sister she was just this sweet giving person. they called it a horrible accident, but here is the thing. accidents just seemed to keep happening, deadly ones. these things kept coming up, intuitions that something wasn t right. wife number two had a growing suspicion. and she also had a plan. i had actually watched an episode of dateline and i had a revelation. a dangerous mission, was her own life at risk? this is a mystery that won t and, you couldn t write the story. hello and welcome to dateline. the death of a young mother in my house fire was almost too much for her family to bear. then, years later another devastating accident and another loved one gone. was this just a string of bad luck or the work of a calculating killer? here is andrea canning with deadly deceit. snapshots of a time gone by. capturing a life that could have been. now all that is left or the burned out remnants of the life that is gone. i ve seen the destruction in my family. i have
then, in january 2020, the case went to trial, the prosecution made the case that carlson killed christina for the same reason he killed levi. the life insurance. life insurance on his wife or $200,000. just three weeks after carl took out that policy, christina was dead. this was his plan, the da said, this was carlson s deadly ammo. but now it was the defenses turn to fight back. carl s attorneys told jurors they couldn t draw any conclusions based on carl s guilty plea in levi s death. does carl carlson deserve a fair trial? now, some people would say well, he admitted to killing his son in new york, he doesn t deserve a fair trial. and to that i would say, if you believe that today based just on that fact, we have an obligation to let the court know that you can t be fair.
christina s family was more than suspicious. they were certain carl killed christina. jeff arnold was the new york state investigator, he thought so too. why did you take such an in interest in christina s death when you re here in new york state, that cases in california? it became personal to me because she was a great human being who had everything to look forward to in life. investigator arnaud was asked to help out early in the carlson investigation, and he took a particular interest in christina and the fire that killed her. just imagine yourself, here in this bathroom taking a bath, and you smell smoke, and it s coming through your door and there is an inferno outside of your door you turn to the only window in the bathroom and it is covered with a sheet of plywood. investigator arnold said that pretty much everything carl carlson has ever said
he got work at the local quarry and it wouldn t be long before he knew christina had three kids. erin, levi and katie. she would be on the floor playing with them or teaching them or instruction them or coddling them. and it wasn t just her kids, it was all of our kids. look at those two lovely people over there. christina seemed happy, but carl wanted more than a life working in the quarry. christine s father, alexander, offered a ticket out. the job with a future working in his heating and air conditioning company. i said if you ever need a job just come on to california and you will have a job because you can work with me. so they moved all the way across the country to murphy s, an old mining town in the sierra foothills. carl found them a house at the top of this long winding road. it wasn t much but it was closer to collect and christina made it special. so she went into home
carl carlson pled guilty to murder to the second degree in the seneca county court, taking responsibility for the death of his son levi. the da said carlson would be given the minimum sentence, 15 years to life. at that same news conference, levi s sisters aaron and katie thank the investigation team, but then erin turn to the tragedy that shattered her childhood and changed her family forever. we ve been waiting just about 24 years now for some closure for things that transpired in california, you know? things that i will never be able to forget, things that my family, they ll never be able to overcome. it appeared someone was listening. in 2014, carl carlson was charged with first degree murder in the 1991 death of his wife christina, he was extradited to calaveras county in california where he pleaded not guilty.