Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Twitch Streamer Destroys His Life For a Webcam Girl - The Grant Amato story

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Grant Amato was convicted in 2019 for the murders of his parents and brother in Chuluota, Florida, after they confronted him about stealing money. Obsessed with a Bulgarian camgirl, he had drained his family's finances, spending over $200,000 on her before being kicked out of the house. In a desperate attempt to continue his online relationship, he unalived his family

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All eight episodes now streaming Only on Disney Plus So this guy's about to ruin his whole life because he falls in love with this cam girl. Now the guy's name is Grant. He's 29, he's from Florida, and Grant has a decent life. He works as a nurse, he lives at home with his parents, so he doesn't really have to pay any bills. He's got it good. But one day he starts screwing up. See, even though he's a nurse, he doesn't really like it when patients ask him to do things. It's annoying. So he starts stealing sedatives from work, and he low-key starts giving them to the patients to make.

make them go to sleep. So now they sleep instead of bugging him to do his job. And not only is this super dangerous, it's also very illegal. And soon enough, Bro gets caught and the hospital calls police on him and bam, he gets arrested. Here's a mugshot. But lucky for Grant, his mom and dad are looking out for him, who will just call mom and dad. So mom and dad come to the rescue, they pay for a lawyer, and boom, the charges are dropped. And so he's out of trouble. But now he has a different problem. He ain't got no job. So he comes up with one hell of a plan.

He'll just become an internet star. He'll get some equipment and he'll live stream himself playing video games on Twitch. And people will donate to him because he's such a likable guy and he'll make so much money from doing this. So Grant gets this idea going. He sets it all up and he starts live streaming himself gaming. But unfortunately, live streaming is easy. but making money from live streaming is not. And the donations are just not coming in for him.

I mean, things in general just aren't going well for Grant. But then, all that changes. Because one day, he's online and he comes across an ad to a camgirl website. And Grant is like, I want to see camgirls. And he clicks on the website, and that is when he sees something incredible. He sees this woman.

She goes by Sylvie. Sylvie's a cam girl from Bulgaria. And Grant thinks Sylvie is foin, like really, really foin. And so he starts donating money to her to watch her webcam shows. And then Grant starts to chat and interact with Sylvie, assuming it's really her. Because sometimes these cam girls will hire other people to pretend to be them so that they can chat with customers online.

So I'm told. But anyway, Grant thinks he's chatting with Sylvie. Problem is, he doesn't really have a lot going on. So he starts lying to her. He tells her that he's rid. that he's a successful Twitch streamer and that he has all this money to just throw around. And bro is like watching her and chatting with her like every night. And over time, he starts to think they have a real relationship

and he starts to believe that she is his girlfriend. And bro becomes obsessed with her. And pretty quickly his money gets low, paying to talk to her. So he starts asking her if she'll send him videos for free. I'm asking you if you can please send me one of your videos. I don't like buying your stuff. It makes me feel weird. Would you please send me one, though? And I'm assuming Sylvie's like, nah, because he keeps paying her.

Now, I'm sure you can already see right away the problem Grant is about to run into. He has no job. Yet he's spending all this money. I mean, her shows cost more than $10 a minute, and he watches her obsessively for hours and hours every day. Sometimes he's spending over $2,000 a night. That is crazy. So, how does he solve this money problem? He starts stealing his parents and his brother's credit cards, and he maxes them out to pay Sylvie. And eventually, his dad discovers the charges on his card, and he's like, what the f***? And Grant tells him, oh, these are payments to promote my Twitch channel, because I'm a streamer now.

And of course, Dad doesn't buy the story, but Grant knows Dad won't press charges on his own son. So he just keeps doing it. He doesn't stop. He even starts sending Sylvie gifts like lingerie and sex toys. And he like really wants to see his name in her chat room so he tips her big. And by this point, if you can't already tell, he's addicted. He's spending between $2,000 and $12,000 a day on her. And to keep up with his addiction, he just steals more.

He starts stealing from his brother, this guy, Cody. He steals like $60,000 worth of stuff from him, mostly Pugh's, I guess so he can pawn them. He also starts opening credit cards in his parents' names. He takes out a loan in his parents' names. He even asks his brother to loan him $50,000 so he can go to Bulgaria and see Sylvie. I need $50,000 from you, Cody. You have to do this.

With every fiber of your being, you have to do this. But I'm assuming Cody says, nah, because Grant doesn't end up going to Bulgaria. Now, unfortunately, mom, dad, and Cody, they never report him to the the police. I guess they don't want him to get in trouble. I mean, they care about him a lot, and they really just want him to get help. But because of that, Grant doesn't stop. And eventually, Grant ends up living at his aunt's house with his aunt. And there, he starts stealing credit cards from her. And then she gets all pissed off and Cody offers to pay Aunt back for everything Grant stole from her if she agrees to not press charges. Again, they just don't want him to get in

trouble. They want him to get help. But at this point, Grant has stolen over 200,000. $200,000 of his family's money. $200,000. And so they go to him and they have an intervention and they tell him, that is it. We're taking you to rehab for a 60-day program for this addiction. And when Grant hears this, he freaks the fuck out. Because he knows he won't be able to watch Sylvie for 60 days. But whatever, they put him in the car and they drive him to the clinic with Grant all pissed off and screaming in the back seat.

So now maybe, just maybe. At this point, this can finally break his addiction, and he'll finally become a responsible adult, and he can finally get his life back on track. Until. Two weeks later, Grant decides, eh, I'm done with rehab, and he leaves treatment, and he goes home early. And at this point, Dad is like, all right, fine, you can come live at home, but you have to follow these three rules. One, get a job. Two, go to therapy.

And three, and most importantly, stop talking to Sylvie. And he tells him specifically that if he breaks Rule 3, he's going to kick him out of the house for good. And this, of course, pisses Grant off. I mean, he believes Sylvie is his girlfriend, so he can't just stop talking to her. And so he doesn't stop talking to her. He doesn't even try, even when they take his devices away. Instead, he sneaks around and he low-key starts stealing his mom's phone, and he starts logging on to see Sylvie again.

And when dad finds out, kaboom, an argument explodes. And he tells Grant that he has had enough. Get your shit and get out. And this is when Grant finally just snaps. He is tired of people getting in the way of his love for Sylvie. And so he goes and he grabs a pew-poo. And his mom is working on her computer,

not paying attention to him, and he walks up behind her, And blam, he shoots her in the head. Then he goes to the kitchen. And when his dad walks in, Blam, he shoots him. Then he gets his dad's phone and he texts his brother Cody, telling him to come home.

When Cody comes home, Blam, he shoots him too. And now that the whole family is unalived, he then stages the scene to make it look like his brother Cody is the one who unalived his parents and then unalived himself. Then he gets in his car and he drives to a nearby parking lot and he logs on to Sylvie's campsite,

and he immediately starts spending more of his parents' money on her. And eventually, police find him, and bam, he gets arrested. Here's his mugshot. And ultimately, he's charged with three counts of first-degree murder, and he's found guilty, and he's sentenced to life in prison. That is insane.