Man who murdered son for insurance money found guilty of doing the same thing to wife
A man who has been convicted of murdering his wife and son for insurance payouts has described their deaths as “bad luck”.
Karl Holger Karlsen, 59, pleaded guilty in 2013 to murdering his son Levi Karlsen in New York and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. According to court documents, Karlsen collected US$707,000 from Levi’s life insurance in 2008 after the 23-year-old’s body was found under a pickup truck in Karlsen’s garage in 2008.
The conviction prompted Californian authorities to reopen investigation into the 1991 death of Karlsen’s wife Christina Alexander Karlsen.
Last month, Karlsen was found guilty of first-degree murder by arson for intentionally setting fire to his family’s home in California, killing Christina. He collected US$215,000 in life insurance that he had taken out on Christina less than three weeks before her death before relocating to New York with his three children, a court document stated.
Karlsen faces a maximum life sentence without parole on his March 17 sentencing hearing.
In an interview with NBC’s Dateline before his conviction, aired on Friday, reporter Andrea Canning asked Karlsen if it was “bad luck that they died”.
“What would you call it? I’ve had many other things in my life that...I’ve had horses died, I’ve had a barn fire,” Karlsen said.
“If I told you everything, you wouldn’t believe what’s happened to me.”
Karlsen’s daughter Erin De Roche told ABC’s 20/20 in 2013 that she and her late brother believed Karlsen “just stood there” and “didn’t make an effort” to save their mother during the 1991 fire.
“We knew what he had done to our mother, and I knew what he did to my brother,” she said.