Nathan Carman, an autistic 22-year-old from a prominent New England family, garnered significant attention in 2016 following his rescue after spending eight days adrift at sea. He had embarked on a fishing excursion off the Rhode Island coast with his mother, Linda, when they both disappeared. Linda was never located, prompting law enforcement to investigate her vanishing.
In 2022, Nathan was formally accused of Linda’s murder, with police alleging he killed his mother to inherit funds from her estate. Nathan died by suicide in prison in 2023, before his trial could commence. Despite the police closing the case, its narrative persists in the Netflix documentary The Carman Family Deaths, scheduled for release on Nov. 19.
Nathan received an autism diagnosis at a young age, and his father and attorney maintain his innocence within the documentary, asserting that investigators exhibited bias against him due to his autism. Conversely, law enforcement officials and the FBI agent assigned to the case detail their reasons for perceiving his conduct as suspicious. Nathan’s own voice is featured in the documentary through police interviews and statements he provided to the press.
Here’s how The Carman Family Deaths presents both sides of a complex case.
Arguments for Nathan’s Innocence
Investigators harbored suspicions that Nathan sought to inherit his mother’s estate, basing this on his actions surrounding the 2013 fatal shooting of his wealthy grandfather, John Chakalos, a murder that remains unsolved. A 2022 indictment alleges that the deaths of both Linda and her father “were part of a scheme to obtain money and property from the estate of John Chakalos and related family trusts.”
The documentary displays a video message Linda had recorded for her son, in which she informs him that she would not bequeath him her house. This message was recorded during a tense period in their relationship when Nathan was not communicating with his mother. Law enforcement also scrutinized a memo Nathan sent to his grandfather’s trusts and estates attorney prior to his 2013 death, specifically requesting clarification on what he would inherit upon the deaths of both his grandfather and mother.
Autism experts interviewed in the documentary contend that police misinterpreted these details. Elizabeth Kelley, an autism specialist attorney featured in the documentary, states that individuals like Nathan are frequently misunderstood because their “robotic” and overly detailed responses could sound “cold and calculating” to some in law enforcement. John Elder Robison, another autism defense expert, who describes himself as autistic in the documentary, explains that Nathan’s planning nature was part of his autism, but that people who aren’t autistic “think we’re up to something.”
Nathan’s father, Clark Carman, consistently asserts throughout the film that his son did not murder Linda. He posits that Nathan became a suspect solely because police were unable to accurately evaluate his demeanor due to his autism.
“Because of his autism, because of his ability to be alone, Nathan, of any individual that I know, could have coped with being lost at sea,” he states in the film. “And I’m sure he used all his ingenuity in those eight days.”
Clark refers to his wife’s death as “a severe accident,” arguing, “I know if Nathan had the ability, he would have saved his mother.”
He mentions Nathan’s subdued mood upon his return home, to the extent that “you could tell… the inability to have saved her was riding on him immensely.”
Those Who Believe Nathan Murdered His Mother
Investigators claim Nathan failed to adhere to basic safety protocols when his boat experienced trouble, such as calling for assistance on his radio. “I didn’t think the boat was going to sink,” he asserts, according to audio of police questioning excerpted in the documentary.
Back on shore, a South Kingstown, R.I., police officer discovered bait in his truck and highlights in the documentary that it is suspicious he did not bring his bait onto his boat for a purported fishing trip.
When authorities questioned Nathan about his mother not wearing a life vest on the boat when he observed two feet of water accumulating, Nathan states he asked her to reel in the fishing lines, arguing, “I need to keep my mom occupied while I’m trying to fix the problem.”
Two weeks after his rescue, Nathan filed an $85,000 insurance claim for his lost boat, but the company rejected the claim, alleging it sank directly or indirectly due to his faulty repairs. The insurance company then provided all information from their investigation to federal authorities, thereby escalating the case.
FBI agent Lisa Tutty also contends that Nathan was in remarkably good physical condition after being adrift at sea for a week, easily climbing the ladder to the rescue boat when he should have been weaker and stumbling. Mike Sarraille, a retired Navy SEAL and expert witness featured in the documentary, suggests that adrenaline would have surged for Nathan.
The primary theory presented in the film regarding how Nathan murdered his mother posits that he killed her and disposed of her body far from where the Coast Guard was searching. He may have stayed close to the Connecticut coastline, knowing the Coast Guard wasn’t looking there, and hid his boat in secluded coves. Investigators theorize that after approximately a week, he made a direct course for the ocean, entered the life raft, and sank the boat shortly before the freighter Orient Lucky came into view, thus positioning himself for a quick rescue. Years later, when lawyers asked Nathan whether his mother disappeared, he responded, “Objection. Your question’s ambiguous.”
Tutty emphasizes that the ocean presents a challenging crime scene because evidence can be instantly lost and destroyed.
To this day, law enforcement continues to believe Linda and the boat Chicken Pox are still located at the bottom of the ocean.
