The wife of celebrity ghost hunter Aaron Goodwin has been arrested after allegedly trying to hire a hitman to kill him, according to a police report.
Goodwin, 48, is one four investigators who presents the US show Ghost Adventures – which has had 26 seasons since it first aired in 2008.
Authorities unearthed an alleged plot by his wife Victoria to have him killed after they obtained the phone of a Florida prisoner named Grant Amato in October last year, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department report.
Amato, 35, was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 after being found guilty of first-degree murder, according to court records reported on by Sky News’ US partner NBC News.
His phone contained text and Facebook messages shared between him and Victoria Goodwin, 32, while he was in prison which suggested they were in love, the police report says.
Amato and the suspect also discussed setting aside $11,515 (£8,900) on 2 October last year to hire a third person, whose name is not included in the report, to kill the TV star, according to the police document.
The pair discussed Goodwin’s location and the make of his car the same day, the reports adds.
“I’m so anxious LOLOL,” Victoria Goodwin wrote in one message, according to the report.
“I just can’t believe it’s happening,” she is accused of writing in another.
In other messages she allegedly asks “like, how did I get to this point?” and “am I a bad person?”.
In response, Amato reportedly asks why she thinks that, and she is said to reply: “Because I chose to end his existence. Not divorce.”
Amato contacted the alleged hitman on 3 October last year and said he would call the celebrity ghost hunter to distract him, the report says.
“I need to know what is going on,” Amato allegedly wrote, before asking: “Can I get an update. Was it done?”
Florida corrections officers obtained Amato’s phone the same day.
However its contents were searched at an unspecified date, according to the report.
Officials in Florida contacted authorities in Nevada, where the Goodwins live, on 3 March to alert them about the alleged plot, the report says.
When Victoria Goodwin was arrested and taken in for questioning two days later, she said that she and her husband “were going through problems in their marriage” but denied wanting to kill him, according to the report.
She admitted to have seen some of the messages between her and Amato but added that she did not remember all of them, the report adds.
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Ms Goodwin has been held in the Clark County Detention Center in Nevada on charges of solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy to murder.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for 25 March in Clark County.
Bail was set at $100,000 (around £77,000), according to jail records.
The Goodwins appear to have been married since August 2022, according to a post on his Instagram account.
The couple shared loving photographs of each other on social media in the weeks leading up to Victoria Goodwin’s arrest.
She posted a selfie with her husband on Instagram on 14 February and captioned the photo “mini golf with my Valentine” with a heart emoji.
Goodwin commented on the post: “I love u even though u crushed me in mini golf.”
Weeks earlier on 22 January she shared a photo on Instagram of the pair kissing and wrote: “Happy anniversary mi cariño. I love celebrating our 1st date.”
He replied: “I’m so blessed we met. I love u.”
