Nathan Carman. (WBZ-TV)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A civil trial getting underway in Providence will determine whether insurance companies should cover Nathan Carman's $85,000 claim for his boat that sank off New England in 2016.
Insurers are refusing to pay the claim, saying Carman made suspicious alterations to the 31-foot vessel before leaving Rhode Island with his mother Linda on a fishing trip.
Carman, who lives in Vermont, was found eight days later in a life raft near Martha's Vineyard.
Linda Carman is presumed dead.
The federal judge hearing the non-jury trial that began on Tuesday says testimony will be limited to questions surrounding the insurance claim.
Nathan Carman, who has denied doing anything to make the boat unseaworthy, has also been named a "person of interest" in the 2013 shooting death of his 87-year-old grandfather in Connecticut.
Carman has denied any role in his grandfather's shooting death in Connecticut in 2013, as well as any role in the disappearance of his mother during the 2016 fishing trip. Carman's three aunts believe Carman killed her and are trying to prevent him from inheriting the mother's share of her father's estate.
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