The Cam Girl Obsession

Grant Amato, 29, had lost his nursing career and was living with his parents, Chad and Margaret Amato, in Chuluota, Florida, east of Orlando. He became fixated on a Bulgarian webcam performer and paid for long private sessions with her online. In the process he went through about $200,000 of his family’s money, including money taken from his father and his brother Cody.

When the family learned what he had done, they confronted him, cut off his access to money, and finally ordered him to move out. On January 24, 2019, Margaret, 61, was shot at home, and Chad, 59, and Cody, 31, were shot as they returned. Prosecutors argued that Grant tried to set up the scene so it would look like Cody had killed their parents and then himself. Detectives followed the family’s money and the timeline, and Grant was arrested at an Orlando-area hotel three days later.

A Seminole County jury found him guilty of three counts of first-degree murder on July 31, 2019. The same jury did not recommend death, and on August 12, 2019, the judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole. Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment in May 2021. The case was later the subject of the 2024 documentary Ctrl+Alt+Desire.