When Nathan Carman was pulled from a life raft 115 nautical miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in 2016, the world saw a miracle. He had been adrift for seven days. He was alone. His mother, Linda Carman, was gone, swallowed by the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" after their fishing boat, the Chicken Pox, allegedly sank.
But as the salt spray dried, the narrative began to curdle.
Blood in the Water Casey Sherman is more than just a title; it is a meticulous deconstruction of a family dynasty that rotted from the inside out. Casey Sherman, the investigative powerhouse behind The Finest Hours and Helltown, doesn't just recount a shipwreck. He digs into the $50 million fortune of John Chakalos, Nathan’s grandfather, who was found shot to death in his own bed three years before the boat went down.
Sherman basically asks the question everyone was thinking but was too afraid to say out loud: Did this young man kill his family for the money, or was he a convenient scapegoat for a family that already hated him?
The Miracle That Didn't Add Up
Imagine you’ve been on a raft for a week. You’d be sun-scorched. Dehydrated. You probably wouldn't be able to stand up.
When the freighter Orient Lucky spotted Nathan, he was in surprisingly good shape. The ship's doctor noticed it immediately. Nathan wasn't hypothermic. He wasn't even particularly thirsty. He stepped onto the deck of the massive ship with more coordination than a guy who had just spent 168 hours fighting the North Atlantic swell.
Sherman highlights these inconsistencies with a sharp, journalistic eye. The Coast Guard searched over 60,000 square miles and found nothing—no debris, no oil slick, no sign of Linda.
A History of Unanswered Questions
To understand the boat sinking, you have to go back to 2013. John Chakalos was 87, a self-made multi-millionaire who built a nursing home empire. He was the patriarch of a Greek-American family that looked perfect in Christmas cards and felt like a war zone in private.
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One morning, John was found dead. Two gunshot wounds. No shell casings. No forced entry.
Nathan was the last person to see him alive.
The police found a semi-automatic rifle in Nathan's apartment that used the same caliber as the murder weapon. But they never charged him. The case went cold, at least until the Chicken Pox went down and the "blood in the water" became literal.
Why Blood in the Water Casey Sherman is Different
There’s a lot of true crime out there that feels like a Wikipedia entry. This isn't that. Sherman spent years interviewing people like Joy Washburn, the longtime caretaker of the Chakalos estate.
Washburn provides what Sherman calls a "King Lear-esque" view of the family. John Chakalos wasn't just a benefactor; he was a puppet master who allegedly pitted his four daughters against each other for their inheritance.
Nathan was the "golden child." Despite being on the autism spectrum, Nathan was the one John was grooming to take over the family business. This created a level of resentment among the other heirs that was, quite frankly, toxic.
The Defense That Never Happened
One of the most jarring parts of the story is how it ended—or didn't end.
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Federal prosecutors finally charged Nathan Carman with the murder of his mother and his grandfather in 2022. They were ready to argue that he purposefully sank the boat to get his hands on a $7 million trust.
Then, in June 2023, Nathan was found dead in his jail cell.
Official reports say it was a suicide. His lawyers say no way. They claim Nathan was finally ready to fight, and that a bombshell text message from Linda Carman—threatening her own father—was about to change the entire case.
The Nuance of the Spectrum
Sherman doesn't let the reader off easy. He explores the very real possibility that Nathan’s neurodivergence was used against him.
Because Nathan didn't react to his mother's disappearance with "appropriate" emotion, investigators immediately pegged him as a cold-blooded killer. But is that fair? Or is it just a misunderstanding of how people on the autism spectrum process trauma?
Sherman doesn't claim to have the "ultimate" answer because, honestly, the truth died in that jail cell. But he provides enough evidence to make even the most convinced "guilty" voter hesitate.
- The Apartment Surveillance: Cameras showed Nathan leaving his apartment an hour after the time neighbor's heard the gunshots at his grandfather's house.
- The Boat Repairs: Nathan had made modifications to the Chicken Pox that some experts say were clearly meant to sink it, while others say they were just poor amateur handiwork.
- The Missing Gun: The rifle Nathan bought was never found. Did he dump it at sea, or did it never exist in the way the police claimed?
What Most People Get Wrong About the Carman Case
A lot of people think this was a "closed case" because Nathan died. It’s actually the opposite.
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By dying before trial, Nathan left the $50 million fortune in a legal limbo that continues to tear the surviving family members apart. It’s a tragedy that didn't stop with the sinking of a boat; it’s a generational haunting.
Casey Sherman’s work here is a reminder that in true crime, the most dangerous thing isn't always the person with the gun. Sometimes, it’s the silence of a family that prefers a convenient lie over a messy truth.
Practical Steps for True Crime Readers
If you’re looking to dig deeper into the world of blood in the water casey sherman, start by looking at the official FBI 302 reports if you can find them—they contain the raw interviews that Sherman used to build his narrative.
Next, watch the news footage of Nathan's rescue. Pay attention to his physical state. It is one of the most polarizing pieces of evidence in modern maritime history.
Finally, read the book with an eye for the "golden child" dynamic. It explains more about the motive than the money ever could.
This case isn't just a mystery; it’s a warning about what happens when wealth becomes the only thing a family has left to hold onto.