Vermont man, 28, dies awaiting trial for murder of his mother in ‘Murder on the High Seas’ plot
A man accused of killing his mother in a plot to get a $7 million estate has died.
Nathan Carman, 28, died “on or about” Thursday, according to court documents filed this morning.
He was accused of killing his mother, Linda Carman, 54, during a fishing trip off the coast of Rhode Island in 2016.
Carman’s murder-at-sea trial was set to take place in October, and authorities have not yet confirmed the cause of his death.
The alleged killer was also accused of killing his grandfather, John Chakalos, at his home in Windsor, Connecticut, in 2013 as part of a money-making scheme.
Nathan Carman, 28, (pictured in 2019) died ‘on or about’ Thursday, according to court documents filed this morning
Carman was found clinging to a life raft eight days after going on a fishing trip with his mother, who was never found and presumed dead.
A passing freighter picked up Carman, before he was charged with multiple counts of fraud and murder in May 2022.
During his arraignment in a federal court in Rutland, Vermont, he told reporters he was “not guilty.”
According to court documents, his death was cited as a reason for federal officials to dismiss charges against him.
The unsealed indictment alleged that Carman shot 87-year-old Chakalos in an attempt to secure money and property from his grandfather’s estate, but was never charged with the murder.
In September 2016, Nathan Carman was found in an inflatable raft eight days after leaving a Rhode Island marina to go fishing with his mother.
Prosecutors allege that Carman killed her on the boat, which he modified to increase the likelihood of sinking that day.
He denied doing anything to deliberately make the boat unseaworthy, charging that he had “removed two forward bulkheads and trim tabs from the transom of the hull.”
Carman allegedly murdered his mother (pictured together) and grandfather in an attempt to defraud Chakalos’ $42 million estate – built up by building and renting nursing homes
A passing freighter picked up Carman, before he was charged with multiple counts of fraud and murder in May 2022
Carman removes his life jacket after arriving at the Coast Guard Base in Boston on Sept. 27, 2016
Court documents allege that his inheritance settlement spanned nearly a decade and began with Carman purchasing a rifle in New Hampshire that he used to shoot Chakalos on December 20, 2013, while he slept.
He then threw away his computer’s hard drive and the GPS unit that had been in his truck, prosecutors said.
Police have said that Carman was the last person to see his grandfather alive and owned a semi-automatic rifle similar to the one used to kill Chakalos – but the firearm is gone.
After Chakalos’s death, Carman received $550,000 from two bank accounts his grandfather had opened and of which he was the beneficiary.
He moved from an apartment in Bloomfield, Connecticut, to Vernon, Vermont, in 2014 and found himself unemployed and wasting the money.
By the fall of 2016, he was penniless when he hatched the plan to kill his mother, prosecutors said.
The Burlington, Vermont, indictment also alleges that Carman shot and killed his grandfather John Chakalos (right), 87, while sleeping at home in Windsor, Connecticut, in 2013
Prosecutors allege that Carman killed his mother on his boat called the Chickenpox (above) that he had altered to make it more likely to sink that day
Carman and his mother Linda often went on fishing trips together (above) and prosecutors say he used it as a pretext to lure her to her death in 2016
Carman is seen following his 2016 “rescue” at sea. Prosecutors say he killed his mother and deliberately sank his boat as part of a plan to get a $7 million inheritance
In September 2016, Carman arranged a fishing trip with his mother on his boat called the ‘Chicken Pox’.
“Nathan Carman intended to kill his mother during the trip,” the indictment reads. “He also figured out how to report the sinking of the ‘Chicken Pox’ and the disappearance of his mother at sea as accidents.”
“After leaving the marina, Nathan Carman killed his mother, Linda Carman, and eventually sank the chicken pox,” it reads.
For years, Carman was a suspect in his grandfather’s murder and his mother’s disappearance, but before his death always maintained that he was innocent of any crime.
In 2019, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that Carman contributed to the chickenpox sinking.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell has issued a written decision in favor of an insurance company that had refused to pay an $85,000 claim to Carman for the loss of his 30-foot fishing boat.
Nathan Carman speaks to reporters out of court after a 2018 hearing
Carman’s grandfather made his living building and selling nursing homes
Carman, left, arrives with his attorney, David Anderson, at U.S. District Court for his federal civil trial in Providence in August 2019
Carman denied the allegations and told the Coast Guard that when the boat quickly filled with water, he swam over to the life raft and called for his mother, but never saw her again.
He was found floating in the raft off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, an island in Massachusetts, eight days after the boat was reported missing by the crew of a freighter.
Chakalos, who was a real estate developer, left behind an estate worth nearly $29 million to be divided among his four daughters.
Carman was in line to get about $7 million from the estate, as his mother’s sole heir.
Chakalos’ three surviving daughters sued Carman in New Hampshire District Court, seeking to prevent him from receiving any money from Chakalos’ estate.
A judge dismissed the case in 2019, saying Chakalos was not a resident of New Hampshire. The probate case has been refiled in Connecticut, where it is still pending.