The Nathan Carman Case — Murder at Sea and Inheritance Fraud

The Case

The Nathan Carman case is an American true-crime matter in which a young Vermont man was federally indicted for allegedly murdering his mother during a 2016 fishing trip off New England and for being involved in the 2013 shooting death of his wealthy grandfather in Connecticut. Because Nathan Carman died in custody in June 2023 before trial, no jury ever ruled on the charges, and the homicide of his grandfather John Chakalos remains officially unsolved.

The Crime

Two deaths sit at the center of the case. The first occurred in late December 2013, when 87-year-old John Chakalos — a successful real estate developer and Nathan's maternal grandfather — was found shot to death at his home in Windsor, Connecticut. Investigators developed evidence they considered consistent with a Sig Sauer rifle, but no one was charged at the time.

The second event came on September 17, 2016, when Nathan, then 22, and his mother Linda departed a marina in South Kingstown, Rhode Island aboard Nathan's aluminum boat, the Chicken Pox, for what was described as a fishing trip. The boat never returned. Days later, Nathan was rescued alive in a life raft about 100 nautical miles off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Linda Carman was gone, and her body has never been recovered.

Federal prosecutors later alleged that Nathan deliberately sank or staged the sinking of the boat in order to kill his mother and obtain access to family wealth and insurance proceeds. The indictment also tied him to the earlier killing of John Chakalos, framing both deaths as part of an inheritance fraud scheme.

The Victims

John Chakalos, 87, was the family patriarch — a Connecticut real estate developer whose estate was reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars. His death in December 2013 devastated the family and triggered a long dispute over his fortune.

Linda Carman was Nathan's mother, a resident of Middletown, Connecticut, and one of Chakalos's four daughters. She was known to share Nathan's interest in fishing and had gone on the 2016 trip with him willingly. Family members later told reporters they had warned her against going out alone with her son at night.

Nathan Carman himself, from Vernon, Vermont, was described in coverage as a troubled young man with Asperger's syndrome and a fraught relationship with much of his extended family. ABC News framed him as both a "victim and villain" in the eyes of investigators and relatives.

Investigation

The inquiry quickly grew into a multi-agency operation. The FBI, the U.S. Coast Guard, the ATF, the Connecticut State Police, Windsor Police, and South Kingstown Police all contributed to the investigation outlined by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont.

A central thread was the condition of the Chicken Pox. In a separate civil lawsuit over the boat's insurance, a federal judge found that Nathan had made alterations to the vessel that compromised its seaworthiness, a ruling that helped form the foundation for later criminal allegations. Investigators also examined firearm purchases and ammunition linked to Nathan in connection with the Chakalos shooting, as detailed in a Northeastern University Law Review analysis of the prosecution theory.

Nathan was arrested on May 10, 2022, and charged in an eight-count indictment that included first-degree murder on the high seas and multiple counts of mail and wire fraud tied to insurance and inheritance claims.

Trial and Verdict

There was no trial. While Nathan Carman was being held in federal custody in New Hampshire awaiting proceedings, he was found dead on or about June 15, 2023. CBS News reported he was 29 years old at the time of his death. With the defendant deceased, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the indictment, meaning Nathan was never convicted — or acquitted — of any of the charges. The killing of John Chakalos remains an open, unsolved homicide in Connecticut.

Today

The case continues to draw attention as one of the most unusual unresolved sagas in recent American true crime. Linda Carman's body has never been found, and the official record contains no judicial finding of guilt against her son. The Chakalos family's long civil battles over the estate have played out separately in probate and federal civil courts. Media coverage — including detailed write-ups by A&E and multiple documentary segments — has kept the story in public view, but for the families involved, both deaths remain, in a legal sense, unanswered.