The Deaths of John Chakalos & Linda Carman Part 1 (Connecticut) 28:04

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online. Penn State World Campus delivers on your time. Click the ad or visit worldcampus.psu.edu to learn more. When the daughter of wealthy real estate developer John Choklis walked into her father's Connecticut home one morning in December of 2013, it set into motion a long-term investigation of not one but two suspicious deaths in the same family within a three-year span.

Investigators had a prime suspect for the murder of John Choklis from the beginning, but it wasn't until another member of the family disappeared under mysterious circumstances that the identity of that suspect was revealed.

I started looking into this story a few weeks ago. I actually had no plans to cover it. I just found myself skimming articles and learning about the key events in the case like I tend to do with active and ongoing investigations in New England. But I found myself spending more and more time reading articles and seeking out original source material and digging deeper into the lives of the humans at the center of the case.

I couldn't stop, because around every corner was a new detail that only made me want to know more. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is a deep dive into the unsolved homicide of John Choklas and the suspicious death of Linda Carmen, part one on Dark Down East.

It was the morning of December 20th, 2013, when Elaine Choklis pulled into the driveway of the modest, single-story home on Overlook Drive in Windsor, Connecticut. It had been a trying few weeks for the Choklises. Elaine's mother, Rita, passed away from a battle with cancer in November, and everyone was navigating their new reality without the matriarch of their family.

Rita and her husband, 87-year-old John Choklis, were quite the fixtures in their local community, both in Windsor and in West Chesterfield, New Hampshire, where they'd built a massive three-story home of over 15,000 square feet on 88 sprawling acres. Everyone who crossed paths with the couple knew two things about John and Rita, that both had giving and charitable hearts,

and that they had a lot of money to give. But this home in Connecticut was quite the contrast to their New Hampshire mansion, a fraction of the size and not a single indoor swimming pool in sight. The Windsor house often served as an office space for John. Though he may have been 87 years old, the man still had a passion for his work.

In court transcripts, another of John's four daughters, Valerie, explained that she and her sisters were pretty much, quote, planning his life after Rita died. They encouraged him to stay nearby in Connecticut instead of up north at the New Hampshire estate, and were even planning on taking him to look at new apartments in Connecticut too. But for the time being, he was in Windsor, on Overlook Drive.

John Choklis was best known for his development of nursing homes and extended care facilities throughout New England. Ever a family man, many of his properties were named after his daughters: Valerie Santilli, Elaine Choklis, Charlene Gallagher, and Linda Carmen. There was Linda Manor Extended Care Facility in Leeds, Massachusetts, and Charlene Manor Extended Care Facility in Greenfield, Massachusetts, among many others.

Though he was closer to 90 years old every day, John was still active in his business endeavors. A co-developer he partnered with told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that John Choklis was a dynamic, hardworking, larger-than-life figure who was at it every day. Quote, End quote.

In his younger days, John attended high school in Middletown, Connecticut, where he met the woman who would become his lifelong companion, Rita Baranowski. Before the real estate ventures that turned into a vast portfolio of developments in multiple states, John enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he served with distinction as a paratrooper during World War II.

Multiple sources make reference of John's favorite motto: "Without family, you've got nothing. Family is everything." That was at the heart of who John was, dedicated to his wife, his children and grandchildren, as well as his nieces and nephews. John's caring heart extended beyond his family, too. Charity and finding ways to give back to those in his community who needed it most was part of who he was.

For nearly a decade, the Choklas name was synonymous with holiday cheer. The West Chesterfield Mansion on Pondbrook Road transformed each winter season into one of the most impressive private lights and decorations displays in the state, if not all of New England. The Sentinel source reported that over six million lights adorned the property, lighting up the brick facade and blinking off the frozen winter snow.

At first, the light display started as John's personal delight for his favorite holiday, though his family invited a local kindergarten class to come up and see the display. It soon after evolved into a public drive-through event. Anyone could come stare wide-eyed at the dazzling array of multicolored bulbs in exchange for a donation to a local food pantry.

At its peak, the Holiday Lights event would bring in over a thousand bags of food and thousands of dollars, enough to carry the food bank for months.

The West Chesterfield house was used mostly as a place where John's family, his daughters and grandchildren and the rest could gather together to make memories. When he wasn't in New Hampshire, John and Rita stayed at their Connecticut home, that modest dwelling on Overlook Drive that John ultimately planned to keep as an office.

I need to mention that the issue of where John Choklis really lived, where he legally established domicile, will play a substantial role in this case later on. But we'll get there.

Elaine stopped into her dad's house in Windsor, Connecticut on Overlook Drive sometime around 8 o'clock in the morning of December 20th, 2013, just to check on her father, though I can't be sure if it was part of her routine or if Elaine had any cause for concern that would warrant a visit. If she didn't have cause for concern already, though, she certainly would as soon as she found her father in his bedroom.

John Choklis, had been shot dead in his bed. Windsor, Connecticut Police Department responded to the scene at 8:23 a.m. to investigate the suspicious death. A medical examiner would later rule that John died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, and his death was ruled a homicide.

A 2014 affidavit prepared by Detective Christopher Iovine and Detective Sergeant William Freeman reveals evidence found at the scene of John's death that was not widely discussed in the news media at the time. As you'll learn, this case only gains more and more attention in the press as the years and the incidents continue. But I do have the affidavit now.

At the scene, investigators discovered bullet fragments that indicated at least one of John's three wounds was consistent with a .308 caliber class bullet. They also learned through interviews that John Chakalis kept a number of firearms in his home, mainly vintage rifles kept from World War II. Two of those vintage rifles were of a .308 caliber, the same as the bullet fragments at the scene.

However, upon processing these guns, it did not appear to investigators that either had been recently fired. What they didn't find at the crime scene was also important. According to the affidavit, the scene was apparently manipulated by the persons or persons responsible. The detectives did not find any shell casings at the scene, meaning someone obviously cleaned up after themselves to avoid leaving behind what would have been a critical piece of evidence.

In the affidavit, the detectives reasoned that whoever carried out the murder likely had done previous research on how to conceal a crime and avoid identification. Detectives spoke to John's family members and anyone who would help them assemble a timeline of his activities leading up to the shooting that claimed his life. The investigation continued quietly.

With a victim as high profile as John Shockless, everyone was left to wonder who could have had it out for a man so giving and respected.

The murder of John Chakalis remained unsolved as of July 2014 when a story adjacent to the case broke in local news. A Windsor police officer was demoted after an inquiry into his actions revealed he made false statements and withheld information that could have aided the Chakalis investigation.

According to the story written by Stephen Good in the Hartford Courant, the hearing board found that Officer Russell Winninger was part of the investigative team working on the case of John Chaklis. Winninger was assigned to obtain telephone records of 11 people determined to be persons of interest in the case, including a prime suspect.

The officer did obtain the records within a week of the murder, yet when asked if he'd received them yet, he told Sergeant Bill Freeman in charge of the investigation that he didn't have them. The hearing board also found that Whittinger took these records to a sergeant at the Hartford Police Department, an agency also working on the investigation, to perform what they called a mapping process to determine the location of the phones at the time of each call.

Ms. Hartford Sargent, however, went on vacation and then apparently had computer troubles and didn't complete the mapping process before Winninger himself went on vacation. About two weeks passed while Winninger possessed the records and he did not disclose he had them, even when asked. Winninger made a statement saying that he would never do anything that would hinder an investigation.

His punishment was a 10-day suspension without pay and a salary reduction upon his return. The situation is curious, sure, but no motive was ever shared by the police department as to why Officer Winninger would want to keep those phone records for persons of interest and a prime suspect to himself.

But regardless of motives and action or inaction on that officer's part, what we learned from the incident was that police had a prime suspect for the murder of John Choklis in the summer of 2014. Of course, with the investigation ongoing, getting a name out of investigators was impossible. The one-year anniversary of the murder of John Choklis passed in December of 2014 without any major updates in the case.

The famed holiday lights display at the West Chesterfield Mansion never illuminated again. However, the Sentinel source reported that a nativity scene remained out front of the expansive home. In June of 2015, a bookkeeper named William Satie, who once worked for John Choklis, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, all but three and a half years suspended, for stealing more than $400,000 from the business.

According to reporting by David Owens for the Hartford Courant, the theft was discovered during the investigation into John's murder. However, police said that Satie was not a suspect. Satie insisted that he did not take $400,000, but he did admit to taking some, which he'd intended to pay back, he said. He just never got around to it.

Satie's attorney, Charles Hines, said that the other missing money that the state claimed his client took was, quote, End quote. Whether he was alluding to facts or singing the common tune of a defense attorney paid to cultivate doubt over his client's guilt, we can't be sure.

Either way, as of that summer 2015, police still had made no arrests in John's murder and had kept their mouths tightly shut regarding new details developing in the case, if there were any at all. That December marked the second year without an arrest. Police told the Daily Hampshire Gazette, quote, the investigation is still open. We're still actively investigating it as a homicide, end quote.

It looked like it would be more of the same as 2016 rolled in without any new publicly available information. That is, until September of that year, a few months shy of the three-year anniversary, another tragedy struck the Shockless family, and it changed everything.

It was late at night on Saturday, September 15th, 2016, and Linda Carmen was loading up fishing gear for a fishing excursion with her son, Nathan Carmen. The mother and son weren't the best of friends, some even described their relationship as strained, but the one thing that always connected them was fishing.

Nathan's boat was a 32-foot aluminum center console vessel named the Chickenpox, a moniker left over from the owner before him. He'd owned boats together with his mother before, but this one was all Nathan's. He kept it at Point Judith Marina in Wakefield, Rhode Island, and used it mainly for fishing offshore near Block Island, a small island about 25 nautical miles from the marina.

That was the intended destination for their trip, according to a float plan that Linda left behind with a friend. According to the United States Coast Guard, a float plan documents important details about a trip: what kind of vessel, who is aboard, the intended destination, what kind of safety and survival equipment is on board, contact information, and more.

All boaters, but especially those on longer voyages venturing well beyond the sight of land, are encouraged to create a float plan and leave it with a trusted person on the mainland. The information could be invaluable if anything were to happen while out at sea. Linda must have known the importance of a float plan, and so she prepared one before they embarked on their middle-of-the-night journey.

Any dedicated fisherman or woman will tell you that leaving in the middle of the night or in the pre-dawn hours for offshore fishing spots is the best way to get your lines in the water at prime time. Nathan was serious about catching a big fish that day, possibly a tuna. He'd recently invested in some tuna fishing gear since fish of that size and power require specialty rods, reels, and high-test lines.

Nathan and Linda pushed off the Marina dock at 11 p.m. on September 15th, and Linda sent out a text to two friends to let them know they were underway. That was the last time she contacted anyone. At 6:30 p.m. on Sunday night, when no one had seen or heard from the mother and son fishing duo, friends called in the Coast Guard to report the missing vessel and the two souls aboard.

The search began in the area indicated on Linda Carman's float plan, which noted that they would be heading for an area south of Block Island. By air and by sea, the waters off Long Island and Rhode Island were scoured for any sign of the chickenpox. As days went on, more states joined the effort, and the search field extended to cover over 62,000 square nautical miles. That's larger than the state of Georgia.

The Hartford Courant covered the search for Nathan and Linda Carmen extensively. The friend who was entrusted with Linda's float plan told the paper, "It would be unlike her to change plans without telling somebody. We're very anxious and very worried." Other boaters in the area were urged to share the Coast Guard's search bulletins and keep their eyes open as they ventured out on their own offshore voyages.

With each passing day, though the search intensified and expanded, hope was dwindling. There were no reports at the time about what, if any, safety or survival equipment was aboard the boat, or if the Coast Guard had any reason to believe that they were looking for an incapacitated boat with survivors aboard, or if they suspected that the worst happened out there.

After nearly a week since they disappeared, the Coast Guard called off their search for Linda and Nathan Carman. They'd exhausted all search efforts for the time being. If new information did come in, they said, they'd reactivate the search. But as of September 24, 2016, it was over.

The Hartford Courant reported that the family of the Carmins were asking that people in the community put up yellow ribbons at their homes and businesses to show their support. The family wasn't giving up hope, and they urged other boaters and fishing crews in the area to stay vigilant while on the water. But the reality was dim. A weak and no sign.

If they had any safety or survival equipment at all, it was likely their supplies had dwindled by then. If they didn't, well, surviving in the September ocean waters with little more than a life jacket was unlikely. The family planned a private gathering to honor Nathan and Linda Carmen on Saturday, September 24, 2016. The next day, September 25th,

Something unexpected and kind of unbelievable happened. A cargo freight ship called the Orient Lucky was charting its course towards the port of St. John in New Brunswick when a crew member spotted something floating on the water.

It was about one nautical mile away from the ship itself, but out there in the open seas, about 100 nautical miles from Martha's Vineyard, seeing something on the water that wasn't another ship was odd. The captain directed the freighter towards the object in the distance. It was bright red and yellow in color and small, much too small to be a vessel built for these offshore conditions. As they got closer, they could make out what they were seeing.

It was a raft. And suddenly, there was movement. A person. A person was inside the raft. The crew of the Orient Lucky threw a life ring into the water when they were close enough to reach the raft.

The Hartford Courant later spoke to the captain of that vessel, who said it took three painstaking tries to successfully reach the person inside the life raft. With the life ring around his head and arms, the crew pulled the man to the stairway, and he scaled the treacherous steps to the deck of the freighter. I can only imagine what that entire experience was like for the rescued man and the crew themselves, who seemed to be in the right place at the very right time.

According to the Hartford Courant, this was the first rescue the captain had ever performed. The man was stable on his feet, maybe a little tired, but he didn't need help walking. The captain said that the rescued man did not appear to be dehydrated or suffering from hypothermia. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans with a red life jacket secured around his neck and waist. The crew asked for the man's name and what happened.

How did he end up on a life raft 100 nautical miles off the coast of Martha's Vineyard? He said he'd been out fishing with his mom, and the boat started sinking. He jumped into the life raft, but when he looked back for his mother, she was gone. The crew had just rescued Nathan Carman,

News of Nathan Carman's rescue immediately made it back to the mainland and to Coast Guard officials. Linda Carman's friend spoke to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, saying that when she learned of Nathan's rescue, quote, I was ecstatic, and I found out Linda wasn't with him, and I was terrified, end quote. Nathan spoke with Coast Guard officials while still on board the Orient Lucky. They asked him what happened and planned a more formal and complete interview for when he returned to land.

His initial story, though, as retold by Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicole Grohl, was that the boat started to sink, and when it did, everything happened quickly. Quote, In an audio recording of that call, later obtained by the Daily Hampshire Gazette, more details of Nathan's story come to light.

Nathan told Officer Grohl that he heard a funny noise coming from the engine compartment and, when he went to see the cause, he found the compartment flooded with water. Nathan knew he had a serious issue at that moment and started to prepare his safety equipment. "I was bringing one of the safety bags forward. The boat just dropped out from under my feet. When I saw the life raft, I did not see my mom. Have you found her?"

The Coast Guard stated that they had no plans to reopen the search for Nathan's mother, Linda Carmen.

Knowing that Nathan occupied the life raft and had all the supplies, it was unlikely that Linda was still alive and adrift in the open ocean. It was, quote, beyond the survivability window, end quote. Linda Carmen was presumed dead. Despite having survived an entire week on that life raft, Nathan was listed in good condition upon his return to port.

It was truly unbelievable, and yet, there he was, alive and well. Nathan was transported to a survivor debriefing meeting with the Coast Guard as is protocol for these situations. A Coast Guard official told the Rutland Daily Herald that survivor debriefings are for them to learn what happened and what they can do better to aid a search and rescue effort in the future.

But anyone keeping a close eye on Nathan Carman's rescue and this developing situation got the sense that the meeting was different. Everything about the search and the rescue and the immediate aftermath had a curious urgency about it. And as the public soon learned, the urgency was for good reason.

What was on the surface an extensive search for a mother and son who had fallen victim to a tragic boating accident actually had another underlying focus. The Coast Guard and state agencies from across New England and beyond knew from the very beginning that they were searching for the prime suspect in the unsolved 2013 murder of John Shockless. 23-year-old Nathan Carman,

was the grandson and suspected killer of John Choklis. In fact, police had even tried to arrest him for it once before. Suddenly, Linda Carmen's tragic disappearance from her son's fishing boat was even more concerning. Was it truly an accident or was it all part of the plan?

The cases of John Shoklas and Linda Carman are active and ongoing, with developments as recent as early May 2022. And now that you have the background, in the next episode of Dark Down East, I'll dive deeper into court records and explore some major questions central to both investigations.

Who is Nathan Carman? Is he responsible for the death of his grandfather? Did Nathan intentionally sink his boat with his mother aboard? And why? That and a lot more on the next episode of Dark Down East. Thank you for listening.

If you or anyone you know has a personal connection to this case, please contact me at hello at darkdowneast.com. Sources cited in this episode, along with additional materials referenced, are linked at darkdowneast.com so you can do some digging of your own. If you know of an active missing persons case in Maine or Greater New England, as always, you can send me an email with the subject line missing to hello at darkdowneast.com.

I will share the information on an upcoming episode of Dark Down East and at darkdowneast.com slash missing. You can also reach out to me on Instagram at darkdowneast. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and homicide cases.

I am not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.