The Cam Girl Killer: How Grant Amato Seduced a Ghost Hunter's Wife from Prison

[00:00:00] The case featured in this episode has been researched using police records, court documents, witness statements, and the news. Listener discretion is advised. All parties mentioned are innocent until proven guilty, and all opinions are my own.

[00:00:34] Hey everyone, my name is Nikki Young and this is Serial Napper, the true crime podcast for naps. I'm back with another true crime story to lull you to sleep, or perhaps to give you nightmares. What happens when obsession crosses the line into destruction? When fantasy becomes more important than family? And when one man's delusion spirals so far out of control, it ends in bloodshed?

[00:01:02] Night after night, Grant Amato sat in the dim glow of his family's computer screen, utterly captivated by a woman thousands of miles away, a Bulgarian webcam model named Sylvie.

[00:01:15] She danced, she posed, she told him everything that he wanted to hear, for a price of course. And Grant, he paid it, thousands of dollars, hours of his time, his job, his dignity, and eventually much, much more.

[00:01:33] When the money ran out, he stole from the people who loved him the most, his own family. Hoping to keep the fantasy alive, he lied again and again and again, until his family, they had had enough. They begged him to get help. They gave him a choice, leave Sylvie or leave their home. Grant chose neither. Instead, prosecutors say, he chose murder.

[00:01:59] On a quiet night in January 2019, in the suburb of Chuliotta, Florida, Grant Amato's mother, father, and brother were found brutally gunned down in their home. But that's not even where this story ends. Because here we are in 2025, and somehow, somehow, Grant Amato's name is back in the headlines.

[00:02:22] This time, tied to a murder-for-hire plot targeting Ghost Adventures star Aaron Goodwin. Yeah, you heard that right. So, dim the lights, put your phone down, and listen as I uncover the real story behind a webcam obsession, a family annihilation, and now, a bizarre twist involving a paranormal TV celebrity. Buckle up, because this one, it's as strange as it is chilling. So let's jump right in.

[00:02:50] Before Grant Amato became a headline, the face of one of Florida's most bizarre and brutal murder cases, he was just another guy trying to figure out life. A nurse, a son, a brother. He lived in Chuliotta, Florida, with his parents and one of his two brothers, Cody Amato, the sibling that he was the closest to. Best friends, really. From the outside, the Amato family looked like the American dream.

[00:03:19] Chad and Margaret Amato had raised three boys, Jason, Cody, and Grant, in a beautiful home nestled in a quiet suburban neighborhood. They were a close-knit family, supportive, the kind of family that you see tailgating together at Florida Gators games, or helping each other out with homework around the dinner table. Chad, the father, was a pharmacist with a deep love for computers, the kind of guy who worked hard to provide a comfortable life for his family.

[00:03:49] Margaret, she was the heart of the home, and she had a passion for horses, especially the broken and abandoned ones. She'd spend hours at the stables, trying to rehabilitate animals that no one else would take a chance on. She was patient and stubborn in the very best way, the kind of mom who never gave up on anything or anyone.

[00:04:12] And then there were the boys, Jason, the eldest, Cody, the steady middle child, and then Grant, the youngest. Smart, ambitious, and at least early on, full of potential. Cody and Grant were kind of inseparable. They worked out together in high school, joining the weightlifting team, and pushing each other towards their shared dream of becoming nurse anesthetists.

[00:04:37] They even planned to buy matching BMWs and, one day, take over their parents' house when Chad and Margaret retired to Tennessee. But here's the thing about families like the Amatos. Sometimes the image is more polished than the reality. Behind the scenes, there was tension, especially between Grant and his father. Chad was known to be strict, even controlling. Grant often felt like he was never quite enough.

[00:05:05] And while he had a close bond with his mother and he adored his brother Cody, that pressure weighed on him, quietly, constantly. Still, the plan was in place. Cody stayed on track, finishing school, landing a solid job. Grant, on the other hand, he kind of started to drift. He completed his basic nursing program, but things began to unravel when he failed at a anesthetist school.

[00:05:34] Then came the real turning point. June 2018. Grant was working at AdventHealth Orlando when he was arrested for allegedly stealing drugs and mishandling medications. The hospital suspended him, and the incident, it sparked a full-blown investigation. Grant lost his job. He lost his professional future. And maybe, most importantly, he lost his sense of identity.

[00:06:01] The charges were eventually dropped, possibly thanks to his brother Cody, who reportedly paid around $8,000 for his brother's legal defense. But by then, the damage was done. Unemployed and embarrassed, Grant retreated inward, spending his days locked away in his bedroom, playing online games and browsing the internet on the family computer. He hoped to become a successful Twitch streamer. Maybe he could even make a living out of it.

[00:06:30] And that's when she appeared. A woman named Sylvie. A webcam model. Thousands of miles away in Bulgaria. Beautiful, enigmatic, and willing to tell Grant exactly what he wanted to hear for a price. That's when reality started to blur. That's when things went from concerning to catastrophic. It started the way so many digital obsessions do. Harmless, even mundane.

[00:07:00] A late night click here, a curiosity there. But before long, Grant found himself on a live streaming adult site called Cam Girls. A place where money buys attention, fantasy, and in some cases, the illusion of intimacy. That's where he met her, Sylvie. She was everything that Grant thought he wanted. Stunning, mysterious, and halfway across the world in Bulgaria.

[00:07:27] With her long, dark hair, hypnotic figure, and an Eastern European accent that oozed allure, Sylvie quickly became more than just a cam girl to Grant. She became his obsession. Every night, Grant would sit in front of the screen, transfixed, as Sylvie danced, talked, teased. All for a price. The site worked on a token system, and Grant, he wasn't holding back.

[00:07:54] He typically bought hundreds of dollars worth of these tokens, and he would burn through them in a single night. If he wanted a private show, he needed even more tokens as they were more expensive. Sometimes, he'd rack up thousands, just to feel like he had some time alone with her. But he didn't stop there. To keep up the image of being this wealthy and successful guy, the kind of man that he thought Sylvie wanted,

[00:08:21] Grant sent her flowers, clothes, lingerie, and even sex toys. He gave cash on top of tokens, showering her with virtual gifts as if they were in some kind of long-distance romance. Except, this wasn't love. It was a business transaction. And it was costing him and his family everything. To fund this fantasy, Grant began stealing.

[00:08:47] First from his father Chad, then from Cody, the brother who'd always stood by him. Credit cards, bank accounts, anything he could get his hands on. When the cards were maxed out, well, he got creative. Investigators say that he sold his brother's guns. He took out a $65,000 loan against the family home. By the end of it all, police estimate that Grant Amato, he funneled over $200,000 to Sylvie,

[00:09:16] a woman he had never met in real life. A woman thousands of miles away. When questioned, Grant told his family that the money was for promoting his Twitch channel, that he was trying to become a professional gamer. Cody and Chad, they didn't buy it. But despite the growing tension, the lies and the theft, they didn't press charges. Because that's what families do, right? They forgive. They hope. They try to believe in the best version of someone.

[00:09:46] Even when that version has long since disappeared. But Grant, he wasn't stopping. He couldn't. Because in his mind, he wasn't just paying for companionship. He was paying to keep love alive. And as his debts mounted and his lies collapsed, the pressure inside the Amato home was reaching a dangerous breaking point. The Amato household was no longer the picture of suburban bliss. It had become a pressure cooker.

[00:10:14] Years of love, support, and second chances, they were wearing thin, replaced by tension, resentment, and fear. Grant's obsession with Sylvie wasn't just draining the family's bank accounts anymore. It was draining their hope. So, in one final effort to save their son and their sanity, Chad and Margaret Amato checked Grant into a rehab facility in South Florida. It was a specialized clinic focused on treating internet and sex addiction, a place where they

[00:10:44] hoped that he could finally confront the obsession that had consumed him. It wasn't an easy decision, but at that point, it was their only option. Margaret confided in a neighbor that the last few months had been some of the hardest of her life. Her voice was heavy with exhaustion, and she admitted that her youngest son had stolen a lot of money, more than most families could ever recover from. And still, she held on to hope that he could change.

[00:11:13] But when Grant returned home in early of January 2019, change was not what he had in mind. His father, Chad, was done playing the nice guy. No more second chances. No more pretending that this wasn't spiraling out of control. Chad laid down the law. Get a job. Start therapy. And most importantly, cut off all contact with Sylvie. It was clear. It was firm. And it was non-negotiable.

[00:11:42] But for Grant, there was no life without Sylvie. She wasn't just some cam girl anymore. She was, in his eyes, his girlfriend. His purpose. The only one who really understood him. And so, despite everything—the rehab, the rules, the destruction that he'd left in his wake—Grant went right back to chatting with her. And on January 24th, 2019, Chad Amato found out. He was livid.

[00:12:11] The kind of fury that only a parent pushed past their breaking point can feel. He told Grant to pack his things. That night, the message was crystal clear. You're done here. Get out. That was the ultimatum. Leave Sylvie or leave the family. The next day, everything would explode. Three family members, one suspect, and a home that would never be the same again.

[00:12:37] What happened in the Amato house on January 25th, 2019 is something straight out of a nightmare. But it wasn't a stranger that brought this family to ruin. It was one of their own. So, January 25th, 2019. The morning started quietly. A cool Friday in the Orlando suburb where the Amato family lived on a peaceful residential street.

[00:13:00] But by 9.17 a.m., that quiet was shattered when deputies arrived at the Amato residence for a welfare check. The call had come from Advent Hospital East Orlando. Cody Amato, the reliable, punctual, never-missed-a-day-in-his-life registered nurse, he hadn't shown up for his shift. No call. No text. No explanation.

[00:13:25] When police pulled up to the Amato house, they saw three vehicles, including Cody's Honda, parked outside. It looked like someone must be home. But every door and window was locked. Deputies knocked. They called. They shouted into the stillness, hoping that someone, anyone, would answer. But no one did. They tried every known cell phone number for the Amato family. Nothing.

[00:13:50] That's when one of the deputies pulled out his knife, and he slipped it through the back door to bypass the deadbolt. The door creaked open, and what they found inside? It was pure horror. It's time for a quick break and a word from tonight's sponsors. Hang on. I'll be back before you know it. If life's been feeling a little too heavy lately, sleepless nights, stressful days, you have to check out Mood.com.

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[00:15:39] Browse their incredible selection of functional gummies, and find your perfect match for whatever you're dealing with today. Mood.com. Better days and nights are just a gummy away. Now back to our story. Lying in the kitchen, sprawled on his back, and drenched in blood was a man later identified as Chad Amato. The family patriarch. He had two gunshot wounds to his head.

[00:16:07] It appeared he had been shot once while standing near the kitchen cabinets, and then shot a second time to the back of his head, execution style, while he was lying on the kitchen floor. Deputies moved deeper into the house, their boots echoing against the tile as they called out for survivors. In a small storage room, curled into a fetal position on the floor, was another body. This one, Cody Amato.

[00:16:33] Cody was lying on his left side just inside the doorway of the garage door with a 9mm firearm nearby. Evidence suggested that Cody had been standing there when he was shot in the head. While it appeared that perhaps someone was trying to make it look like a murder-suicide, an autopsy would reveal that Cody's wound, it was not consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot. Police continued on through the home, and in the office, still seated at her desk,

[00:17:01] slumped over lifelessly in her chair with blood covering her face, was Margaret Amato. She had one gunshot wound to her head, execution style. Officers processed the scene, and they'd noted a few things. There was no evidence of forced entry, and it didn't appear that anything had been taken from the home, meaning that this probably was not a burglary gone wrong.

[00:17:25] Three members of the Amato family, all gone, shot, executed, left alone in the home where they had once built a life. But there was one person missing, Grant Amato. His white Honda was nowhere to be found, and neither was he. A bolo, be on the lookout, was issued immediately. Through toll records, authorities were able to trace his car traveling eastbound on State Road 408.

[00:17:52] But when deputies responded to that area, there was no sign of Grant. Police began working quickly to piece the story together. They reached out to those closest to the family, including Cody's girlfriend. And what she told them painted a chilling picture. She explained how Grant had been spiraling for months, stealing money from his family, selling Cody's guns, lying about everything.

[00:18:17] She revealed that Grant had only just returned from a facility for internet and sex addiction. But things had gone from bad to worse. And perhaps the most haunting part, she said Cody was afraid. He had told her in no uncertain terms that he believed Grant might actually kill the whole family. And then, she shared something else. The night before, she was working with Cody when around 9.15pm, he got a call from his dad.

[00:18:47] Something was wrong. Chad told him to come home. When she asked Cody what was going on, he kind of brushed it off, replying with a frustrated, Stupid fucking bullshit. Cody left work. At 9.43pm, the girlfriend texted him, Are you okay? And he responded simply, It's all good. Don't worry about me. That was the last time she ever heard from him. The next morning, when Cody didn't show up for work, a co-worker called for a welfare check.

[00:19:17] What deputies found was a massacre. A family annihilated. And a suspect on the run. January 26, 2019, just one day after the unthinkable discovery at the Amato home, A deputy spotted a familiar vehicle parked outside a Doubletree by Hilton hotel. A white Honda Accord, registered to none other than Grant Amato. They didn't have to break down any doors or chase him across state lines.

[00:19:46] Grant strolled out of his hotel room willingly and calmly. He began speaking with officers. He didn't run. He didn't hide. He agreed to come down to the station for an interview. And what unfolded there was both unnerving and kind of surreal. Inside the sterile gray walls of the interview room, Grant began to talk. He told detectives about the night of January 24th, the last time he claimed to have seen his family alive.

[00:20:16] According to Grant, things had boiled over again. His father, Chad, had discovered that Grant had resumed contact with Sylvie, the Bulgarian cam girl who had cost them so much already. So it was another fight, another betrayal. Only this time, Chad had had enough. He kicked Grant out of the house. Grant recounted how just weeks earlier, he'd spent time in a rehab facility for internet and sex addiction.

[00:20:44] That stay hadn't been court ordered. His family had given him an ultimatum, go to treatment or get out. And he chose treatment. But he was voluntarily discharged on January 4th. When he came home, the Amatos held what can only be described as a family intervention. They handed Grant a two-page list of rules, conditions for living under their roof again, no more contact with Sylvie, get a job, go to therapy,

[00:21:13] rebuild trust. But he broke those rules. Again, his father's patients had officially run out. That night, Cody, the brother he'd once called his best friend, came home from work to act as a mediator. Grant said that they talked and he packed up some of his belongings. And then he left the house between 9 and 9.30 p.m. According to him, that was it. That was the last time he saw his family alive.

[00:21:40] But that's where Grant's story starts to unravel. He told officers that the next day, the very day that the bodies were discovered, he drove back into the neighborhood. He claimed he wanted to talk things through, to make peace with his parents. But at the last minute, he changed his mind and he never knocked on the door. When detectives asked him what he saw at the house, he said nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But then, he changed his story. Grant admitted that

[00:22:10] he did see patrol cars in the driveway. So, naturally, investigators asked, why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you stop? Call someone. Weren't you worried about your family? Grant just kind of sat there. He didn't have an answer. Later, he said he went to Panera Bread. He pulled out his phone, started searching the internet for local news stories. And that's when he claimed he found out what had happened. Detectives pressed harder. If he saw the police at his house,

[00:22:39] and then he saw the news, why didn't he contact law enforcement? Why didn't he ask what had happened to his family? Grant's answer, I just didn't want to know. He continued to deny having anything to do with their deaths. Repeatedly, steadily, almost mechanically. But then came the most chilling moment of the entire interrogation. Towards the end of the interview, an officer asked Grant a direct question.

[00:23:08] Do you feel any remorse for killing your mother, father, and brother? Grant didn't flinch. Instead, he shrugged off the accusation and said, quote, They had been blaming me for months for stealing from them and ruining their lives. Why not blame me for their murders too? It was a statement that wasn't quite a confession, but it wasn't exactly a denial either. It was just weird, detached, and eerie,

[00:23:37] but also very telling. When officers searched the hotel room that Grant had been staying at the night prior, they found multiple credit cards belonging to his brother Cody and his father Chad. It didn't look good. The pieces of the puzzle began locking into place for investigators, and all fingers pointed in one direction. Grant Amato was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors laid it out plainly.

[00:24:06] Grant had murdered his father, his mother, and his brother, and then he tried to stage the crime scene to make it look like a murder-suicide that was carried out by Cody. He placed a gun near Cody's body, as if to tell the story that Cody had snapped, turned the weapon on his parents, and then on himself. But that version of events, it didn't hold up under scrutiny. Investigators found Chad Amato, Grant's father, still wearing a gun holster.

[00:24:35] Only the holster was facing the wrong direction. It was set up for a left-handed draw, and Chad was right-handed, so, in other words, it made no tactical sense unless it had been placed there after his death. Then there were the shell casings. Four of them were recovered from inside the house. None of them matched the bullets that actually killed the victims, and neither of the guns at the scene, not Cody's and not Chad's, had been fired.

[00:25:05] The murder weapon, it was sadly never found. Still, prosecutors believed that they had their killer. They painted the picture of a man so consumed by obsession and desperation that when faced with losing both his fantasy world and the financial safety net that had enabled it, he snapped, annihilating the very people who had tried to save him. In July of 2019, the trial began. Grant Amato's defense attorneys

[00:25:34] wasted no time attacking the investigation itself. They argued that the crime scene had been mishandled, that no physical evidence directly connected Grant to the murders, and that law enforcement had tunnel vision, targeting Grant from the start, and refusing to explore any alternative suspects or theories. But the jury wasn't buying it. The string of lies, the staggering financial theft, the erratic behavior,

[00:26:02] and that unnerving response in the interrogation room, it was all just too much to ignore. On July 31st, 2019, the jury returned their verdict, guilty on all counts. But they stopped short of recommending the death penalty. Instead, they handed down a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Since then, he's been held at the Tomoka Correctional Institution in Daytona Beach. Now,

[00:26:30] you might think the story of Grant Amato ended with his conviction, that the man who tore apart his family over a virtual relationship would disappear quietly behind prison walls. But in early 2024, Grant's twisted tale found a disturbing new chapter, this time with a connection to the paranormal world. And no, not in the ghostly haunted house sense. Now, this part of the story brings us to Aaron Goodwin,

[00:26:59] best known as one of the hosts of the long-running reality series, Ghost Adventures. For over a decade, Aaron has been best known for chasing spirits in dark basements and abandoned asylums. But he could never have predicted the real-life horror that would come knocking from someone in his own home. Police say that Victoria Goodwin, Aaron's wife, fell for a convicted triple murderer, Grant Amato.

[00:27:27] According to an arrest report from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Victoria began messaging Amato in March of 2024 after watching the docuseries Controlled Alt Desire, which chronicles Grant's spiral into obsession, that $200,000 he stole from his family, and then the brutal slayings that followed. What started as curiosity on her part turned into something much darker.

[00:27:55] Text messages between Victoria and Grant revealed that the two were professing their love for one another. In one chilling exchange, Victoria wrote that her husband would not accept a divorce. Victoria even asked Grant if she was a bad person when he asked her why she'd think that, her response was as direct as it was terrifying. She answered,

[00:28:23] According to the report, the plot unraveled when corrections officers at Grant's prison confiscated his phone because obviously he was not supposed to have it, and they turned it over to the Florida Department of Corrections. Authorities quickly realized that these text messages, they weren't just fantasy. They included payment plans, logistics, locations, and most importantly, no efforts to stop the plan once it was supposedly set in motion.

[00:28:52] Florida officials contacted law enforcement in Nevada who quickly took action. Victoria Goodwin was arrested in early April 2025 on charges of solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Her alleged target, her husband, Aaron Goodwin, who was reportedly shocked and blindsided. After learning of the plot, he immediately filed for divorce. When questioned, Victoria didn't deny messaging Grant Amato.

[00:29:22] She said she'd been feeling lonely and was experiencing marital problems. But she denied ever truly wanting Aaron dead, and she claimed she couldn't remember sending any messages about hiring a hitman. The Las Vegas police weren't convinced. The sheer detail of the exchanges, especially the alleged discussions of payment and execution, that was enough for them to proceed with charges. On April 12, 2025, Victoria Goodwin accepted a plea deal.

[00:29:51] In Clark County District Court, she pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder. As part of the agreement, she now faces a minimum of two years and up to 10 years in prison. As for Grant Amato, authorities haven't really confirmed whether he's going to face additional charges for his alleged role in the plot. But for a man already serving life without parole, this latest chapter cements the disturbing legacy of a murderer who somehow continues

[00:30:21] to destroy lives even from behind bars. A triple homicide, a twisted digital romance, and now, a celebrity ghost hunter caught in the crossfire of a killer's post-conviction influence. The ripple effects of Grant Amato's crimes didn't end with his sentencing. They only widened. And the haunting continues. That's it for me tonight. If you want to reach out, you can find me on Facebook at Serial Napper. You can find my audio

[00:30:50] on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. I post all of my episodes in video format over on YouTube, so go check it out. And if you're watching on YouTube, I'd love if you can give me a thumbs up and subscribe. I'm also on Patreon if you'd like to get your Serial Napper episodes early and ad-free. Hop on over and check out all the details at patreon.com slash serialnapper. Until next time, sweet dreams, stay kind,

[00:31:20] especially in the comments. Bye.