A Most Unromantic Correspondence

If ever there were a more lamentable tale of marital discord, it would have to be written in blood and bound in sorrow. As it is, the strange business of Victoria Goodwin, wife of “Ghost Adventures” star Aaron Goodwin, is as peculiar as any specter her husband has ever gone chasing.

Aaron Goodwin, well-regarded in the lively town of Virginia City for communing with spirits of the less fleshly variety, now finds himself entangled with something even more chilling—a murder plot allegedly brewed by his spouse. One would think the man had enough trouble with ghosts without his wife summoning new ones.

Authorities say Victoria Goodwin, perhaps inspired by too many late-night crime documentaries, struck up a prison-born romance with one Grant Amato, a Florida inmate of ill repute. Armed with an illegal cell phone–for even jailbirds must have their trappings of modern courtship–Amato and Mrs. Goodwin exchanged sweet nothings and, as the law claims, a plan to do away with poor Aaron.

The matter was simple—Goodwin and Amato, having decided that divorce was too mild an inconvenience, allegedly arranged for an assassin. With all the subtlety of a tax collector, Victoria even provided the precise location where her unsuspecting husband was– Barstow, Calif.

The reward? A modest $11,515, payable upon successful extermination. It seems true love has a going rate these days.

But alas, as with most criminal enterprises devised by the lovesick and dim-witted, the plan crumbled under the weight of its absurdity. The Florida Department of Corrections caught wind of the sordid affair, telling the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on March 4th. A search warrant soon followed, and Victoria Goodwin was answering some pointed questions from detectives.

Once faced with evidence–texts as clear as day outlining location, payment, and intentions—Mrs. Goodwin resorted to the well-worn excuse of the guilty: she “did not remember” sending them. Oh, what a cruel mistress is memory, abandoning a lady at such an inconvenient moment!

She did admit to “daydreams” of a different life but insisted that she no longer harbored such notions. The authorities, less inclined toward poetic fancy, charged Victoria Goodwin with solicitation and conspiracy to commit murder. She’s due in court March 25th–where one imagines she will have much explaining to do.

As for Aaron Goodwin, one hopes his future dealings with spirits remain limited to those haunting the Union Brewery and Saloon on C Street and not the ghost of his wife’s ambitions.