1 of 2 Boaters Missing For Week Found Alive, Adrift in Raft South of Martha’s Vineyard

COURTESY OF THE US COAST GUARD

BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says one of two boaters who had been missing for a week has been found alive, drifting on an inflatable life raft far off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

The Coast Guard on Friday suspended its search for 54-year-old Linda Carman, of Middletown, Connecticut,  and her 22-year-old son, Nathan, of Vernon, Vermont.

The mother and son disappeared Sept. 18 after leaving a Rhode Island marina to go on a fishing trip in a 31-foot aluminum fishing boat named the Chicken Pox.

The Coast Guard in Boston says Nathan Carman was found Sunday by a freighter about 100 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

He was listed in good condition.

Nathan Carman told the Coast Guard that when the 31-foot boat started to sink, he looked for his mother but didn’t see her. He told the Coast Guard by phone that he had some food and water and he jumped into the raft.

Linda Carman’s whereabouts remain unknown and the Coast Guard said Monday that they don’t plan to restart the search for her.

Carman, who has Asperger Syndrome — a form of autism — went missing in 2011 after he became distraught over the death of his horse, his parents said at the time. After a widespread search, the then 17-year-old Carman was found in Sussex County, Virginia.

Police said he took a bus to Virginia and bought a scooter he had planned to ride to Florida.

The Hartford Courant reports that the Carman family was also struck by tragedy in 2013 when Linda Carman’s father — John Chakalos of Windsor, Connecticut — was found dead in his home of a gunshot wound to the head. No arrest has been made.

Nathan Carman grew up in Connecticut, but has lived in Vernon, Vermont, in recent years.