Kelly Matthews survived a violent Wade Wilson assault in 2019—months later he murdered Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz

Why this case returned to headlines

Wade Steven Wilson shares a name—coincidentally—with a fictional Marvel anti-hero, and tabloid shorthand sometimes calls him the “Deadpool Killer.” Beneath that distraction sits a narrower, widely documented judicial fact pattern: Wilson was convicted in 2024 of murdering two women he did not previously know, Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, in Cape Coral, Florida, in October 2019. Months earlier, survivor Kelly Matthews had reported Wilson—then her former partner—to Palm Beach County authorities alleging a violent roadside assault investigators closed without arrests. That juxtaposition reopened debate about escalating danger before stranger homicides—not as proof that earlier charges were guaranteed— but as documentary evidence jurisdictions must explain when cases become public.

February 2019: what Matthews reported to Palm Beach authorities

Local TV reporting in July 2024 quoted Matthews dating the violent encounter 18 February 2019; meanwhile The News-Press, summarizing PBSO paperwork that month, reconstructed some actions as unfolding Feb. 19. She drove with Wilson toward a planned rehab intake until he reversed course during an argument once he refused rehab, according to investigative notes deputies recorded. Narratives detectives recorded include claims he used both hands around her throat, punched her repeatedly, cut away clothing including a bra with which he blindfolded her, drove roughly two hours while restrained, restrained her wrists and ankles with belts, allegedly tried muffling cries with refuse bags, pawned personal property without consent, loosened restraint when she persuaded him toward a restroom break in Key Largo, fled from a second Keys gas stop in another acquaintance’s car, leaving Matthews to reach Wellington Hospital on her own. Deputies later gathered clothing fragments tied to forensic packaging—though they did not seize the folding knife Matthews described slicing shirts.

Why Palm Beach prosecutors never saw a filed case

Detective Louis Potter, leading the hospital follow-up, concluded after interviewing Wilson and others that there were no witnesses to alleged acts and inadequate evidence for probable cause. News accounts placed the dossier inactive about 34 days after Matthews reported. KESQ/WFTX reporting summarized July 2024 statements from prosecutors saying charges were not expected partly because sheriff’s detectives never referred a completed case file.The same affiliate coverage cited internal-affairs conclusions that Detective Potter skipped steps including consulting prosecutors when policy required it.

July to October 2019: another arrest before the murders

Between Matthews’s February report and October 2019, biographical summaries and trial-era reporting note Wilson was arrested on a battery charge on 1 July 2019 in Palm Beach County. That fact does not determine what could have been charged in February, but it shows additional official contact with law enforcement before the Cape Coral homicides.

October 2019: two women killed and a father’s 911 call

Investigators and trial evidence, summarized by outlets including USA TODAY and The News-Press, described 7 October 2019 violence beginning with Melton, 35, killed after Wilson met her and ended up in her home. Later the same day Ruiz, 43—described in coverage as a mother of two and bartender—was attacked after Wilson obtained her help under false pretences; trial evidence included strangulation and prosecutors’ account that Ruiz was run over with a vehicle. Wilson fled in Melton’s stolen car. Steven Testasecca, his biological father, later told media Wilson called confessing to the killings; law enforcement was alerted and Wilson was arrested on 8 October 2019.

2024 convictions and the penalty trial

A Lee County jury convicted Wilson of first-degree murder in both deaths on 12 June 2024. Coverage described violent crime-scene testimony and statements from survivors’ relatives. Trial reporting said Kelly Matthews addressed jurors during the penalty phase, recounting the February 2019 Palm Beach allegations. Separate expert disputes—defense emphasis on prior head trauma versus prosecution emphasis on voluntary drug use—drew headlines but sat downstream of the murder convictions.

Death-penalty votes and sentencing

Under Florida law then in effect, a death recommendation did not require unanimity: at least eight of 12 jurors could recommend death following April 2023 sentencing-law changes. The News-Press reported votes of 9-3 for Melton’s murder and 10-2 for Ruiz’s murder. Lee Circuit Judge Nicholas Thompson imposed two death sentences on 27 August 2024 after denying defense motions for acquittal or a new trial in contemporaneous court reporting. Court coverage August 29, 2024 described Wilson entering no-contest pleas on separate Lee County jail drug accusations—reporting mentioned fines plus a 12-year prison term said to run concurrent with the capital punishment so he could be moved toward Florida death-row housing.

Why domestic-violence specialists still focus on strangulation

Advocacy groups stress that non-fatal strangulation is a known escalation marker in intimate partner violence, even when prosecutors say they lack independent witnesses. That risk framing—general, not specific to one agency’s charging memo—is part of why Palm Beach’s handling of Matthews’s report drew renewed scrutiny after October 2019.

Bottom line

Kelly Matthews alleged a violent assault by Wade Wilson in February 2019. Palm Beach authorities closed the case without charging him, citing witness and evidence limits. Within months, Wilson murdered Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz in Cape Coral, was convicted in 2024, and was sentenced to death while appeals continue. The arc is a grim illustration of how stranger homicides reopen questions about earlier intimate-partner allegations—and how difficult it can be to convert a survivor’s account into a prosecution file another county would have seen before tragedy struck.