Millionaire son found alone on boat was accused of killing his Mum and Grandfather over $42 million inheritance

A new Netflix true crime documentary has gone viral, which focuses on a millionaire son who was found alone on a boat, leading him to be accused of killing his own mother and grandfather.

Netflix have become known as the place for many of the best true crime documentaries around, having near-singlehandedly revived public discussion of the Amy Bradley case earlier this year.

The streaming giant has clearly found a niche in presenting tell-all true crime documentaries on overlooked cases with bizarre mysteries at the centre of them, with the retelling of Bradley's disappearance from a cruise ship in 1998 being a prime example.

Netflix’s new documentary, The Carman Family Deaths, focuses on a young man who was found after being missing at sea for eight days after an excursion with his mother.

Netflix's latest true crime doc focuses on Nathan Carman, who was accused of murdering his own mother and grandfather (Netflix)

Nathan Carman was found alone on an inflatable life raft without his mother, whom he had initially taken a fishing trip with from Rhode Island in the United States.

The doc explores how the young man was later arrested for the murder of his mother, Linda Carmen, as well as being accused of being responsible for the death of his grandfather, John Carmen, three years prior.

What happened to Nathan Carman’s mother and why was he accused of murdering his family?

Nathan’s maternal grandfather, John Carman, had died in 2013 of a gunshot wound in a death ruled a homicide.

Whilst Nathan was the last person to see him and had emailed the estate asking who would get his $42,000,000 inheritance first, he was ruled out as a suspect after being found to have an alibi.

Linda then died in a boating accident that saw her and Nathan’s ship sink, with her son found by the coast guard eight days later.

When he tried to claim insurance on the boat, an investigation found a witness who claimed to have seen him working on his boat to create holes in the hull.

Nathan was arrested on suspicion of homicide in 2022, accused of having killed his mum for the inheritance that she would have gotten from John, with prosecuting documents accusing him of having also killed his grandfather - though he was never formally charged for this.

Nathan committed suicide in prison prior to his trial date, leading to his charges being dropped and the investigation into Linda’s death being closed.

What does the Netflix documentary say about Nathan’s innocence, and what have viewers been saying?

The doc speaks about the complicated details of the case. Whilst many signs point towards him being responsible for the deaths, his father Clark Carmen maintains Nathan’s innocence in the documentary.

He stated that the allegations against his son were ‘baseless’ and claimed that Nathan’s autism diagnosis was not taken into proper consideration.

Nathan had been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, which now falls under the category of ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’.

Many viewers, however, believe that the account presented by prosecutors speaking in the documentary points towards him being responsible.

One comment on Reddit said: “Too much points to him doing it for me to believe he didn’t do it.”

Another said: “Dude, I just watched this. I'm on the Spectrum, so maybe I was inclined to hope he was innocent going in...but the preponderance of circumstantial evidence seems SO overwhelming, not to mention how he ended up.”

And a third said: “Engrossing, disturbing documentary. I believe he killed them both.”

The Carmen Family Deaths is available to stream on Netflix now.