5 Jaw-Dropping Details The Carman Family Deaths Left Out (Including John's Allegedly Much-Younger Girlfriend) By Christopher Rudolph

The Carman Family Deaths tells the true story of a tragedy in multiple acts.

The Netflix documentary, which premiered on Nov. 19, focuses on the deaths of Linda Carman and her father, John Chakalos, a wealthy real estate developer.

In September 2016, Linda and her son, Nathan Carman, went for a trip on his boat, Chicken Pox. That day, the boat allegedly sank with Linda on board. Nathan was found eight days later after he was spotted floating in a life raft, per Netflix’s Tudum.

Linda’s disappearance made headlines, but it was only the latest chapter in the Carmans’ saga. Three years earlier, in December 2013, Nathan’s grandfather, John, was shot and killed in his home. In May 2022, Nathan was arrested and charged with Linda’s murder and fraud counts relating to the death of his grandfather, per NBC News. He was scheduled to go to trial in October 2023, but in June of that year, Nathan died by suicide in his jail cell.

However, not everything made it into the documentary. Here are five details left out of Netflix’s The Carman Family Deaths.

John made his fortune through real estate across New England

The Carman Family Deaths notes that John amassed his fortune through real estate. However, it was a state-spanning operation, with ABC News reporting that he developed “nursing homes and care facilities across New England.”

According to his obituary, John “was a proud, hard-working man, and with his determination and work ethic he built a beautiful life for his family. A self-made man, John proudly worked full time as a real estate developer until the day of his passing.”

The obituary continued, “He never slowed down, always exhibiting a larger-than-life personality. Behind a strong willed business demeanor, however, lay a heart of gold.”

After his 2013 death, John left behind an estate worth more than $29 million to his four adult daughters, including Linda, according to the Associated Press.

John allegedly had a 25-year-old girlfriend at the time of his death

After John’s death, investigators were initially suspicious of Nathan, as he was even once named as a suspect in his murder, per the Hartford Courant. Nathan denied all involvement in John’s death.

However, according to CBS News, Nathan alleged in court documents that his grandfather’s girlfriend, who was only identified as “Mistress Y,” could have been involved in his death.

Per CBS News, John gave his 25-year-old girlfriend “several large cash gifts.” The weekend before his death, they took a trip to a Connecticut casino where he gave her $3,500.

The documents also stated that the woman knew John kept money in the house, “often in the form of stacks of $100 bills.”

Casey Sherman, author of Blood in the Water: The Untold Story of a Family Tragedy, claimed John’s girlfriend also had a “drug-dealing boyfriend” at the time, per the Brattleboro Reformer.

According to his obituary, John had been married to Rita Baranowski for 59 years before she died of cancer on Nov. 21, 2013.

Nathan’s insurance company concluded the loss of the boat “was caused intentionally”

Two weeks after his boat allegedly sank, Nathan filed an $85,000 insurance claim on the watercraft. However, according to documents filed by the National Liability and Fire Insurance Company in January 2017, per the Brattleboro Reformer, he was “not entitled to coverage.”

Per the documents, “The loss of his boat was caused intentionally by and/or with the knowledge of Carman.” Nathan allegedly “knew his boat was unseaworthy when it departed Ram Point Marina” and the “boat’s unseaworthy condition proximately caused its sinking.”

According to the insurance company, Nathan had previously “removed a structural bulkhead from the boat.”

Before leaving Ram Point, he “removed the boat’s trim tabs and thereby opened four half dollar sized holes in the hull near the waterline and did not fill them in a satisfactory fashion,” the insurance company claimed.

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After Nathan made four holes in the boat’s hull, he attempted to use an epoxy putty stick to seal them. According to the documents, he took the boat out with his mother “about six hours” after using putty to seal the holes.

In The Carman Family Deaths, Liam O’Connell, a maritime investigator, said if Nathan hadn’t filed an insurance claim, he would’ve been “a free man,” as the insurance company eventually spoke with witnesses who saw Nathan working on the boat on the day of the sinking.

“Boaters work on their boats all the time, they do things to them that probably shouldn’t be done. They drill holes, they fill them,” Nathan’s dad, Clark Carman, said in the documentary.

Linda’s sisters ensured that Nathan didn’t receive his inheritance ahead of his death

As Linda’s heir, Nathan was in line to receive about $7 million of John’s fortune at the time of Linda’s death, according to the Associated Press. However, he never did, as Linda’s sisters were fighting giving him the money in probate court at the time of his June 2023 suicide, according to CT Insider.

Nathan’s three aunts — Valerie Santilli, Elaine Chakalos and Charlene Gallagher — filed a suit to keep Nathan from receiving a portion of the family fortune. According to the Boston Herald, the suit is called a “slayer action,” where, according to New Hampshire law, “The court will be asked to find that Nathan Carman killed [John] Chakalos.”

In a statement, Dan Small, an attorney for the Chakalos family, said, “This is not about money, it is about justice,” adding that if Nathan’s aunts were successful they would use the money for investigations “into the death of their father and disappearance of their sister.”

Nathan denied murdering Linda and John. “I did not kill my grandfather or my mother,” he said in a February 2018 statement obtained by the Associated Press.

A note was found in Nathan’s jail cell after his death

Nathan was eventually arrested in May 2022 and charged with Linda’s murder and fraud counts relating to John’s death. In the indictment, Nathan was accused of shooting and killing John but was not charged with his murder, per the United States Attorney’s Office.

He was scheduled to go to trial in October 2023, but on June 15, 2023, Nathan died by suicide in his jail cell. He did not leave a suicide note, but a note was found in his cell after his death.

“It was a note from him about something that we had discussed about the case on two prior occasions, so it was not a suicide note,” Nathan’s attorney, Martin Minnella, told Fox61 at the time.

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