Updated at 4:21 p.m.
Nathan Carman, a Vernon man who prosecutors allege created a ruse about going on a 2016 fishing trip off the coast of Rhode Island to hide a plot in which he killed his mother, died in a New Hampshire jail early Thursday morning.
Federal prosecutors revealed the news of Carman’s death in a court filing Thursday calling for the dismissal of the charges against him. Fabienne Boisvert-DeFazio, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont, referred a request for comment to the U.S. Marshals Service in Vermont.
The U.S. Marshals Service sent out a statement Thursday afternoon confirming Carman’s death at the Cheshire County Jail in Keene, New Hampshire, but added it would have no comment on the cause and manner of his death.
The Keene Police Department is investigating, according to the statement. A person answering a call at the police department Thursday afternoon referred all comment on the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont.
Douglas Iosue, superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections in Keene, said Carman died early Thursday morning at the jail. He said Carman had been housed at the facility since September 2022 as a pretrial detainee out of the federal system in Vermont.
“He was the sole occupant of his cell and it certainly was an unexpected or untimely death for all concerned,” Iosue said. “He was pronounced dead around 3 in the morning.”
He said there was little more he could add since the matter is currently under police investigation. As for the cause and manner of Carman’s death, Iosue said, “It hasn’t been objectively or clearly verified how he died.”
The superintendent said that will be determined following the Keene Police Department investigation along with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the New Hampshire Chief Medical Examiner’s Office.
Martin J. Minnella, a Connecticut lawyer representing Carman, said Thursday that he had little information about his client’s death.
“It’s a tragedy,” he said.
Minnella said he was informed around 7 a.m. Thursday by the U.S. Marshals Service. “I have no details yet on what happened,” he said.
The attorney said he spoke with Carman on Wednesday night and he appeared to be in good spirits. “We were ready to go,” Minnella said of the case against his client. “I’m just numb.
“I’ve been up there a number of times to see him and he was in good spirits,” the attorney continued. “He knew what was going on. We had our experts lined up and we felt confident.”
Jury selection in Carman’s case had been set for October.
The charge against Carman included fraud and “murder on the high seas” in the death of Linda Carman, his mother, on that supposed fishing trip. He was also accused of sinking the boat and lying to authorities about what happened.
When he was rescued in an inflatable life raft, he told authorities that he had spent about a week floating in the ocean, according to reports.
Nathan Carman’s goal in the scheme, according to prosecutors, was to collect millions in inheritance and insurance money. The indictment also alleged that Carman shot and killed his wealthy grandfather, John Chakalos, 87, in 2013 at Chakalos’ Connecticut home, with the same intent.
Carman, 29, was a resident of Vernon at the time of his arrest in May 2022. He did not face a criminal charge related to his grandfather’s death. Instead, prosecutors alleged both slayings were part of the larger fraud scheme Carman concocted to keep him flush with cash.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and was ordered in custody pending trial.
