Man Who Was Missing at Sea for a Week Arrives in Boston

Officials said the chances the mother survived are minimal.

A Middletown native who was found alive on a life raft after missing at sea for a week has arrived in Boston, but his mother is still missing and the Coast Guard has called off the search for her.

Nathan Carman, 22, and his mother, 54-year-old Linda Carman, were reported missing Sept. 18 after heading out in the 31-foot aluminum fishing boat Chicken Pox and failing to return from a fishing trip off Point Judith, Rhode Island.

On Sunday afternoon, a China-based freighter called Orient Lucky spotted a life raft 115 nautical miles off Martha's Vineyard, found Nathan Carman inside of it and picked him up, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Nathan, a Middletown native who has been living in Vermont, was wearing a life vest and had an emergency bag of food and water. But there was still no sign of Linda Carman.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicole Groll said during a news conference on Monday that the chances of Linda Carman surviving at this point are minimal.

"Unfortunately the decision to suspend a case is never an easy one and we will not be reopening the search for Linda Carman at this time due to the fact that survivability -- we're beyond that point," Groll said.

Authorities executed a search warrant at Nathan Carman's Vermont home on Monday night, according to sources. 

Attorney Hubert Santos said his associate went to Boston today to meet Nathan. 

Santos said he previously represented Carman before, but it's unclear for what.

Officials from the Coast Guard said they expect Carman to be reunited with his family today and go home.

In Middletown, signs have been placed outside Linda Carman's home that ask people to "Never Give Up."

She said the Coast Guard took into consideration the weather, water temperature, the fact that Linda Carman was unprotected from the elements and had no food and water. The only one life raft aboard the Chicken Pox was the one Nathan had so his mother would not have access to one. 

"The likelihood of her being alive is minimal," Groll said.

Nathan Carman told the Coast Guard the motorized boat he and his mother were in started taking on water off the coast of New York on Sunday, in an area called Block Canyon.

Nathan went looking for his mother to get in the life raft, but he couldn't find her, according to the Coast Guard.  

Nathan – who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome -- was the center of a 2011 investigation when he was reported missing and he was found in Virginia.

A Coast Guard boat picked him up from the freighter on Tuesday morning and Nathan walked off that boat to a car that was waiting for him. 

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