True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History

DEAD IN THE WATER—David J. Farrell, Jr.

·1 hr 2 min·5 clips

Nathan Carman was found alive on a life raft after his mother vanished at sea, but was it more than luck?

Host Dan Zupansky interviews maritime attorney and author David J. Farrell, Jr. about his book 'Dead in the Water: The Real Story of Nathan Carman.' Farrell begins by explaining his background in commercial fishing and maritime law, which informed his approach to the case. He describes how he became involved when Nathan Carman and his mother Linda went missing on a fishing trip from Rhode Island, and Nathan was later found alone on a life raft. Farrell outlines the suspicious circumstances, including Nathan being the last person to see both his mother and his grandfather, who was murdered three years earlier. He details the maritime insurance claim process that compelled Nathan to submit to a five-hour examination under oath, where Farrell uncovered Nathan's amateurish boat modifications, including drilling holes and filling them with putty. Farrell discusses the expert witnesses he enlisted, including an oceanographer from Woods Hole who disproved Nathan's life raft drift story, marine surveyors who deemed the boat unseaworthy, and a wilderness doctor who doubted Nathan could survive seven days at sea. He reveals how he tracked down the purchase of a .308 rifle Nathan bought before his grandfather's murder and later threw overboard. Farrell recounts the federal trial where the judge ruled the insurance claim invalid due to Nathan's negligent repairs. The episode covers Nathan's arrest for insurance fraud and murder, his suicide in jail, and concludes with Farrell's theory that Nathan used chum to attract sharks and dispose of his mother's body.

As heard by us

A deposition turns boat repairs and a shifting offshore route into the episode's main pressure points.

Dead in the Water centers on David J. Farrell, Jr.'s account of questioning Nathan Carman about the offshore trip with his mother, using boat repairs, navigation, and shifting route details as the episode's main pressure points.

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Why you'd press play

You want a true-crime interview where a fiberglass patch kit and a marked-up chart do the heavy lifting.

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