Carman Family Tragedy: What Unfolded After Nathan Carman Was Accused of Killing His Mother and Grandfather.
In 2016, Nathan Carman's rescue was celebrated as a miracle when he was discovered alive and well after being adrift at sea for seven days. When the 22-year-old boarded the Orient Lucky, the cargo ship that discovered him drifting 100 nautical miles south of Martha's Vineyard, authorities began to question whether he might be doing a bit too well.
In the recently released Netflix documentary The Carman Family Deaths, Coast Guard investigator Eric Gempp stated, "That does not happen frequently at all," citing Nathan's lack of obvious symptoms of hypothermia, dehydration, or any other ailment linked to exposure to the weather. "In my 26-year career, this is the first one."
In addition, Nathan's mother, Linda Carman, had vanished from sight.
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 19 (Feb 9 – May 2, 2026): big discounts for early bird.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
Register for Tekedia AI Lab: From Technical Design to Deployment (next edition begins Jan 24 2026).
On September 17, 2016, the 54-year-old boarded Nathan's boat, Chicken Pox, with her son for an overnight fishing excursion.
Nathan's late grandfather, John Chakalos, who was killed in 2013, had given him the money to buy the ship.
Nathan was never accused or placed under arrest for the killing of his grandfather. However, in a federal indictment filed in 2022, Nathan was accused by prosecutors of killing the 87-year-old & 54-year-old Mom then in order to obtain his mother's share of John's $42 million estate.
He declined any involvement in either of the deaths.
"There is no way that Nathan could have killed his mother," in the documentary, his father, Clark Carman, revealed that his son was given an autism diagnosis when he was 4 or 5 years old. "He never harmed a soul."
In the end, he was never put on trial. The accusations against Nathan were posthumously withdrawn after he was discovered dead in his prison cell in June 2023.
