In 2016, Linda Carman, 54, and her son, Nathan Carman, 22, went on a fishing trip together around Block Island in Rhode Island.
According to Netflix's Tudum, this was not unusual for the members of the wealthy New England family, but this time they did not return, igniting a massive Coast Guard search.
"Eight days later, after the search was called off and a vigil was held for Linda, a passing freighter spotted Nathan floating alone in an inflatable raft. Nathan swam to the life preserver as his raft sank and was pulled on board," Tudum wrote.
"News crews rushed to interview Nathan, who gave somber, measured expressions of gratitude to the public for their prayers and concern and a matter-of-fact description of his heroic survival."
But that was just the beginning of the questions, and the Carman family saga is now featured in a new Netflix documentary called The Carman Family Deaths. Yes, that's deaths plural.
What’s the real story of the Carman family deaths?
Not only was Linda missing at sea, but, in 2013, her father (and Nathan's grandfather) was found murdered in his bed.
John Chakalos, the victim, was a very wealthy man. Court documents say he made "tens of millions" of dollars through nursing homes and other real estate, money he was to leave in trusts to his children, including Linda. He also set up accounts for Nathan, and Nathan received $550,000 after his grandfather’s death, the indictment says.
“A self-made man, John proudly worked full time as a real estate developer until the day of his passing. He never slowed down, always exhibiting a larger-than-life personality. Behind a strong willed business demeanor, however, lay a heart of gold,” Chakalos’s obituary says.
According to People, Chakalos had a 25-year-old girlfriend at the time of his death.
Nathan, 28, of Vernon, Vermont, was arrested on May 10, 2022, and an eight-count indictment charged him “with the 2016 murder of his mother, Linda, on the high seas, and related frauds to obtain family and insurance funds,” the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
According to the unsealed indictment, in 2013, “Nathan Carman shot and killed his grandfather John Chakalos at Chakalos’s home in Windsor, Connecticut, and, in 2016, killed his mother Linda Carman and sunk his boat during a supposed fishing trip off the coast of Rhode Island,” it says.
“The 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. The indictment further alleges Carman attempted to defraud the company that insured his fishing boat.”
According to Netflix, “The indictment also claimed Nathan shot and killed his grandfather but did not charge him with the crime.”
Nathan, who had autism and a complicated relationship with his mother before her death, never stood trial because he died by suicide while incarcerated, according to Tudum.
The indictment accuses Nathan of shooting his grandfather twice while he slept with a Sig Sauer rifle in his Windsor, Connecticut home. He then discarded a truck GPS device, it alleges.
According to the indictment, Carman spent most of the money he received after his grandfather’s death, and that’s when he went on the fishing trip with his mom on a boat called the Chicken Pox.
“Nathan had emailed his grandfather’s trust and estate attorney, essentially asking who had to die first for Nathan to inherit money,” Tudum explains, but he had an alibi. People noted that Nathan was accused of making holes in the fishing boat’s hull before the excursion with his mother.
