Video Shows Moment Nathan Carman Is Rescued Without His Mother After 8 Days at Sea
He was on trip with his mom when the boat sank; she's missing.
— -- Video and images obtained by the Hartford Courant capture the dramatic moment a 22-year-old Vermont man, Nathan Carman, was rescued and pulled from a life raft in the Atlantic Ocean after eight days at sea. He was on a trip with his mother when their boat sank; she is missing and presumed dead.
Carman and his mother of Middletown, Connecticut, were first reported missing Sept. 18, after failing to return from a fishing trip they began the previous day from Point Judith, Rhode Island, according to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard said Nathan told them that the pair's 32-foot boat had taken on water on Sept. 18 off the coast of New York, near Block Canyon. When he escaped to the raft, he told the Coast Guard he could not find his mother.
On Sept. 25, a Chinese freighter found Carman -- alone and in a life raft -- 100 nautical miles from Martha's Vineyard.
In an interview with ABC News' Linzie Janis last week, Carman said he had nothing to do with the disappearance of his mother.
"I know I wasn't responsible for the boat sinking. I know that I wasn't responsible for anything that resulted from the boat sinking. I know I wasn't responsible for my mom's death," Carman said. "But at the same time I feel like I was responsible for my mom, and I being out there and in the situation. If I hadn't asked my mom to go fishing with me that weekend, she would still be alive with me today."
The search for Carman's mother, Linda, has been suspended. But hours after Carman arrived on shore last week, police in Vermont seized items from his home. A search warrant indicated that he was under investigation for reckless endangerment for allegedly taking his mother out on the boat when it was in need of repair and taking her to a "different location than what were his mother's intentions and understanding," the documents say.
"The investigation revealed that Nathan's boat was in need of mechanical repair and that Nathan had been conducting a portion of these repairs upon his own volition which could have potentially rendered his boat unsafe," the affidavit supporting the warrant says.
Carman said, "I would not have taken my mom out fishing with me had I not believed the boat was seaworthy."
He has not been charged.
ABC News' Avianne Tan, Enjoli Francis and Linzie Janis contributed to this report.
