Wife Accused of Arson, Running Over Husband Says She Has “Bad Luck”

48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty interviews Linda Stermer, the Michigan woman who was accused of setting her house on fire and murdering her husband Todd Stermer in 2007. Linda Stermer tells 48 Hours she heard her husband scream in the living room, and when she got there the room was engulfed in flames.

Unable to get to her husband and without a cellphone, she says she fled the burning house and got into her husband’s van to get help.

Before driving away, she says she saw her husband had escaped the house and she got out of the van — but she says he wouldn’t get in. When she got back in the van, “I lost sight of him,” she says, and “the tires were just spinning.”

Investigators later found her husband’s blood on the van’s front bumper and undercarriage. She had hit her husband with the van. Todd Stermer died on the scene of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries.

Two years later, Linda Stermer was charged with arson and the murder of her husband. In 2010, a jury convicted Stermer and she was sentenced to life in prison without parole. After serving close to nine years in prison, her conviction was overturned by federal judge Arthur J. Tarnow, who “declared that Linda did not get a fair trial and said he found prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel.”

Linda Stermer is now free but the State of Michigan has filed an appeal and is fighting to reinstate her conviction.

In the video above, when Moriarty tells Linda it’s difficult for people to believe her story and asks, “You just happen to have that kind of bad luck?” Linda releases a laugh and says, “Bad luck doesn’t even describe it.” 48 Hours airs Saturdays at 10 pm on CBS. [NOTE: Stream any CBS show through Amazon Prime or CBS ALL-ACCESS. Both options offer free trials.]