Netflix’s 2025 true crime documentary The Carman Family Deaths explores a long-running feud that may have contributed to the deaths of three members of one Connecticut family.
Director Yon Motskin takes a deep dive into the circumstances surrounding the brutal 2013 murder of Greek-American real estate magnate John Chakalos and his daughter Linda Carman’s mysterious disappearance at sea three years later in the film, which released on the stream in November 2025.
Linda’s son, Nathan Carman, was indicted for both of their deaths in 2022 but died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial. (Nathan denied killing his mother and grandfather.)
One of Nathan’s biggest defenders in The Carman Family Deaths is his father, Clark Carman, who dismisses the indictment against his son as “baseless.” Instead, Clark alleges that police wrongly suspected Nathan due to a fundamental misunderstanding of his son’s autism diagnosis.
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Keep scrolling for more information about the four main figures featured in Netflix’s The Carman Family Deaths:
Who Was John Chakalos?
Real estate developer John Chakalos and his late wife, Rita, shared four daughters. Rita died in November 2013 — less than a month before John was found murdered in his Windsor, Connecticut home on December 20, 2013.
Chakalos’ family members describe him as a volatile man in The Carman Family Deaths, with son-in-law Clark Carman accusing the wealthy magnate of being emotionally and physically abusive to his daughters.
“[Chakalos] liked to control lives, especially his daughters, all four of them. He liked to control everything,” Clark claims in the film. “John was very volatile. I had never experienced violence like that in a family situation.”
Clark alleged that John would “physically push or slap” his wife and his daughters during arguments.
“That was a constant in the Chakalos family,” Clark claimed.
Chakalos’ nephew Charles Lapenna confirms in The Carman Family Deaths that Linda, in particular, “fought with her father her whole life.”
“[There were] arguments, yeah, [and] occasional fist fights,” Lapenna claimed. “[It was] not normal for most families but they weren’t killing each other. None of them went to the hospital.”
Chakalos was found dead in his bed in December 2013 due to a bullet wound in his head. Linda’s son, Nathan Carman, was allegedly the last person to see Chakalos alive.
Chakalos left an estate worth $42 million that was to be divided among this family.
His murder technically remains an open case as of November 2025.
Who Was Linda Carman?
Family friend Linda Gam describes Linda Carman’s upbringing as “dysfunctional” in The Carman Family Deaths due to frequent disagreements with her father.
Linda Carman and Clark Carman. Courtesy of Netflix
As a young adult, Linda moved to California in defiance of her father’s threat to disown her and she later served in the U.S. National Guard.
Linda married Clark Carman and they welcomed son Nathan in 1994. The newlyweds were convinced to move back to the East Coast when Chakalos promised to buy a Dunkin’ franchise for them.
“When we got back there, [Chakalos] reneged,” Clark says in the documentary. “She ended up having to work with her father, which was not a good thing.”
The relationship between father and daughter allegedly became further strained when Linda’s son Nathan was diagnosed with autism and experienced mental health issues as a teenager.
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In the documentary, Clark references an alleged family meeting between himself, Linda and Chakalos to discuss Nathan’s mental health care. Linda and Clark had secured in-patient mental health treatment for Nathan, but Chakalos allegedly threatened to cut off the family financially unless his grandson was taken out of the hospital.
“John said he was going to cut the money. Linda said she didn’t want the money. He came at her [and] started to slap her,” Clark claimed.
Linda allegedly also had a strained relationship with Nathan when he eventually came home. Nathan lived in a camper on his mother’s property but refused to enter her residence.
The Carman Family Deaths alleges that tension between Linda and Nathan escalated to the point that she recorded a living will on video to verify that she was leaving her home to another family member.
(L to R) Nathan Carman and John Chakalos Courtesy of Netflix
In September 2016, Linda told a friend that she and Nathan planned to go fishing near South Kingstown, Rhode Island. When they did not return as scheduled the following day, a family friend reported both Linda and Nathan as missing.
The U.S. Coast Guard conducted a search for 62,000 nautical square miles before Nathan was rescued eight days later on a life raft. Nathan alleged that his boat, The Chickenpox, had sunk and claimed he did not know what happened to his mother.
Linda’s body was never recovered and she was declared legally dead in 2023.
Who Was Nathan Carman?
Nathan Carman was born in 1994 as the only son of Linda and Clark Carman. He was diagnosed with autism as a young boy and later struggled with mental health issues.
Family members describe Nathan as being very close with his grandfather John Chakalos in The Carman Family Deaths, though he had a troubled dynamic with his mother Linda.
A transcript of a conversation with a religious leader included Nathan mentioning that his mother was overprotective and could not handle that he lived a functional life despite his autism diagnosis.
Nathan lived in a camper on his mother’s property throughout some of his teenage years but declined to ever enter her residence.
Following his grandfather’s murder in 2013, investigators determined that Nathan was the last person to see Chakalos alive.
During the investigation, Nathan told police that the only weapon he owned was an air rifle, though it was later determined that he purchased a Sig Sauer .308-caliber semi-automatic rifle for $2,099.99 one month before his grandfather’s death.
Linda and Nathan both denied any responsibility for Chakalos’s murder at the time.
Three years later, Nathan and Linda went missing during a fishing trip off the coast of Rhode Island. Nathan was rescued eight days later near Martha’s Vineyard.
Nathan told police that his boat, The Chickenpox, had sunk and he did not see or hear what happened to his mother while he climbed aboard a life raft.
(L to R) Nathan Carman and Clark Carman Courtesy of Netflix
While Nathan’s rescue was initially treated as a miraculous story of survival by the media, police quickly identified potential discrepancies in his version of events.
In a deposition, Nathan admitted that he did not radio for help or set off the boat’s emergency locator because he didn’t understand the seriousness of the leak until it was too late.
Nathan allegedly left a bucket of fishing bait in his car, but did remember to bring a handheld water maker, which can turn salt water into fresh water.
Police also questioned the location of Nathan’s rescue near Martha’s Vineyard because it did not match up with the projected path that his raft should have taken. Nathan’s life raft sank moments after his rescue and was never recovered.
In light of Linda’s disappearance, Connecticut police reopened their investigation into the murder of Nathan’s grandfather. Nathan released a statement in 2018 to insist he “did not kill [his] grandfather or [his] mother.”
Nathan was indicted for both the murder of his mother and grandfather in 2022.
Although he continued to maintain his innocence, Nathan died by suicide at age 29 in prison in June 2023 while he was awaiting trial. He did not leave a note.
All charges against him were subsequently dismissed.
Who Is Clark Carman?
Clark Carman is interviewed in The Carman Family Deaths and continues to defend his late son.
“I still, to this day, believe [Nathan]. There was no involvement,” Clark says in the doc.
Clark took issue with the way police developed suspicion around Nathan because he appeared detached in interrogations. Nathan’s father and other supporters argued that the police had a fundamental lack of understanding about the autism spectrum, as Nathan’s behavior could have been explained because he was on the spectrum.
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Looking back on his son’s suicide, Clark admits in The Carman Family Deaths: “I was totally in shock. We’re ready to go to trial and you get a call [to say], ‘Your son just died.’ It’s just hard to accept.”
Clark has kept a low profile since Nathan’s suicide, aside from giving an interview for The Carman Family Deaths.
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