Kriti Mehrotra
It was in 2012 as well as 2016 when tragedy struck the Chakalos family as they lost two significant individuals in drastically different ways. As explored in ABC’s ’20/20: Family Lies?,’ John Chakalos was found shot to death in his own home back in 2012, whereas his daughter, Linda Carman, disappeared during a boating trip, never to be seen alive again. However, there was one similarity between the two cases – the last person to see both of them alive was Linda’s son, Nathan Carman.
Nathan Carman Had a Troubled Childhood
Although born to Linda and Earle Clark Carman on July 6, 1994, Nathan primarily grew up with his mother in Middletown, Connecticut, after they divorced when he was just a young boy. According to reports, his father soon relocated to California, so he rarely saw them, and then he had trouble connecting to his mother, too. However, he was extremely close to his grandfather, John Chakalos, and it was to such an extent that he visited him almost every single week. John was busy as a real estate tycoon, but he always made time for his grandkids. After all, his motto was – “Without family, you’ve got nothing.”
The truth is Linda and Nathan often traveled together, whether to Greece, Alaska, or the Caribbean, which is where they learned that they both had a passion for fishing. So, even as he grew older and their relationship became strained owing to his alleged tantrums, they often went fishing together – even when they couldn’t talk, they could fish, and that’s how they bonded. It turns out Nathan was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome when he was young, and by the time he had grown into a teenager, one of his outlets was full-on tantrums – tantrums that his mother often didn’t understand.
According to reports, Nathan’s tantrums often went too far – he once threw a plate of cookies at his mother because she burned them, and after his pet horse died of colic in 2010, he even became creepy. By this point, he had demanded his freedom, so his mother had allowed him to stay in an RV in her driveway, so she showed his grief through silence – he stopped verbally speaking to his mother. Then, once he moved on from this communication aspect, he began spouting religious idiocy, even going as far as to call his school principal “Satan” and his secretary “an agent of the death,” which raised eyebrows.
Nathan Carman Relied on His Family in More Ways Than One
While Nathan’s issues were initially deemed to be owing to his autism, his behavior in school didn’t match any symptoms, so he was eventually committed to the Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital in Hartford for his mental well-being. The young man blamed his mother for taking away the little bit of freedom he had but appreciated his grandparents as they spent hours visiting him, leading to there being issues between John and Linda. Nathan was John’s first grandson, so he wanted him to return to his custody once he had left the hospital, but Linda refused – she also thought her father was using her son’s hospitalization to his benefit. There was love in the family, yes, but there were also arguments.
In the end, Nathan returned home with his mother, but his connection with his grandfather continued to blossom. John bought him a pickup truck, gave him access to $400,000 in a joint bank account shared by him and his mother, and gave him another $150,000 as a college fund. However, everything changed in 2012. Not only was John killed in his own home, but Nathan also graduated high school, following which he left his mother behind and relocated to Vernon, Vermont, for good. It turns out his grandfather had left him an additional $550,000 in his will to help him start his life, which he then used for himself.
According to reports, Nathan bought a foreclosed home in Vermont from the money his grandfather had left him before spending the next few years renovating it in the hopes of flipping it and selling it. As if that’s not enough, he even bought a small boat by the name of Chicken Pox and essentially blew through the entirety of the money by the time 2016 rolled around. That’s because his family had supported him to such an extent that he never even felt the need to get a job and gradually became kind of reclusive, just focusing on renovating his home and fishing with his mother from time to time.
Nathan Carman Was Accused of Killing His Mother and Grandfather By His Aunts
It was on September 17, 2016, that Nathan and Linda decided to go on a fishing trip together off the coast of Rhode Island in the former’s boat, just for them to suddenly disappear. Linda actually had plans to meet a friend the next day, and when she didn’t show up without any calls or texts and then didn’t even respond to them in any way, they filed a missing person’s report. This friend knew that the mother-son duo had planned to go fishing, so he relayed the same to officials, just for them to soon learn that Nathan’s boat never made it back to the marina, kickstarting an extensive search for them.
The search for Nathan and Linda continued until September 24, but just as officials lost hope and reportedly didn’t even send out search parties on day 8 of them having been missing, Nathan was found. According to reports, it was a Chinese freighter who found him floating in his emergency life raft off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard filed away, and the Coast Guard immediately rushed there. One of the first things Nathan had reportedly asked was if anyone had seen his mother, explaining that they had decided to fish for tuna that day and ended up going beyond the point they had expected, so his boat sunk.
Nathan’s recollection of what transpired varied a little as he talked to more people, especially considering whether or not he helped his mother in the water, resulting in there being significant suspicion of him. Then, his aunts filed a lawsuit urging officials to halt the distribution of John’s alleged $44 million estate as they believed Nathan had conspired to kill both his grandfather and mother in an attempt to inherit more than his fair share. In 2018, he filed a suit to have his aunt removed as the executor of his grandfather’s estate, but the case never moved forward. In the end, it came to light that Nathan had actually already been “intentionally omitted” from his mother’s will three months before she passed, with her stating that in the event of her passing, her share of her father’s estate would go to her sisters.
Nathan Carman Died While Awaiting Trial For the Federal Charges Against Him
As per reports, Nathan didn’t know his mother had changed the will, so he went down the legal route to fight his aunts against their claims while also fighting an insurance company. He had filed a $85,000 insurance claim for his boat in January 2017, but the company denied it, claiming he had made changes to the boat that made it unsafe for the waters. When this case eventually went to court, the judge ruled in favor of the insurance company, especially as Chicken Pox’s former owner also testified that Nathan had made several modifications to the vessel since owning it, which hampered its integrity on the water.
As if that’s not enough, according to reports, when authorities looked into Nathan over the years over suspicion of his possible involvement in his mother’s disappearance, they found additional pieces of evidence. On the one hand, some boaters allegedly saw him on the marina making holes in the boat before taking it out on the water, and on the other, officials discovered his computer was missing when they executed a search warrant on his home. Thus, it was similar to when they executed a search warrant on his home following his grandfather’s passing and found out that the hard drive from his desktop computer and the GPS from his truck was missing. Nevertheless, he wasn’t charged with any criminal actions back then.
It was on May 10, 2022, that Nathan was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his mother, four counts of wire fraud, and three counts of mail fraud. With all the pieces of evidence present, a grand jury had found that “beginning in or about 2013 and continuing until the present,” he had devised a scheme to obtain money from his family through any means necessary. He was never charged with his grandfather’s murder, but it was lightly insinuated in court documents. Ultimately, though, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. However, at around 2:20 a.m. on June 15, 2023, the 29-year-old was found unresponsive in his prison cell, and it was later determined that he had died by suicide. He had allegedly even left a note behind, but its contents have never been made public.
Read More: Earle Clark Carman: What Happened to Nathan Carman’s Dad?
