Federal prosecutors have charged Nathan Carman, 28, of Vernon, Vermont, with the 2016 murder of his mother on the high seas as well as related frauds to obtain family and insurance funds.
Carman has previously been at the center of an inheritance dispute which contributed to the 2016 sinking of his 31-foot fishing boat, The Chicken Pox. The vessel sank during a fishing trip in 2016, leaving Carmen’s mother, Linda Carman, missing and presumed dead.
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Federal prosecutors in Vermont say according to the unsealed indictment, in 2013, Nathan Carman shot and killed his grandfather John Chakalos at his Windsor, Connecticut home. The unsealed indictment says in 2016, he killed his mother Linda Carman and sunk his boat during a fishing trip off the coast of Rhode Island.
The federal indictment alleges that both killings were part of a scheme to obtain money and property from the estate of John Chakalos and related family trusts.
WCVB
Chakalos, a wealthy real estate developer, was shot in 2013 in a scheme to inherit $7 million that Chakalos had left to Linda Carman.
Carman told the Coast Guard in 2016 that when the boat filled quickly with water, he swam 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 by the crew of a freighter eight days after the boat was reported missing.
In 2019, a U.S. district judge found, among other things, that shortly before the fishing trip, Carman made improper repairs to the boat. Witnesses testified that he removed two stabilizing trim tabs from the stern, near the vessel’s waterline, leaving holes that he tried to seal with an epoxy stick.
Relatives have previously accused Carman of killing his mother and grandfather.
Federal authorities say if convicted of murder on the high seas, Carman faces mandatory life imprisonment. The fraud charges each carry a potential penalty of up to 30 years of imprisonment.