Nathan Carman?s plan for a memorial service to honor his mother Linda Carman, who was lost at sea while on a fishing trip with him last month, has angered other families members still waiting for authorities to finish their investigation.

Nathan Carman, 22, has been calling friends of his grandparents, John and Rita Chakalos, in New Hampshire and family friends in West Hartford to invite them to a memorial service scheduled for Wednesday.

Details of the service are unclear but his attorney, Hubert Santos, confirmed this weekend that the 22-year-old is planning a memorial service at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in West Hartford.

?Nathan has not given up hope for his mother?s rescue. However, he also understands the difficult realities of the situation and that the Coast Guard stopped search-and-rescue operations last month,? Santos said. ?He believes that now is an appropriate time to begin the mourning process, and asks that the public and press respect his privacy during this trying time.?

But Nathan Carman apparently didn?t check with any of Linda Carman?s three sisters about the memorial, or invite them. The family has gotten calls from friends informing them that Nathan has called them about the memorial service. The friends have been asking the sisters if they are participating.

The sisters have hired the Boston law firm of Holland & Knight to represent them. Their attorney, Dan Small, issued a statement making it clear that the three sisters have nothing to do with the planned memorial, and indicating that they prefer to wait until police finish investigating the circumstances of the ill-fated fishing trip.

?Linda?s friends and family want to make clear that they are not involved in this event,? Small said. ?They believe that it is premature and inappropriate to stage this kind of an event when there is an ongoing investigation into Linda?s disappearance.?

Nathan Carman and his mother, Linda Carman, 54, of Middletown, were reported missing Sept. 18 while on a fishing trip. They left from South Kingstown, R.I., the day before in Nathan Carman?s 31-foot aluminum boat, The Chicken Pox. His mother is presumed dead.

Police from at least four states have been investigating the circumstances surrounding the boat?s sinking. They have obtained search warrants for Nathan Carman?s vehicle, cellphone and Vermont home. In those documents, they indicate they are investigating whether to charge him with ?operating (a boat) so as to endanger, resulting in death.?

Nathan Carman told Coast Guard officials that he and his mother were fishing in Block Canyon, south of Martha?s Vineyard, when he heard a funny noise coming from the engine and water rushing on the boat. Carman said he turned to grab an emergency bag and by then, the boat was sinking.

He swam to a raft that had automatically inflated and said he called out for his mother but didn?t see her.

He floated in the raft for eight days before a freighter called the Orient Lucky picked him up about 100 miles from Martha?s Vineyard. He spent two days on the freighter before he was turned over to the Coast Guard.

Carman wrote the ship?s captain, Hengdong Zhao, a thank you note in which he described what his mother meant to him: ?If my mom is lost, which I fear is likely, I will have no one on Earth who will welcome me sincerely into their home,? he wrote.

A potential rift between Nathan Carman and his relatives started when his grandfather, John Chakalos, was killed in December of 2013. Windsor police tried to obtain an arrest warrant to charge Nathan Carman with the murder but were unsuccessful.

As with his mother, Nathan Carman is believed to have been the last person to see his grandfather alive when he had dinner with him the night before his body was found by one of his daughters. Chakalos was shot three times in the head.

Nathan Carman has denied any involvement in his grandfather?s death, saying the two were extremely close.

?He loved me very dearly,? Carman said of Chakalos. ?I was like a son to him; he was like a father to me.?

Chakalos? probate estate, filed in New Hampshire, shows that he had assets of $44 million. A judge recently accepted a final total of about $21 million to be distributed among his daughters, the four sisters. A judge has not approved the final distribution of the estate.
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