no. he is not breathing? okay. 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 probably been under here for hours. reporter: karl s brother mike rushed over. they were just bringing levi out on the stretcher and putting him in the ambulance when i got there. reporter: 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 like throwing himself up against the wall, and he was on the ground. reporter: so many tears and so many questions. how could levi have been so
reporter: cindy did call 911. and her brother-in-law. what did karl say to you when you arrived? he mentioned that the horses were still in there. reporter: the karlsens had been breeding belgian horses. their loss and the loss of the old barn was devastating to the family. when levi got the bad news, he exploded. said some terrible things. and he and karl came to blows. levi got in his truck to get away from karl, and karl chased after him. i was yelling at karl, you know, just let him go, leave him alone, let him go. reporter: but 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. reporter: but like many kids, levi started to grow up. he got his ged, started working and tried hard to be a good dad.
i asked her not to say anything. despite that, the cousin promptly called the sheriff s department. john clear was the detective who took the call. wasted no time in phoning cindy karlsen. how did that go? first thing she said was thank god you called. thank god you called. i was so relieved. he paid particular attention when he said levi who never had much money taken out an enormous life insurance policy. the most useful piece of information was about a $700,000 plus insurance policy that was paid out on levi karlsen. reporter: from his conversations with cindy karlsen and steve brown, detective clear learned that karl helped levi sign up for the policy. the beneficiary? karl himself. he actually takes him to see
and perhaps in being a father, his anger with his own father began to soften. i think he had rounded the corner a little bit. could see some sort of a path and a direction for his life. reporter: levi had his own place now, but he would drop by the old house to see the family and help karl with some work. on november 20th, 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 d been gone for about four hours. karl told me that he was going to go out and let levi know we were home and check on him. reporter: cindy went into the house. suddenly karl came rushing out of the barn. he came banging on the window and the door and telling me to call 911. what s going on? the truck fell on my stepson.
contributed or whatever, yeah. reporter: so 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 re under arrest. i think you knew that was coming. reporter: when karlsen was charged with second degree murder. not long after that, he got a lawyer. when he came to court, he used a walker claiming old injuries got the best of him. his attorney said police coerced karl. his worst fear was cemented. his own brother was a killer.