Murder of Chad, Margaret, and Cody Amato

Background

Grant Tiernan Amato was born May 20, 1989, in Orlando, Florida, to Chad Robert Amato, a clinical pharmacist, and Margaret Anne Amato, a senior operations manager. He was raised in Chuluota, Florida, alongside his younger brother Cody, with whom he was close; an elder half-brother, Jason, lived elsewhere. Both Grant and Cody attended Timber Creek High School and later the University of Central Florida, pursuing nursing and nurse anesthetist studies together. Cody completed his program, while Grant did not, though he found work as a nurse at AdventHealth Orlando.

In June 2018, Grant was suspended from his nursing job amid suspicion of stealing and improperly administering the sedative propofol to patients. Hospital staff found eight empty, unordered vials of the drug in rooms he oversaw. He was subsequently fired and arrested on a grand larceny charge, which was later dropped.

Financial exploitation and family conflict

After losing his job, Grant told his family he intended to become a Twitch streamer and received funds for equipment. Instead, he spent this money—and additional funds taken from family credit cards, totaling around $200,000—on a cam model who used the alias "Silvie" on the site MyFreeCams. His family sent him to a rehabilitation facility for internet and pornography addiction at a cost of $15,000. Upon his return, they gave him an ultimatum to find work and cease contact with the model. When his father, Chad, discovered Grant had used his mother's phone to reach her again, Chad ordered Grant to leave the home. This dispute became the stated motive for the killings roughly a month later.

The murders

On the evening of January 24, 2019, Grant shot his mother in the back of the head while she was on a computer, using a pistol he had reportedly stolen from a friend months earlier. He then shot his father twice when he entered the kitchen, and lured his brother Cody home with a text sent from their father's phone before shooting him as well. He attempted to stage the scene as a murder-suicide by placing the gun near Cody's body before fleeing.

Police performed a wellness check the next day after Cody failed to appear for work, discovering all three bodies. Grant was located and taken into custody at a hotel in Orange County, Florida, on January 26, following a roughly 24-hour search, and was charged with first-degree murder.

Trial and sentencing

Amato's trial began July 15, 2019. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, but the jury did not reach unanimous agreement on that sentence, resulting in an automatic sentence of life without parole. On August 12, 2019, he was found guilty on all three counts of first-degree murder and received three consecutive life sentences.