where nobody would

only see, nobody would hear what was going on. Levi would get beat with

that my father had within reach.

His fist, pipe, shovel, pitchforks, belt, electric cattle

prod.

You name it, it was used as a weapon against my brother.

Erin says she also takes her share of abuse.

So he would tell me that my mother would not be proud of who I was. He would

tell me that I was fat or that I had a big ass.

Katie, for the most part, says she manages to escape her father's wrath.

For me, it was more, again, you know, backing me into a corner, squeezing my

arm, bending my arm, just real, a show of strength without necessarily having

to leave marks.

My father was very careful not to hit us in our faces, although that was not off

limits either.

But he was very cautious to not leave overt marks.

So at least anywhere that would be visible to the family or the public.

Aaron says their father beats them because they figured out his secret.

Their mother's death was no accident.

Levi and I would talk and put pieces together and be like, okay, well, this

doesn't make sense. Like, do you think this is what happened? Because this is

what I'm pretty sure happened.

When they're teenagers, Erin says she and Levi actually confront their father

about the cabin fire.

And his concern was how would the community perceive his own children

questioning, you know, if he murdered, you know, his first wife and our mother.

And that was his big concern, his perception within the community.

Next on American Greed, it's deja vu at the Carlson home as fire strikes again.

I'll go to my grave thinking that he was involved in that barn. How many times

can you do it?

And every time he got away with it.

In 2002, the Carlson family farm in central New York is the site of another

unexplained tragedy.

One summer night, their horse barn catches fire. I remember waking up, so

room in the house had a window that directly faced the barn, and I remember

waking up and seeing the blaze. Three of Carl's prized horses die in the fire,

and the barn is destroyed.

But there's a silver lining for Carl.

He receives a hefty insurance payout. So right before the barn fire, he went to

the insurance agent, upped the insurance on the barn. So I believe it was well

over $100 ,000 on the barn and three horses.

Although Carl benefits from yet another fire and payout, neither the police nor

insurers appear to be suspicious.

And I'm saying how many insurance payouts does somebody need?

For the pattern to me was glaring.

At the time of the barn fire, Katie and her half -brother are the only children

that live at home.

Earlier that year, oldest sister Erin graduates from high school and enlists

the Air Force.

Their brother Levi moves out several months earlier at the age of 16.

Levi lives with various relatives and eventually gets married to his high

sweetheart, Cassie.

He talked quite frequently about his mom. He loved her so dearly. He had told

several times that he thought his father had killed his mother.

The couple eventually have two daughters.

They were his whole world. I think he wanted to be a better dad than what his

dad was to him.

Cassie says Levi keeps in touch with his father for the benefit of his younger

sister and half -brother.

So that's why he always continued to deal with his dad as much as he could

because he wanted to be there for his siblings.

But despite their contentious relationship, Carl offers to do

Levi and his children.

In late 2008, he recommends Levi purchase a life insurance policy.

Carl even offers to get the process started.

Carl went to the insurance agent to his office. I believe he paid cash for the

premium, the first premium, which the agent thought was unusual.

The policy is for a whopping $700 ,000.

Remarkably, Carl is named the beneficiary of the policy.

How did you think that was a logical way to represent their client?

Was it really in his best interest?

And oh, by the way, you named the father the beneficiary?

The guy has two little children he's responsible for.

You didn't name them beneficiary?

17 days later, on November 20th, Carl asks Levi to work on his truck.

But before they go to the farm, Carl tells Levi they need to go to the town

Geneva to handle some paperwork.

But before his son came down, Carl wrote out a will, but he took his son to a

local bank.

Carl thought that by having this document notarized, it would be an

will. The will gave everything to Carl, the father, and it also said Levi does

not want to be on life support.

But just why would Levi sign such a will?

I think that Levi was so desperate to repair his relationship with our father

that he, unfortunately, put blind faith in him and believed that

this really was in the best interest of his girls.

A couple of hours later, the father and son are back at the farm to work on the

truck. Levi has no idea what is about to happen.

Ma 'am?

Police investigators say Levi's death appears to be an accident.

Because farm accidents are actually not uncommon here.

Farming is pretty dangerous work and accidents happen all the time.

At this moment, no one else in the family knows about the will or the life

insurance policy.

But suspicions remain.

And so I called my mom, and then I called my dad, and I said, Dad, I don't

what he stands to gain from this, but I know he did it.

Next on American Greed, an unexpected phone call exposes Carl's deeds and

investigators close in. You're a money -driven individual, Carl, period.

$700 ,000 is what you would gain from his death.

$200 ,000 is what you had gained from your wife's death in California.

After

Carl

gets his $700 ,000 payout from Levi's insurance policy, he goes on a shopping

spree. Dad had a F -150, and then he had a Ford Ranger. There were

tractors and trailers and duck, lots and lots of duck.

Carl has big plans for his ducks. He buys thousands of them. He invested most

the money in a duck farm. He was going to raise these ducks and sell the duck

meat to New York City restaurants.

In the four years after Levi's death, Carl appears to live the good life.

But in 2012, his marriage to Cindy begins to crumble and they split.

In the midst of the divorce drama, in the spring of 2012, the sheriff's office

in Seneca County, New York, gets a surprising phone call from Cindy's

who lives in Kentucky.

She asked, did you investigate the death of Levi Carlson? So she said, well, you

might want to look into that a little more.

The cousin tells John Clear that Cindy suspects Carl murdered Levi, but is

hesitant about contacting authorities.

She says, well, there was a suspicious death back in 1991 in California, and

guys really need to look at this closer.

John Clear begins making calls and quickly finds out that the cousin's

checks out.

His next call is to Cindy Carlson. I said I'm calling you to tell you that

reopened the investigation to the death of your son.

And she said, thank God you called.

Clear says Cindy tells them she is afraid for her life.

She said, I've always thought that maybe he killed, you know, Levi.

In fact, she told us, I've moved out. You know, we're separated.

I'm going to get divorced because I'm afraid he might come after me.

But the sheriff's office needs more proof.

They want Cindy to wear a wire.

Cindy agrees and calls Carl. She asks him to meet her at a restaurant in

Waterloo. She tells Carl the meeting is about getting back together.

But we deliberately picked that restaurant because there was no private

It's all open tables so that people can overhear. We put some undercover

officers in the restaurant with them.

for safety purposes, but also as witnesses.

While Carl never openly admits to killing Levi, investigators say he

just enough for them to take action.

But he did say some very disturbing things.

He

said

that he took advantage of the opportunity.

What parent talks about the death of their child as an opportunity?

The day after Thanksgiving, sheriff's officers bring Carl Carlson to the

for questioning.

The interrogation lasts nine and a half hours.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

Okay. You guys don't know what happened that day. The day that my son died.

I found him dead.

The truck was on him.

They come in, try doing CPR, and he was already gone.

Claire says Carlson gives them multiple versions of that day's events.

But eventually, he starts to crack.

To kill him. No, I didn't kill him.

You did kill him.

You did kill him. I did.

Intentionally. No.

Accidentally.

Yeah, it was an accident. Ultimately, he breaks down and tells me that he caused

the truck to fall on his son and then walked out and left him

dying on the floor.

I mean, it was an accident.

I blame myself every day, just like you said.

While Levi was underneath the truck, authorities say Carl Carlson opens the

driver's side door and steps inside the cabin, causing the jack to give.

He did that, the truck fell, and then he decided to walk away, a helpless

victim. That's murder in the second grade.

Next on American Greed, Carl has his day in court.

A new revelation stunned his family.

I want it known that, you know, my kids had a bounty on their head.

In 2012, four years after the death of Levi Carlson, police officially arrest

Carl Carlson and charge him with second degree murder and insurance fraud.

I was definitely in shock when I was told that dad was arrested.

I didn't think that it would ever happen. So to hear that he had been

was a relief and like accumulation of, you know, 20 plus years worth of

The family is stunned when they learn the bitter truth about Levi's $700 ,000

insurance policy.

The insurance policy money explains Carl's shopping spree, but ultimately

more questions.

If there was that level of money available, why on God's green earth was

struggling so hard working her butt off for those little girls?

She shouldn't have had to. That money should have gotten her a house or a car

put the girls through school.

But that's nothing compared to what Levi's ex -wife learns.

While meeting with police investigators, Cassie discovers that Carl may have

been plotting more schemes.

John Clear met me in the foyer and we walked down to his office and he opened

the conversation with, were you aware that there were life insurance policies

your children?

Authorities say Carl took out life insurance policies on Cassie and Levi's

daughters, each worth more than $350 ,000.

Who the hell put that kind of life insurance on a four and six year old?

Why?

That's just, that's, that's ludicrous. That's obscene. It amazes me to this day

that you can take.

a $350 ,000 insurance policy on a child without telling the parent that you're

doing it.

You know, he would have got at least $600 ,000, maybe $700 ,000 by killing

two grandkids.

He was sole beneficiary on those two policies, and those two grandkids were

going to be next. He needed the money.

Nearly a year after his arrest, in November 2013, Carl pleads guilty to the

second -degree murder charge.

As part of his plea deal, the insurance fraud charges are dropped.

His sentence is 15 years to life.

He is a person who can kill without emotion, you know, to kill your own son

then not have any remorse about it. That's not human.

Well, that's just it.

That's absolutely just it. How do you explain that to a child that their

father's life was worthless to his father?

That a human being is expendable for a check.

After Carl's conviction in New York, prosecutors in Calaveras County reopened

the case of Christina Carlson's death back in 1991.

I was concerned because of the lack of physical evidence. It's been 30 years,

most of the evidence was destroyed.

But while physical evidence is scant, prosecutors do have an ace up their

sleeve. Ken Buskey is a forensic engineer who originally investigated the

back in 1991.

He still has his case files and testifies in court.

Yes, I know how the fire started, and when I worked down on the carpet, I

see where kerosene had been spilled, and it had a lot of time to wick out

through the carpet. While Buskey says the kerosene spill on the carpet was

there's evidence that fresh kerosene was poured throughout the cabin immediately

before the fire.

Somebody poured kerosene on purpose outside the bathroom door, and then as

were pouring it, they worked northward toward the child's...

the girl's bedroom.

So it was very clear that somebody poured a kerosene immediately prior to

fire, within minutes, very few minutes.

And the only way for that kerosene to have been ignited was somebody to use a

match or a cigarette lighter or something like that to light it.

As for the boarded -up window in the bathroom where Christina Carlson died,

Carl's story and the details don't add up.

Well, there were 17 nails in that piece of plywood.

Only, according to him, only three of which hit wood.

The rest were in sheetrock.

It was nailed from the inside out. Anything from the outside could have

that board in.

I had to second guess my entire life.

Sitting in the stand, it was obvious. He did it.

In February 2020, the family finally gets justice for Christina.

A jury finds Carlson guilty of first -degree murder by arson.

I almost jumped up and down on the judge's desk. That's what I felt like

The sentence was life without parole.

With the case finally in the rearview mirror, after three grueling decades,

family says they just have one order of business to take care of.

Levi's children still haven't seen a dime of the $700 ,000 insurance money.

Levi's will explicitly states,

That's

what that money was intended for, to help raise those girls, do everything

my brother can no longer do.

In addition to the insurance policies taken out on the girls, Carl invested

,000 in a fixed annuity.

He also bought $70 ,000 annuities for each of the granddaughters.

In late 2011 and early 2012, those accounts were liquidated.

What I struggle with is, as power of attorney, having documents on some of

accounts and seeing how many opened within a year of Levi's death.

But none of the money ever ended up going to the girl.

The advisor who set up the accounts tells investigators that he advised

the withdrawals, calling it financially irresponsible.

Carl's daughters want to know how much money is left and where it went.

I think this is necessary.

The financial trail, the motive behind all of this is very important.

There is money still lingering that my brother wanted his children to have, and

rightfully so, they should have it.

As for Carl, with his two life sentences, he will likely never see the

world again.

That man!

He doesn't deserve to live.

Stan, he does not deserve to live.

Say what you want to say.

I don't care. I'm not going to disagree with you. I think he's a jackass and

deserves to die in prison.

I don't care how old he gets. I don't care if he is 80. I think he actually

a great deal of satisfaction out of being that person to control your last

breath. He should never get out.

Because I don't care how old he is, he will hurt somebody else.

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