A Connecticut native who was missing at sea for a week during a fishing trip is back home, but his mother is still missing and authorities have searched the Vermont home of Nathan Carman and seized some items.
Carman is also being called a person of interest in his wealthy grandfather's homicide, a source close to the investigation told NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters.
The 22-year old told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with his grandfather's 2013 unsolved slaying and didn't harm his missing mother.
The Middletown, Connecticut native, currently lives on Fort Bridgman Road in Vernon, Vermont. His home was searched by the Windham County Sheriff's office in Newfane, Vermont, for evidence connected to the fishing trip he went on with his mother, 54-year-old Linda Carman, according to police documents.
The mother and son were reported missing on Sept. 18 when loved ones failed to hear from them. A Chinese freighter discovered Nathan Carman Sunday, a full week later. He was on a raft with an emergency supply of food and water. When he spoke with authorities, Carman said the fishing boat he and his mother left South Kingstown, Rhode Island on, sank on the water.
He arrived in Boston by way of a Coast Guard ship on Tuesday morning. There has been no sign of Linda Carman and officials from the Coast Guard said it’s not likely she could have survived this long without a life raft, food or drinkable water.
Police seized a modem with cable, SIM card and a letter written by Carman, according to documents. A source close to the investigation said police visited Nathan around 8:30 p.m. on Monday.
Officials from the Coast Guard interviewed Nathan Carman Tuesday and South Kingstown police sent a crew to Boston to figure out what happened to the boat and Linda Carman.
In the phone call with the Coast Guard, Carman said he heard a "funny noise" coming from the boat's engine compartment and when he went to go look, it was filling up with water.
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"I got to the life rafter after I got my bearings and I was whistling and calling and looking around and I didn't see (my mom)," Carman told the Coast Guard.
NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters also learned that attorney Hubert Santos, who has previously represented Nathan, sent an associate from his law firm to Boston on Tuesday to meet with his client.
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 Carman’s Vermont neighbors told NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters that the 22-year-old was quiet, mostly kept to himself and had worked 12- to 15-hour days revamping the home on the property.
Linda and Nathan Carman are the daughter and the grandson of the late John Chakalos, a self-made real estate developer of Overlook Drive in Windsor. Chakalos was murdered on Dec. 20, 2013 at his home in Windsor and the case was never solved.
Carman, a source said, failed to take a polygraph test after Chakalos was shot in 2013. The same source tells the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters Carman was living in Bloomfield, Connecticut at the time of the murder.
