Man rescued at sea was suspected in grandfather's slaying

BOSTON -- A 22-year-old man rescued from a life raft after a fishing trip that left his mother missing and presumed dead had been a suspect in a still-unsolved 2013 slaying of his rich grandfather, adding to the questions swirling around him and what happened at sea.

Nathan Carman was picked up by a freighter Sunday 100 miles off the Massachusetts coast after what he said was a week adrift that began when his 31-foot aluminum fishing boat inexplicably sank during a mother-and-son outing.

Coast Guard officials interviewed Carman, and police searched his home in Vermont as part of an investigation into the ill-fated trip. He has not been charged with anything.

In an interview Wednesday, he said he had "absolutely nothing" to do with his grandfather's killing and did everything he could to find his mother, 54-year-old Linda Carman of Middletown, Connecticut, as their boat went down. He said he blew a whistle and called out frantically for her for hours.

"I was yelling, 'Mom! Mom!'" Carman said. He added: "I loved my mother, and my mother loved me."

According to court documents, Carman came under suspicion in the slaying three years ago of his maternal grandfather, 87-year-old John Chakalos, a wealthy real-estate developer who was found shot to death in his Windsor, Connecticut, home.

A 2014 search warrant stated Carman was the last person known to have seen Chakalos alive, had bought a rifle consistent with the one used in the crime and discarded his hard drive and GPS unit used about the time of the shooting.

Carman never was charged. According to court papers, police submitted an arrest warrant to a prosecutor, but it was returned unsigned with a request for more information. In his will, Chakalos left an estate worth more than $42 million to his four adult daughters, including Carman's mother.

Windsor police Capt. Thomas LePore said Wednesday the case remains open, and Carman is a "person of interest."

"My grandfather was like a father to me, and I was like a son to him," Carman said. "He was the closest person in the world to me, and I loved him and he loved me, and I had absolutely nothing to do with his death."

In the course of investigating the killing, authorities said in court papers they learned from family members Carman had a history of violence as a child, including one incident in which he allegedly held another child "hostage" with a knife.