Vermont heir HANGED himself while awaiting trial for murdering mom
REVEALED: Vermont heir, 29, HANGED himself while awaiting trial for murdering mom at sea to collect $7M inheritance: Also accused of shooting his rich grandpa dead
- Carman, 29, was discovered dead at around 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning
- Martin Minnella, one of Carman’s attorneys, confirmed he took his own life
- He’s accused of killing his mother – and grandfather – in a scheme to get $7m
A Vermont man accused of killing his mother and grandfather in a scheme to get his hands on a $7million inheritance is said to have hanged himself.
Nathan Carman, 29, died ‘on or about’ Thursday at the Cheshire County Jail in Keene, New Hampshire, according to court documents filed Saturday.
Carman was accused of killing his mother, Linda, 54, while on a fishing trip off the coast of New England in 2016.
Eight days after they set off from Rhode Island marina, he was found clinging to an inflatable life raft by a passing freighter. His mother’s body was never found.
According to police, he was discovered dead at around 2:30am Thursday morning by a corrections officer who was on his routine inspection rounds.
The Cheshire County Sheriff’s Office did not give a cause of death, but Martin Minnella, one of Carman’s attorneys, confirmed he took his own life.
Nathan Carman, 29, died ‘on or about’ Thursday at the Cheshire County Jail in Keene, New Hampshire, according to court documents filed this morning
‘The medical examiner is saying that he hung himself,’ Minnella told the Boston Globe Friday. ‘I don’t understand why or how.’
David Sullivan, another lawyer for Carman, spoke to him the night before he died and said he ‘had no inkling whatsoever’ the 29-year-old was in a condition where he might take his own life.
‘I am so distraught by the thought that at some point after 7 o’clock something in his mind brought him to that moment,’ Sullivan said. ‘I don’t understand it.’
Sullivan, who doesn’t blame the Cheshire County jail and said to his knowledge his client was treated well there, said his last words to Carman were ‘okay my friend, sleep well.
Minnella also said that Carman had been positive leading up to his death and was set to defend himself at an October trial.
Carman has Asperger’s Syndrome, which Minnella said may have impacted him on longterm lockup.
‘My only concern right now is getting him out of [the morgue] and getting him a proper burial, so he can rest in peace,’ said Minnella, who says he will pay for the funeral. ‘I feel like I owe him that.’
In 2019, a federal judge decided that Carman contributed to the sinking of the 31ft fishing boat, ruling in favor of an insurance company that refused to pay an $85,000 claim for the boat’s loss.
Carman was accused of killing his mother, Linda Carman (pictured left), 54, while on a fishing trip off the coast of New England in 2016. Eight days after they set off from Rhode Island marina, he was found clinging to an inflatable life raft by a passing freighter. His mother’s body was never found
The indictment in Burlington, Vermont, also claims Carman shot and killed his grandfather John Chakalos (right), 87, as he slept at home in Windsor, Connecticut, in 2013
Carman is seen after his ‘rescue’ at sea in 2016. Prosecutors say he killed his mother and intentionally sank his boat as part of a scheme to gain a $7 million inheritance
In 2022, six years after the sinking, he was arrested for murder. Carman’s murder-on-the-high-sea trial was set to take place in October. Authorities have not yet confirmed the cause of his death.
He was also accused of killing his wealthy real estate developer grandfather, John Chakalos, at his home in Windsor, Connecticut, in 2013 as part of a scheme to obtain money. Carman inherited $550,000.
Carman was found clinging to a life raft eight days after going on a fishing trip with his mother, who was never found and presumed dead.
A passing freighter collected Carman, before he was charged with multiple fraud counts and murder in May 2022.
During his arraignment at a federal court in Rutland, Vermont, he told reporters that he was ‘not guilty’.
His death was cited as a reason for federal officials dismissing an indictment against him, according to court documents.
Fabienne Boisvert-DeFazio, public affairs officer for the Vermont U.S. attorney’s office, said in a statement: “Mr. Carman was in the custody of the U.S. Marshal, as is the case for all pretrial defendants who are detained.
‘The U.S. Marshal confirmed Mr. Carman’s death this morning. We have no further comment beyond our public filing.’
A lawyer for Carman spoke to him the night before he died and said he ‘had no inkling whatsoever’ the 29-year-old was in a condition where he might take his own life
The unsealed indictment claimed Carman shot Chakalos, 87, in a bid to secure money and property from his grandfather’s estate – but was never charged with the killing.
In September 2016, Nathan Carman was found in an inflatable raft eight days after leaving a Rhode Island marina to go fishing with his mother.
Prosecutors allege Carman killed her on the boat, which he had altered to make it more likely to sink that day.
He denied that he did anything to intentionally make the boat unseaworthy, with the indictment stating he ‘removed two forward bulkheads and trim tabs from the transom of the hull.’
Court documents claim his inheritance scheme spanned nearly a decade, and began with Carman buying a rifle in New Hampshire that he used to shoot Chakalos on December 20, 2013, while he slept.
He then discarded his computer hard drive and the GPS unit that had been in his truck, prosecutors said.
Police have said Carman was the last person to see his grandfather alive and owned a semi-automatic rifle similar to the one used to kill Chakalos – but the firearm disappeared.
A will showed Chakalos left an estate worth $42million to his four adult daughters. Carman received $550,000 from two bank accounts that his grandfather had set up and that he was the beneficiary of.
Prosecutors allege Carman killed his mother on his boat, dubbed the Chicken Pox (above) which he had altered to make it more likely to sink that day
Carman and his mom Linda frequently took fishing trips together (above) and prosecutors say he used it as a pretense to lure her to her death in 2016
He moved from an apartment in Bloomfield, Connecticut, to Vernon, Vermont, in 2014, but was unemployed and squandered the money.
By the fall of 2016 was low on funds when he hatched the scheme to kill his mother, prosecutors said.
In September 2016, Carman arranged to go on a fishing trip with his mother on his boat named the ‘Chicken Pox.’
‘Nathan Carman planned to kill his mother on the trip,’ the indictment reads. ‘He also planned how he would report the sinking of the ‘Chicken Pox’ and his mother’s disappearance at sea as accidents.’
‘After leaving the marina, Nathan Carman killed his mother, Linda Carman, and eventually sank the Chicken Pox,’ it states.
Carman was a suspect in his grandfather’s murder and his mother’s disappearance for years, but before his death always insisted he is innocent of any crime.
In 2019, a federal judge in Rhode Island decided that Carman contributed to the sinking of the Chicken Pox.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued a written decision in favor of an insurance company that had refused to pay an $85,000 claim to Carman for the loss of his 31-foot fishing boat.
Carman’s grandfather made his money building and selling nursing home properties
Carman, left, arrives with his lawyer, David Anderson, at US District Court for his federal civil trial in Providence in August 2019
Carman denied the allegations, telling the Coast Guard 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, a Massachusetts island, by the crew of a freighter eight days after the boat was reported missing.
Chakalos, who was a real estate developer, left behind an estate that was worth nearly $29 million, which was to be divided among his four daughters.
Carman was in line to get about $7 million of the estate, as his mother’s only heir.
Chakalos’ three surviving daughters sued Carman in New Hampshire probate court, seeking to bar him from receiving any money from Chakalos´ estate.
A judge dismissed the case in 2019, saying Chakalos was not a New Hampshire resident. The probate case was refiled in Connecticut, where it remains pending.
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