The father of the 22-year-old Connecticut native who was lost at sea for a week said he’s thankful his son is doing OK and said he now needs some time alone.
Nathan Carman left Rhode Island on Sept. 18 with his 54-year-old mother, Linda, to go fishing, but something happened along that trip and a Chinese freighter found Nathan a week later, floating in a life raft.
However, there has been no sign of his mother and officials from the Coast Guard said she is presumed dead.
Nathan Carman told authorities that he looked for his mother and called for her after getting to the life raft, but could not find her.
"I would just like to thank the public for their prayers and for their concern for both my mother and for myself and I would lke to thank the crew of the ship that rescued me," Nathan Carman told Boston-based WHDH in an interview.
The 22-year-old is also a person of interst in his wealthy grandfather's death from 2013. He told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with his grandfather's unsolved slaying and didn't harm his missing mother.
Nathan’s father, Clark Carman, who now lives in California, made the trip to Middletown this week and said he was thrilled to get the news that his son is OK.
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“I was thrilled to death when I got the news,” he said. “Oh yes, after seven days at sea, I don’t know how anybody made it.”
But, he added that this is a difficult situation.
“None of us really know what he went through and I’m sure it was traumatic and so we have to bear with that. He’s been debriefed by the Coast Guard, police,” Clark Carman said.
Nathan told WHDH that he feels healthy, but has been though a “huge amount” emotionally.
“My request is just to be allowed to mourn naturally,” he said.
Outside the Middletown house Linda Carman called home, there are signs saying “Never give up” and “Please pray.”
Nathan Carman now lives in Vermont and authorities have searched his home there for evidence connected to the fishing trip he went on with his mother and seized a modem with cable, SIM card and a letter written by Carman, according to police documents.
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."
Nathan’s father said his son was not involved with his grandfather’s death and what happened to his mother was a pure accident.
“They were the two most important people in his life,” Clark Harman said.