What We Know About Nathan Carman

Nathan Carman.

The name of the 23-year-old Vermont resident, who is originally from Middletown, Connecticut, has been on the tips of everyone's tongues since he was found safe on a life raft without his mother a week after the pair went missing during a fishing trip in September 2016.

A new lawsuit by the man's aunts alleges that he should be named the prime suspect in his mother's presumed death and the fatal shooting of his grandfather, real estate mogul John Chakalos in 2013.

Nathan denies that he killed his grandfather or harmed his mother during their fishing trip. 

Here's everything we know about Nathan Carman so far:

2017

On April 21, a Middlesex superior court judge denied Nathan Carman's motion to seal a nearly 3-year-old warrant connected to Chakalo's shooting death. Carman's attorney Trent LaLima argued the public document would damage his client's future at such a young age but the judge sided with the state.

On July 17, Carman's aunt's, Linda Carman's sisters, filed a lawsuit accusing him of killing his mother — their sister — and his grandfather in order to collect millions of the real estate mogul's inheritance. An attorney told NBC Connecticut that Chakalo left behind a $43 million estate to his daughters

2016

On Sept. 18, Nathan Carman, 22, and his mother Linda Carman, 54, were reported missing after heading out on a fishing trip with the boat named Chicken Pox and failing to return from the waters off Point Judith in Rhode Island. 

On Sept. 24, the U.S. Coast Guard suspends the search for the mother and son after six days. The Coast Guard searched an area near Block Island, a search that expanded through 62,000 square miles. The search expanded from the coast of Rhode Island to New York and as far as New Jersey.

On Sept. 25, Nathan Carman was found alive on a life raft by a Chinese freighter called Orient Lucky about 115 nautical miles off Martha's Vineyard. The man was wearing a life vest and had an emergency bag of food and water. There was no sign of his mother, Linda Carman. 

He is interviewed by the U.S. Coast Guard via telelphone.

On Sept. 26, Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicole Groll said during a news conference that the chances of Linda Carman surviving are minimal.

On Sept. 27, Nathan Carman arrived in Boston after he was missing at sea for a week. He said he heard a "funny noise" coming from the boat's engine compartment and when he went to go look, it was filling up with water.

"I got to the life raft after I got my bearings and I was whistling and calling and looking around and I didn't see (my mom)," Carman told the Coast Guard.

On the same day, a search warrant was issued for Nathan Carman's Vermont home.

On Sept. 28, police release the search warrant affidavit into Nathan Carman's home. The search warrant affidavit reads that police "believe that evidence relating to the crime of RIGL 46-22-9.3 {Operating so as to endanger, resulting in the death} will be located inside Nathan's residence located at 3034 Fort Bridgemon Road in Vernon, Vermont."

A friend of the family told investigators that Linda Carman said the pair was going fishing at Striper Rock, which is located approximately 20 miles off of the Block Island shoreline, according to the affidavit. 

However, another witness told police that Nathan Carman said they were going fishing at the Canyons, which is approximately 100 miles off the Block Island shore, the affidavit reads. 

When Carman was rescued about 100 miles off shore of Martha's Vineyard, he told investigators he and his mother were fishing on the Block Canyon for tuna, the affidavit said. 

Sources close to the investigation also said that Nathan Carman was a person of interest in his wealthy grandfather's homicide in 2013. 

The 23-year old told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with his grandfather's 2013 unsolved slaying and didn't harm his missing mother.

2014

A 2014 search warrant said that Carman was the last person known to have seen Chakalos alive; that Carman had bought a rifle consistent with the one used in the crime; and that he discarded his hard drive and GPS unit used around the time of the shooting, the Associated Press reported.

Carman was never charged. According to court papers, police submitted an arrest warrant to a prosecutor, but it was returned unsigned with a request for more information.

2013

On Dec. 20, Nathan Carman's grandfather, John Chakalos, 87 was found fatally shot inside his Windsor home by a family member just before 8:30 a.m.

The homicide was never solved. 

According to court documents, Carman came under suspicion in the slaying three years ago of his maternal grandfather, who left an estate worth more than $42 million to his four adult daughters, including Carman's mother.

A $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Chakolo's murder could be seen on a billboard on I-91 North and South near Jennings Road in Hartford. On the billboard is Chakalo's face.

2011

Nathan Carman, 17 at the time, was found nearly 500 miles away in Virginia after he went missing from his hometown of Middletown for five days. His father Clark Carman begged for his son with Asperger's Syndrome to come home.

Police believe Nathan was missing his closest friend, a horse, who had died sometime before the disappearance. 

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