Police search Connecticut home of Linda Carman, woman lost at sea

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Police have searched the home of a Connecticut woman who is presumed dead after going missing at sea during a fishing trip with her son.

Officers were seen removing bags, envelopes and boxes from 54-year-old Linda Carman’s home in Middletown on Thursday night. Police have said they are investigating “the facts and circumstances” surrounding Carman’s disappearance.

Local police and officers from South Kingstown, Rhode Island, conducted the search.

Carman and her 22-year-old son, Nathan Carman, left a South Kingstown marina on Sept. 17. Nathan Carman was found alone in a life raft by the crew of a passing freighter on Sunday about 100 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was taken to Boston for questioning by the Coast Guard.

He told the Coast Guard that their 31-foot boat sank and he doesn’t know what happened to his mother.

Middletown police referred questions to South Kingstown police, who did not return messages seeking comment about the search.

Police searched Nathan Carman’s home in Vernon, Vermont, on Monday and seized a modem, a cellphone SIM card and a letter. A search warrant indicated investigators think he was handling some boat motor repairs himself and that the vessel might not have been seaworthy.

Linda Carman’s disappearance is being investigating by local, state and federal officials in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont.

The case also has placed renewed attention on the unsolved murder of Linda Carman’s father, John Chakalos, a wealthy real estate developer found shot to death in his Windsor, Connecticut, home in 2013. Court documents show Windsor police applied for an arrest warrant charging Nathan Carman with the murder, but a prosecutor didn’t sign the warrant and asked for more information.

Nathan Carman has denied having anything to do with the killing, saying he was very close to his grandfather.