'You're going to learn a lot of new things:' New book will dive into the Nathan Carman case

PROVIDENCE – Since news first surfaced in September 2016 about a mother and son missing at sea, the Nathan Carman saga has captivated readers, with layer after layer to uncover.

A wealthy grandfather’s unsolved murder. A family at odds over a $50-million fortune. A teenager missing for days, only to turn up in Virginia bearing photos of his beloved deceased horse. Murder on the high seas.

Now, Massachusetts author Casey Sherman is digging into the Carmans' lives and deaths in "Deadly Depths," a book to be published in spring 2025 by Sourcebooks.

“I think you’re going to learn a lot of new things,” Sherman said in an interview.

Sherman, a true-crime writer and former journalist, said his research has extended far beyond the sensational headlines that have transfixed readers. He’s interviewed more than 30 witnesses on all sides of the case, including a fan girl who attended his trial.

“There’s a very complicated dynamic with the Chakalos family itself,” Sherman said.

Carman was dogged by rumors for years

For years, Carman was dogged by rumors and speculation that he'd fatally shot his grandfather, 87-year-old John Chakalos, in his Windsor, Connecticut, bedroom on Dec. 20, 2013.

Then, in 2022, federal prosecutors in Vermont accused Carman of not only shooting Chakalos to death, but also of killing his mother at sea on their September 2016 fishing trip in a plot to inherit millions of dollars.

Carman pleaded not guilty to fraud and murder charges and was ordered held.

A year later, Carman, 29, was discovered dead in a New Hampshire prison. Authorities ruled the case was not suspicious, indicating he died by suicide.

Author says he uncovered conflicting evidence in the case

In his investigation, Sherman says he's unearthed evidence that conflicts with what the police allege, including that a neighbor heard gunshots at the Chakalos home a full hour before what the police claim. Had the case gone to trial as planned this October, he is convinced that federal prosecutors would never have actually gotten a conviction.

“Associates of the family that I interviewed have pointed fingers at other members of the Chakalos family,” he said. “I don’t think the evidence is very clear one way or another.”

Carman’s lawyers also don’t believe that their client died by suicide, according to the author.

“Why would Nathan decide to shoot his grandfather in cold blood in his bedroom? He was already destined to get money,” Sherman asked.

John Chakalos, Carman's grandfather, was the family member he was closest to, Sherman said.

Carman's aunts tried for years to block him from inheriting millions of dollars, alleging that his actions contributed to his mother's death. Carman continually denied the allegations, but also remained a person of interest in his grandfather's death.

Murder on the high seas?

On Sept. 18, 2016, Nathan Carman, then 22, and his mother, Linda Carman, 54, were reported missing after heading out on a fishing trip from Ram Point Marina in South Kingstown aboard a boat named the Chicken Pox.

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for the mother and son six days later after covering a vast area from Block Island to New York.

The next day, Nathan Carman was found by the Chinese freighter Orient Lucky alive on a raft off Martha's Vineyard, but there was no sign of his mother.

More: Nathan Carman is charged with murder on the high seas. What does that mean?

What happened in the federal court trial?

In 2019, U.S. District Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled after a bench trial that Carman's faulty repairs had contributed to the sinking of the fishing boat in 2016, leading to his mother being lost at sea and presumed dead.

Evidence at trial showed that Carman removed bulkheads from the front of the boat that experts testified provided structural support and buoyancy. Carman told the court that he also removed trim tabs from the back of the boat the day before departing on the fishing trip with his mother, creating holes that he plugged with putty.

Carman, who had been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, denied doing anything to intentionally make the boat unseaworthy. He told the Coast Guard that when the boat filled quickly with water, he swam to the life raft and called for his mother, but he never saw her again.

Sherman used the transcript of that trial to supplement his research.

‘Taking things apart and putting them back together’

Sherman doesn’t believe that Carman undertook those repairs with an evil intent.

“Go look at his home,” Sherman said of Carman’s house in Vernon, Vermont, which he described as a “big pile of Jenga blocks.”

“Part of his disorder is taking things apart and putting them back together,” Sherman theorized.

But, he said, the timeline of the boat sinking makes no sense, leaving investigators confounded.

“What could have happened? Only two people know, and Linda is dead,” Sherman said.

What else has the journalist turned author worked on?

Sherman worked early in his career with Pamela Watts at ABC6 in Providence and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work with WBZ-TV in Boston. He is a contributing writer for Time magazine, Esquire, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast and The Huffington Post, among other outlets, according to his biography.

He has also written 16 books, including “The Finest Hours," now a Walt Disney Studios movie starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, as well as “Patriots Day,” which also made it to the big screen starring Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon.

Sherman’s 2023 book “Helltown: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod” about the case of Antone C. “Tony” Costa, is now in development as a limited television series for Amazon Studios, with Sherman as executive producer.

That story also has Rhode Island roots, as it explores the case of Provincetown handyman Costa, who was convicted in the slayings of two young Providence women in 1969.

Patricia Walsh, a second-grade teacher at Laurel Hill Avenue Elementary School, and Mary Ann Wysocki, a junior at Rhode Island College, disappeared in 1969 on a winter weekend trip to Provincetown. Their dismembered bodies were found buried in the woods in Truro, along with the bodies of two other women.

Walsh and Wysocki, both 23, had attended Classical High School together and were last seen at the rooming house where Costa was staying.

Sherman has also written about mobster Whitey Bulger, the Boston Strangler and the murder of John Lennon.

Sherman believes the Nathan Carman story – "Deadly Depths" – will also lend itself to the big screen.

“Nathan was an enigma in life and remains an enigma in death,” Sherman said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Nathan Carman case will get the true crime treatment in new book