02x01 - Dating the Deadpool k*ller

[bunniefuu]

[eerie music playing]

[music surges]

[man 1 speaking]

[audio glitches]

[man 2] Evil is out there.

[man 1 speaking]

Evil walks among us.

[audio glitches]

[man 1 speaking]

I thought I was going to die, 100%.

[man 1 speaking]

[woman] I was begging her to leave him.

Like, "Please get away from this man.
He's going to k*ll you."

[woman 2] We realized that we had
a really evil monster on our hands.

[disturbing music builds]

[music glitches, ends]

[mellow music playing]

[birds cawing]

[woman 1] In 2018, I was 26 years old

and living in my first apartment
by myself,

with my two dogs and my two cats,

a couple of miles up the road
from my parents.

So I was still close enough
that I felt like I was safe,

but I was on my own, finally.

I've always loved working with animals.

When I was 19 years old,
I started working at a zoo.

And they used to train tigers,
work with venomous snakes.

And I wrestled alligators for two years.

Then I took a break
from the dangerous stuff

and got into dog grooming.

My dating life was not… the best.

I have always been, like, a shy person,
so I don't go out and meet people.

But then I did try online dating.

I scrolled past this guy
whose name was Steven,

and he was 6'5" and had dimples

and super handsome.

And I was like,
"Oh, this is obviously a catfish."

But I swiped on him,
and he replied and messaged me back,

and we agreed to go out.

He met up with me, and he was really him.

He was a real person, 6'5",
super handsome, nice teeth.

And I was like, "Holy crap,
I found, like, the perfect man."

We hit it off, like, right away.

And at the end of the night,
he asked me if he could kiss me.

And I was like, "What is this?"

"This is… This is like fairy-tale stuff."

So that's… that's where it all started,
and we just were, like, inseparable.

Steven was a personal trainer.

He told me that he was from North Florida,

and he was adopted

and given to these two awesome people
through their church.

They were nice, well-off people.

And he had told me that
he had been in contact with his dad,

his biological dad.

And he seemed happy about that.

When my parents first met Steven,
they did really like him.

They thought he was super sweet

and seemed to have a nice head
on his shoulders.

And my animals really liked him,
which was a huge deal for me.

[dog barks softly]

[bright music playing]

[clicks tongue]

[chuckles] Don't take the whole thing.

A couple of weeks into dating,
he asked if I wanted to be his girlfriend.

And of course, I said yes.

At the time, Steven had been complaining
about his roommate.

I trusted him and felt something for him,

so I let him move in with me
pretty quickly,

like within the first month.

He didn't have a car.
He would borrow my car a lot.

And I only lived a couple of miles
from the park that he would go to.

So he would go and do personal training.

I believe it was, like,
late September, early October

that we started officially dating.

I was super happy. I thought,
"This is it. I'm going to marry this guy."

[chimes softly]

In 2018, Wade and I matched
on Plenty of Fish

around the end of September,
the beginning of October.

[music fades]

I was 26 years old,
and I had just moved to Loxahatchee.

[upbeat music playing]

[keypad beeps]

When I first saw Wade, I was like,

"Wow, he's really attractive,
really good-looking, really tall."

And he had a nice voice.

He kept mentioning,
"Let's go to the park."

So we met up,
and we just sat there and talked.

There was a lot of joking,
a lot of laughing,

just like we had known each other
for a while.

Wade said that
he was looking for a relationship,

and that his only flaw was that
he didn't have a good woman in his life.

I was just like,
"It's too good to be true."

Wade and I were dating at this point,

and we were on the phone all the time,

texting, calling,

sending pictures to each other
back and forth.

But I worked a lot,

so Wade and I didn't really get to see
each other in the beginning as much.

But I was just, like,
over the moon ecstatic

that I had found someone.

[music ends]

[tense music playing]

[Kelly] Living with Steven was great.

You know, he would cook,
and he took care of me a lot.

[dog whimpering]

But the first big red flag
that I had with him

was one day I came home from work

and I was looking for my laptop
to edit some photos,

and I couldn't find it.

And I looked everywhere,

and Steven was like,
"I don't know. I haven't seen it."

I couldn't find it anywhere.

And then finally, Steven admitted

that he pawned my laptop
because he needed money.

I was just so mad that I called the police
and I filed a police report.

The police did a search
for all the pawn shops in the county.

They found my laptop
literally two miles up the road,

and they went there and they verified
that it was Steven that dropped it off.

That's when I found out his name was Wade,

because he used his ID to pawn it.

And I found out
that Steven was his middle name.

So that was a big shock to me,

because, you know, this whole time,
I thought his name was Steven.

And I asked him about
why he was going by Steven,

why his dating profile said Steven.

I actually found that he had several
Facebook profiles with that name as well.

And he just said that he needed,
like, an escape,

because he had some exes and stuff
that knew his real name,

and he didn't want them to find him.

[music fades]

He was very good at laying it on thick.

Like, when you have a 6'5" man
crying to you that he's so sorry

and he just needed the money…
your heart kind of breaks,

and you're like, "Okay, I… I understand."

"It's, like, a one-time thing.
It's not gonna happen again." You know.

This was one of my first
more serious relationships,

so I hadn't really figured out
how a real relationship should work.

And we had only been together
for a couple of months.

So, you know, when he apologized

and he said he wouldn't do it again,
I believed him.

[dog whimpering]

[intriguing music playing]

[Courtney] In November,
on Wade's Instagram,

I saw a person named "Pinup Princess"

commenting all over his posts.

So I was, you know, asking him,
"Who is this girl?"

"Why is she telling you to call her?"

And I found out that
"Pinup Princess" was Kelly

and also the girl
that was in his phone under K.

And he told me,
"Oh, that's just my roommate."

And at that time, I was just like,
"Okay." And I believed that.

[tense music playing]

[Kelly] I had a friend
that had broken up with her boyfriend,

and she needed to move in
with someone temporarily.

So I let her come crash with me.

One day, we were all sitting around
talking about mastiffs.

And I was like, "I know this guy
who breeds this rare breed of mastiff

called a Presa Canario,
and they had some puppies."

I didn't know that he was taking that
and running with it.

And my friend was only 18,

so I think that
she got sucked into Wade's charisma.

[sinister music playing]

I went to work,

and Wade and my friend,
apparently they went to the kennel

and had stolen,
I believe, three or four puppies

and brought them back to my house.

[puppies barking and whimpering]

I got home from work, and I was like,
"Why are there these dogs in my house?"

"There's going to be people looking
for these dogs." I was freaking out.

[inaudible]

Wade didn't care.

He said, "We need to sell these dogs."

So he and my friend took pictures of them
in front of my couch

and posted them on Craigslist.

The man that owned the dogs
recognized my house and called the police.

[phone buzzing]

So I get a phone call from Wade,
and he says,

"I need you to three-way the detective
and tell him that it was you."

"And if you don't,
I'm going to k*ll your dogs."

[music surges]

It was like totally out of left field.
I was like, "Who are you?"

Like, "What is happening right now?"

I wasn't 100% sure if he would actually
go through something like that,

but I was so afraid for my own animals
that I didn't want to risk it.

And he was home alone with my dogs,
and I was at work.

So I called the cops.

They told me to walk them through
everything, how I stole the puppies,

what the place looked like, and I did.

They told me I needed to turn myself in
the next day.

I confronted Wade when I got home.

Thankfully, he didn't do anything
to my dogs.

And he was like,
"I have a criminal record, and you don't."

"So it's better for you
to be on probation, not me."

He said that he had just gone to jail
for a couple of petty things,

like stealing and stuff like that.

This is the first time I heard
he had a record.

I had no idea.

I thought he was a good boy
from Tallahassee.

[tense music playing]

The next day, Wade and my friend
dropped me off at the jail.

And I had to sit in a jail for 27 hours.

I grew up in Catholic school.

I am not a criminal.

So I was, like, sobbing the whole time.

When I got home, they were gone…

[music fades]

…and so was all of their stuff.

All of Wade's clothes,

all of her clothes,

my handgun.

I panicked.

[pensive music playing]

I went to check my Ring footage,

and what I found was the night
that they had dropped me off at the jail,

they went back home,

and they were all flirty and huggy
and kissy right in front of my camera.

I had evidence now that
he was being unfaithful with my friend.

[music intensifies, fades]

At this point,
I had looked up Wade's background,

found out that he was a felon.

He had several records of stealing weapons

and thieving
and breaking into people's homes.

And I believe he had
a few drug charges as well.

So I told the police
a felon stole my handgun,

which then put a warrant out
for his arrest in the state of Florida.

So I called my friend's phone.
I called his phone.

They wouldn't answer me for several hours.

Eventually they did, and they told me
that they were going to Texas.

I was very angry.

The police couldn't extradite him
or anything like that.

So I had to somehow
get him back to Florida.

[music fades]

[ominous music playing]

Late December,
I get a phone call from Wade,

and he is like,
"I am so sorry. I want to come home."

And all I had in my head was revenge.

I agreed to pay for his bus ticket,
and I called the police.

And I said, "I have him coming back,
and you guys have a warrant."

"So if I get him to my house,
will you come get him?"

And they said, "Sure." [chuckles]

[intriguing music playing]

I picked him up from the bus station.

He had told me that
he had started doing cocaine.

I don't do drugs. I've never done drugs.

But now, we were sitting in the car,

and he was trying to, like,
get a pen apart,

because he was trying to use it
as a crack pipe.

When he couldn't get it apart,
he was freaking out.

He was trying to break it.
He was, like, jabbing stuff in it.

And I was like,
"You're being really aggressive."

And that's the first time I ever,
like, felt fear from him.

I thought he was gonna actually
put his hands on me.

I brought him back to my house,
called the police.

They said, "We need you
to try to get him to come outside."

So I went outside.
There was like 15 cop cars.

[indistinct radio chatter]

There were dogs. The cops had shotguns.

And I was like,
"Oh my gosh, this is terrifying."

[inaudible]

So I called him, and I said,
"Can you bring me my car keys?"

"I need to get something out of my car."

-So he came outside.
-[g*ns c*ck]

And the cops put shotguns in his face
and took him down,

and dragged him into the car.

After Wade was arrested,
he called me from jail,

begging for me to bail him out.

And I was like, "Absolutely not."

I think I let him sit in there
for like four days, maybe.

And eventually, he broke down my walls
by crying and begging.

I bailed him out, but I told him
I didn't want him coming back to my house.

We were gonna figure something out,
but it's not gonna be at the house.

So that's when I suggested
that maybe he should go to a rehab.

And he told me,

"I have a friend who agreed
to take me to a rehab in the Keys."

[mellow music playing]

[Courtney] Wade and I continued talking.

He would go missing,
you know, for like a day or two.

And then I'd write him,
and I'd be like, "Hey, stranger."

And then he would be like,
"I'm so sorry. I've been so busy."

But in January,
I moved to the Keys with my sister.

I knew that it was going to be a while
before I could see him again.

After I moved,
I was posting pictures on, you know,

Snapchat about us being in Key Largo.

[phone ringing]

And Wade called me.

[Wade on voicemail]

He was like, "Can I come live with you?
Can I come be with you?"

And I was like, "Yeah, sure."

Because I obviously wanted
to be with him too.

Then he told me,
"Okay, I'll be there in a few hours."

[music fades]

[pensive music playing]

Wade and I needed to get to the Keys
to meet up with this supposed person

that was gonna help him with a rehab.

But I didn't have any money

because over the course
of our relationship,

he had pretty much drained me dry.

I had like a quarter of a tank,
so there's no physical way.

That's a three-hour drive.

He was panicking at this point.

We had gotten in an argument,
so I got out of the car at a stoplight.

He was driving.
I didn't want to deal with it.

I said, "Take my car to the Keys.
I don't care."

I felt like there was something
seriously off with him,

and I was afraid.

That's when things started to go downhill.

So I started walking.

He drove around the block…

[engine revving]

…and attempted to hit me with my own car.

-[tires screeching]
-And told me to get back in.

I was really scared.

But I got back in the car,

and as soon as I did that,
he started strangling me with both hands.

I froze. I didn't know what to do.
I was, like, in full panic mode.

This person that I thought loved me
was putting his hands on me.

I was, like, clawing at his arms.

And somewhere,
he had gotten a pocketknife.

So he pushed me onto the floorboard,

then he took the pocket knife,

and he cut through my shirt
and my sports bra.

Then cut it off completely
and held the knife to the back of my neck.

And he said, "You need to stay there,
and if you get up, I'm going to stab you."

[tense music playing]

And he used my sports bra and my shirt,

and he tied my hands together
and started driving.

[music intensifies]

He told me if I picked my head up,
if I did anything,

he was going to k*ll me.

At one point, he punched me in the face.

Then he told me, "Get out of the car,

don't look at anything,
and go to the back seat."

So I did.

When I got into the back seat,

he ripped off my shorts,
and he sexually assaulted me.

And when he was done,
he pushed me on the floor,

in the back between the seats,

and he took the laundry that I had,

and he covered me
with all the dirty laundry.

I thought I was going to die, 100%.

And then he met up with somebody
and sold my phone for 50 bucks,

all while I'm in the back seat of the car,
underneath dirty laundry,

bound and gagged and bleeding.

He ended up driving for several hours.

It was like 2:00 a.m.

And then I said,
"We're supposed to be meeting your friend,

so shouldn't I be sitting
in the front seat with you?"

"Because if I'm sitting in the back,
it's going to look kind of weird."

He's like, "You're right, but I want you
on the floorboard until we get there."

And then when we got close enough,
to where his friend was,

he let me sit up on the seat.

He said, "Don't look at her

because I don't want her
to see your face."

[crickets chirping]

Wade pulled up to the gas station
around, like, two o'clock in the morning.

[car door slams]

He went to the back seat,
grabbed his backpack.

I didn't see anything off about Kelly.

Um, I didn't see anything off
about him either.

And we went back to my house.

What he told me was that she was just
doing him a favor dropping him off.

If I knew that he did anything to her,

if I would have seen her bloody, bruised,
or anything like that, like,

I would not have taken him to my house.

[Kelly] I was just in the Keys
with my car and no phone, no nothing.

And I just wanted to go home.

[engine roaring]

I went like 120 the entire way.

I went to my mom's house,

woke her up at 400 a.m.

And she turned on the light
and saw my face, and we called the police.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office
was in charge of the investigation

And Detective Potter was put on the case
against Wade.

[music fades]

[Potter speaking]

[Kelly speaking]

[Potter speaking]

[Kelly speaking]

[Potter speaking]

[Kelly speaking]

[Potter speaking]

[Kelly speaking]

[Potter speaking]

[Kelly speaking]

[Potter speaking]

[Kelly speaking]

When I went to the police,
I thought that I was doing the best thing,

and that I was gonna get justice
for what had happened to me.

I was happy to give them all this
information and DNA and everything else.

[dramatic sting]

[music fades]

[Potter] Cool.

-[Potter] All right, brother.
-All right. Yes, sir.

[Potter] Have any police officials
involved in this case coerced, threatened,

or otherwise forced you
to give me a statement?

[Wade] No, sir.

You're making a statement
of your own free will.

Absolutely. Yes, sir.

[Potter] Okay. All right.
Now, well, you know why you're here.

-[Wade] I know why I'm here. Sure.
-You're a suspect in the case.

-She called and said you did ugly things.
-I understand.

-She's my victim. I'm working for her.
-Yeah.

-You've got to realize that.
-I know.

Um, but I do have to give you
the option to tell me,

"Hey, I didn't kidnap, I didn't r*pe,
and I didn't as*ault that woman."

[Wade] Yeah.

-And I have to believe you.
-Thank you. Yes, sir.

-You see what I'm saying? Um…
-Yeah.

So with that said, did you kidnap her?

Did you take her to Key Largo
against her will?

No.

[audio glitches]

Let me just tell you, Detective Potter,
like, I need to say this.

-Like, there's… I've caused her no harm.
-Mm-hmm.

Physically, nothing, dude.

I haven't done nothing ever, in my…
ever, since I've known her.

-That's all I need to hear. Um…
-Yes, sir.

-You know that and I know that. You know?
-Yes, sir.

She said, "He beats me.
He does this. He does that."

And, you know, and I'm like,
"Well, I just don't know."

[Wade] Yeah.

-I'm not doubting you. You're doing great.
-I'm trying to let you know.

You're doing great,
and you're a smart man.

-You know? You're on the right track.
-Thank you.

But you know why we're here.

She wants this to go quick
because there's an ulterior motive.

Which sucks because she is my victim,
so I got to give her 100% of my abilities.

But I ain't putting the wrong man in jail.
I'll be damned if I do that.

-That's all I want.
-I'll be damned. No.

I just want it all to stop, man.
Please, like, that's all I need.

[Potter] That'll never happen
from this department.

Like, honestly, thank you.

-None of our people are gonna do that.
-Yeah, thank you so much, dude.

I did find out that eventually
he did get a swab from Wade for DNA.

-Both sides, get 'em good.
-Mm-hmm.

-Both sides a few seconds, okay?
-Mm-hmm.

[Kelly] And he asked if he would do
a lie detector test.

Wade declined.

Um…

And for whatever reason, the detective
was like, "Okay, that's fine."

If you know anybody that needs
a personal trainer, I'm a great one.

-[Wade] All right, thank you, man.
-All right.

[Kelly] He closed the case
without getting the DNA back,

and just said, "I have no proof."

"And this is just like
a 'he said, she said' type of thing."

"There was no witnesses."

I begged for him to not close the case.

I was like, "You're a detective.
You're supposed to be protecting me."

From a young age, you're taught
to go to police when you need help.

And I did that, and nothing was done.

I was failed as a victim
and a sexual as*ault victim.

[tense music playing]

[Courtney] Living in my sister's house,

it was going pretty good.

But, like, a week or so later,
my sister and I got into an argument,

and she told me that I had to leave.

And obviously, Wade had to go with me.

Um, but where I was going,
Wade couldn't go with me.

Wade told me he had a friend,
um, that he was going to go with.

After I moved, we talked on the phone

and we were messaging and everything.

And then I couldn't get a hold of him.

The phone was off.

The messages weren't going through.

And I just realized
that he had ghosted me.

[Kelly] One of my longtime zoo friends
had reached out to me and said

that one of her friends was dating Wade.

And then she told me that it was a guy.
And I was like, "Wait, what?"

[pensive music playing]

I was in Inverness, Florida,
working on a carnival

when I first noticed a hot guy
working at a pizza stand.

[chuckling]

[sinister music playing]

In 2019, I was living in an RV,
traveling on a carnival.

I was working on a bungee jump
at the carnival.

I saw this new guy
that I'd never recognized before.

And, I was like,
"Wow, he's pretty good-looking."

I just told my friend, I was like,
"I think I'm gonna give him my number."

So I wrote my number on a napkin

and just left it there
at the stand that he worked in.

And a couple of days went by,
and I felt someone tap on my shoulder.

He just said, "I'm Wade." And da, da, da.

And I was like,
"Okay, cool. I'm Christopher."

He's like, "I need that number again."
And I was like, "Oh, okay." So…

And I just put it in his phone.

[crowd screaming on rides]

That night, he messaged me.

And he's like, "So I just got in a fight
with the girl that I'm with."

"And she kicked me out."
And he's like, "I have nowhere to go."

I was like, "Yeah, I have a couch.
You can sleep on the couch or whatever."

And he's like,
"I don't wanna sleep on the couch."

I'm like, "You can sleep
wherever you want." I don't care.

I met Wade on, like,
a Tuesday or Wednesday.

And then, like,
maybe that following Sunday night,

Wade moved into my RV. [chuckles]

Wade said that he was straight
when I met him.

But I was like,
"That seems a little sketchy."

If you're straight, you don't move
into a guy's house with a guy

and then want to sleep in his bed.

Maybe, like, a week had went by,
and then we ended up going out

and had some drinks.

[indistinct chatter]

And I was feeling pretty good,
so then I think that was the first time.

Usually after the first time,
like, you sleep together,

either it goes well,
or you never hear from that person again.

Like, that's just how it goes.

But then he still was living with me. So…

[ominous music playing]

Two weeks after he'd moved in,

he had asked if I wanted to make it
Facebook official.

I was very surprised

because he was so skeptical
about being with a guy.

And this was my first relationship
with a guy.

We enjoyed being together.

We did a lot of stuff together.
We had fun.

And then after that was our last fair.

I was like, "Well, I'm going to go home
to my mom's house for a little bit

and just park my trailer there
so I can spend a little time with her

before I figure out what I'm going to do."

So we ended up doing that.

One night, me, Wade, my mom,
and a few friends went out to a bar.

And they thought he was hot,
I mean, obviously.

And they thought he was cool because
he's a good, smooth talker, you know?

[suspenseful music playing]

One night, Wade was just like,
"Oh, we should get some drugs."

"Then, like, have fun.
We just chill at the house, and like…"

I was like, "Okay, cool.
I'll call this dude I used to know."

And this guy, like,
I don't know what he, like, gave us.

Like, ended up giving us, like,
bath salts or something.

In the middle of the night,
Wade is flipping out.

And he's just like, "Oh my God,
somebody's trying to break in the house."

I'm like, "Nobody's trying
to break in the house. Go to bed."

So then, like, a few hours later,
he ends up waking me up again.

This time, he's, like,
standing over my bed with a knife.

Wade said,
"If somebody breaks in the house,

I'm gonna slit your throat
before I slit theirs."

And I was like, "That pissed me off."

So I ended up, like, getting up
out of bed, and we got in a fight.

[music crescendos, fades]

And I pushed him and got crazy
while he had a knife in his hand.

And so then he ended up cutting my chest.
And he cut my hand.

For four hours, he wouldn't let me get up,
and I would try to get up.

Even then he, like,
literally was choking me. It was crazy.

[loud rattling]

I had, like, these sliding glass doors
in my RV, like, that covered my closet.

And he ended up, like,
throwing me through there.

And then it broke the glass.
So then that ended up cutting me more.

So now I'm, like, really bleeding.

And I was like, "Oh my gosh."

Then he ran out of the house.

So as soon as he, like, left,
I, like, locked my door.

[door slams loudly]

My heart was beating so fast,
it was like forever.

[pensive music playing]

After he stabbed me,
I didn't call the police.

Unless someone's dead,
there's no reason to call the cops.

I, um, ended up taking an Advil PM,

and I got under my kitchen table
and I just slept under there.

[music fades]

[tense music playing]

[loud banging]

And I wake up, like, the next day
to my sister, like, banging on my door.

Wade had ended up
getting a hold of my sister.

My sister calmed the situation down.

And, like, he showed back up
with blood all over him

and, um, apologized.

He seemed sincere.

He sounded like he was sorry.

So I said, after that,

"If you're with me, like,
there's no more drinking, no more smoking,

like, you're not even smoking cigarettes.
I don't care."

[mellow music playing]

Wade had found this job on Indeed
that sounded different

and more interesting
than what I had going on.

And then we moved to Key West,
like, two days later.

He had lived down there prior,

so he seemed to have a little familiarity
with it, but I didn't.

I would say maybe two weeks
after we had arrived in the Keys,

I found out that Wade was, like,
going around and telling people

that we were cousins.

And I felt like Wade was embarrassed
about our relationship.

And I didn't want to be in a relationship
where I had to hide anything.

So I kicked him out.

Then I just packed up and left.

[Kelly] I found out that
Wade had been dating Chris.

And I wanted to reach out
and warn Chris about everything.

He had told me that
he had kicked Wade out recently,

and he had attempted to stab him.

He told me everything about
how things had gone great in the beginning

and then just went way south very fast,
just like with mine.

After that, I started reaching out
to all the people I could find

that had dated Wade and that he had hurt.

And I started telling my story
on Instagram and TikTok…

So this is my lip.

He busted my lip open.

These are the ligature marks on my hands.

This is the marks from being strangled.

…posting videos about Wade
and what he did to me.

And that other women and men
should not hide,

and they should tell their story.

And if anyone ever needed someone
to talk to, they could message me.

[tense music continues]

Wade's biological father
reached out to me.

I had no idea who he was.

And he told me, "Don't go back to him.
He's done this before."

And hearing that from his father

really solidified that
I cannot ever go back to this man,

which is part of the reason
why I was so adamant

about helping other people
to stay away from him.

[music fades]

[dramatic sting]

[Kelly] Several months
after I started posting on social media,

I got a message on Instagram
from somebody saying that

his friend Mila had started dating Wade

and they needed help
to get her away from him,

because he was already abusing her.

They sent me pictures of her
covered in bruises.

Like, way worse than I was.

So they gave me her information.
I reached out to her.

And she told me from the beginning
he was putting his hands on her.

But she loved him,
and she wanted to try to make it work.

Seeing how he was so easily able to do
what he did to me,

and to Chris and to Mila
and to everybody else,

I knew it was gonna escalate.

I was begging Mila to leave him.

I told her everything that he did to me.

I was like,
"Please get away from this man."

"He's going to k*ll you."

[music fades]

[dialing]

[line ringing]

[line ringing]

[line ringing]

[operator speaking]

[suspenseful music playing]

[indistinct police radio chatter]

[man] The Fort Myers Police Department
responded to Mila Spa

for a domestic violence fight,

where witnesses had told
the Fort Myers police officers

that Wade Wilson
had punched her in the face.

-[officer] What's his name?
-Wade Wilson.

He just got out of jail.

Well, he left me at the bar
at Buddha last night.

-[woman] This guy's a nightmare.
-[officer] Mm-hmm.

Like, she spent the night at my house
because there was…

He took her… He took her car.

So she spent the night
at my house on the sofa,

and he was calling her up.
"You're not at… house. You're not at…"

And he's like, "You f*cking liar."
I'm like, "She is, bro."

"She's right here on my bed because
you took her car and won't give it back."

Now he has her car,
keys to her freakin' place,

didn't give any of that back.

I'm like, "Mila, you got to get rid
of this f*cking guy."

[Jones] When they responded there,

Melissa Montanez
gave a vehicle description

of the car that Wade was driving.

[woman] Wade Wilson was supposed to come
to her spa and bring her back her car

that he had taken the night before.

And instead of showing up in her car,

he showed up in a car
that she did not recognize.

[officer] Black Nissan Versa,
white male, no shirt. Covered in tattoos.

[dispatcher] He's at Joe's.

[Jones] They end up locating the car
with Wade Wilson in it

at a Joe's Crab Shack,
just sitting in the parking lot.

[tense music playing]

[officer] L-4-1,
gonna need a couple more units.

[dispatcher] 10-4.

-[officer] How you doing?
-Good. How you doing?

-What's going on, man?
-I'm just waiting on my girlfriend.

You're waiting on your girlfriend?
Oh! Okay. That's no problem.

No, I got a call that somebody
was sitting in their car. So…

Oh. No, no, no. You know Mila Spa?
She's coming out.

Oh, okay. She's on her way now?

Yeah, she… You know Mila Spa right there.

[officer] Mm-hmm.

Okay.

I'm gonna have you step out of the car,
and I'm going to detain you.

Not arrest. Detain you right now.

-For what? What happened?
-Mmm?

What happened?

Because of the battery this morning.

There's no battery.

-There wasn't any battery?
-No, sir.

[officer] Okay.

Give me the…
Let me see the keys to the car.

I didn't do anything wrong.

[officer] Wade?

Sir, I didn't do anything. Look at me.

Call my girl. I'll be good.
I didn't do anything.

I miss her. Please, I didn't do anything.

-[officer] All right.
-Please?

[officer] Just wait
till my partner gets here.

-L-4-1, gonna need a couple more units.
-[engine starting]

[officer] Don't go anywhere. Hey.

[music intensifies]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[officer] He's taking off, Fort Myers.
Just ran a stop sign.

Going up towards McGregor.

[officer 2] Do we have an address
of where this guy lives or anything?

[officer 1] Negative, sir.
We don't know who that car belongs to.

I'm off of him. [clears throat]

He's signal 12.
It's only a battery charge.

[radio crackles]

[Jones] When Wade Wilson took off
from the scene,

there was a very brief pursuit
before that was terminated.

Wade Wilson was only being investigated
by the Fort Myers Police Department

at that time
for a misdemeanor battery charge.

Pursuing someone,
endangering the lives of the public

for a misdemeanor battery charge
is not something that any agency would do.

[dramatic sting]

[tense music playing]

We know that
Wade went to Joe's Crab Shack.

And then he left there
and then went back over the bridge,

back over into the Cape,
and went to Matteo's Graphics,

where Wade had approached
Joshua Lukitsch, seeking to get help,

just to get out of town
as quickly as he could.

[dialing]

[line ringing]

[operator speaking]

[Joshua speaking]

When the Cape Coral Police Department
arrived to meet with Josh Lukitsch,

officers tried to locate Wade
inside the business,

but he had fled the area on foot.

Cape Coral, at that point,
wasn't even aware of what had happened

at Mila Spa in Fort Myers.

There would have not been
any communication or knowledge

between the two agencies.

[Andreas] Detectives began investigating
the vehicle that was located there

at the business.

They determined that
it belonged to a young lady

by the name of Kristine Melton.

Kristine Melton was then placed
on their radar,

and they began to try to locate,
uh, Miss Melton.

They began running the driver's license
information for her,

determining who the emergency contact was,

which happened to have been a young lady
by the name of Stephanie Johnson.

They reached out to Miss Johnson.

Miss Johnson had told them
that the night before,

she and Kristine Melton
met Wade Wilson at the Buddha,

which is a local establishment
here in Fort Myers.

They were in the process
of closing down the Buddha.

It was about two o'clock in the morning,

but yet they didn't want to stop partying.

So they decided to move over
to Miss Melton's residence.

Stephanie had to get her child to school,

so she left Kristine alone
with Wade Wilson at that point in time.

[Jones] The Cape Coral Police Department
had responded to Kristine Melton's home

in South Cape Coral.

[police radio beeps]

When law enforcement arrived,
they knocked at the residence.

They didn't receive a response,

so they ultimately wound up
breaching the door.

[foreboding music playing]

When officers went inside,
they had located Kristine Melton,

wrapped up in some blankets and a carpet.

Kristine Melton was choked to death.

Right about that same time,

we received a call
from the Fort Myers Police Department.

They had been investigating the domestic
incident with Melissa Montanez

and Wade Wilson fleeing the scene
in Kristine Melton's car.

The homicide of Kristine Melton,

then the domestic violence incident
with Melissa Montanez,

happened right on the border
between the two cities.

We are working two investigations
that are separate from each other

at the same time with the same suspect.

[sirens blaring]

The search was on at that point
to find Wade Wilson.

[man] In 2019, I was working
for the Cape Coral Police Department

as a detective.

[pensive music playing]

When we found out that Mila
was the girlfriend of our current suspect,

then that's when they requested,
"Hey, Detective Mino,

go to the Fort Myers Police Department."

"Go speak with Mila. See what information
you can get from her."

Most importantly,
a location for Wade Wilson at the time,

and what relationship Wade Wilson
had with Miss Kristine Melton.

[dramatic sting]

[Mino] How do you know Wade?

-How long have you known him?
-Boyfriend, six months

-Boyfriend, six months?
-Hmm.

He's been in jail,
incarcerated three and a half of those.

He beat me up, and I put him in jail here.

And then he had a charge in West Palm

for second degree felony,
um, stolen property.

They released him, and me, stupid enough,
went down five days ago and got him.

There's a g*ng of exes that keep saying,
"Mila, don't go back."

[Mino] Mm-hmm. Exes of his?

[Mila] Yeah. Kelly was friends with Chris.

And it's just, like, all these people

that link up together
and just share information.

Everybody told me that this would happen.

I have a busted mouth,
so I'm talking funny.

-Oh, that's... I'm sorry.
-He busted it this morning. It's okay.

He punches me as hard as he can
right here, like, in the face.

And somehow when he punched like that,

I was able to kind of, like,
maneuver around the back and run.

And that's how I got away.

And then he jumped in the car and left.

-You haven't seen him though since then?
-No.

-Okay. Now let's rewind.
-Okay.

[rewinding]

[Mila] Last night we went to Buddha,
roughly 11-ish.

-[Mino] What happened there?
-[Mila] We order a few beers.

He's wandering around talking to people.
You know, he's very social.

And then, I pretty much sit at the table
watching the band.

And yeah, we just hang with friends
and stuff like that.

And then, um, that's when he wanted to go
get drugs at the drug house or something.

I said, "No, I don't wanna go
to a drug house," you know?

I guess he knew I wasn't gonna do that.
He took the keys.

And then I see the Hellcat drive off.

[Mino] He leaves the Buddha
in your car by himself?

[Mila] No, he can't drive a stick shift.
So he had somebody else with him.

[Mino] Who?

I don't know. I don't know.
I feel like it was a car full of people.

And in the morning,
he was blowing up my phone.

He told me that
the Hellcat ran out of gas somewhere.

So I said, "Okay, let me, um…
Let me come get the keys."

So I said, "Meet me at the spa."

He pulls in in a black car.

I'm wondering whose car it is.

-Were you ever inside that car?
-No, I was not getting in that car.

-You never made it inside?
-I would've died if I got in.

[Mino] Okay.

[Mino] Speaking with Mila,

we were able to put Wade Wilson
at the Buddha

the same night as Miss Melton.

And we were able to connect the charges
for the battery domestic violence

with the homicide investigation.

I'm gonna be straight up
and honest with you.

-We do have a body. Okay?
-[gasps] Oh my God!

-So this is a homicide case.
-Stop it. Are you really serious?

[Mino] Did you see him talking
to any females at the club last night?

-[Mila] No…
-[Mino] The Buddha?

Was he talking just to random people
all over the place?

-[Mila] Guys. He's very social.
-[Mino] Just guys?

[Mino] Hmm.

If I wouldn't have went and got him,
this never would have happened

[Mino] Well, you can't blame this on that.

[Mila sobbing]

I wish I would've just left him
down there.

[Mino] While speaking with Mila,
I asked her if I could see her phone.

And I noticed that he had called her

several times throughout the day
of October 7th from different numbers.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Jones] When we recovered the black Nissan
belonging to Kristine Melton,

we ended up serving a search warrant
on the vehicle.

And we did locate two cell phones
inside of this black Nissan.

When we recover the phones,

we're not able to just turn on cell phones
and see who they belong to

and start rummaging through them.

To be able to go inside someone's
cell phone requires a search warrant.

And that takes time.

And in a situation like this,
time is important.

So I was really playing a waiting game.

While we were working on
the Kristine Melton case,

um, that first day,

we get another case.

We had received a call
at the Cape Coral Police Department

about a found purse
and possible missing woman.

A police officer
at a local elementary school

had a parent come into the school and say,

"Hey, I found this purse out in front
of the school by the sidewalk."

He looks in the wallet,
gets the name and the address,

and realizes that
the owner of the purse, Diane Ruiz,

lives just a couple of streets
behind his school.

The officer went to return the purse.

And when he got to the home, uh,
he learned that Diane Ruiz was not there.

Her son told our school resource officer
that "My mom is supposed to be at work."

[dialing]

[line ringing]

[operator speaking]

[Diane Ruiz's fiancé speaking]

[operator speaking]

[Diane Ruiz's fiancé speaking]

[operator speaking]

[Diane Ruiz's fiancé speaking]

[Jones] In Diane's case,
knowing that her cell phone was turned off

and that she was not responding
to any messages,

I really wanted to get a hold
of her cell phone records quickly.

When I was speaking
with another detective, she said,

"You know, Nick,
what do you think the chances are

that these two cases are related?"

And at that time, I said, "I don't know.
We're on opposite ends of the city."

"Nothing so far has said that Diane Ruiz
or Kristine Melton knew each other."

And we could not come up with a connection
between the two women.

All at the same time, there's still a big
piece of the Kristine Melton case missing.

Our suspect is still on the loose.

We knew the general area
that he was last in

when he was at Matteo Graphics.

That neighborhood
was searched extensively.

And we had hoped that he was still
in that general area.

[dramatic sting]

All of a sudden, that night
on October 7th, we get a big break.

We received a call from Wade Wilson's dad

giving us a location of a house that
he was hiding inside of in Cape Coral

that was right down the street
from Matteo Graphics.

[Wade's dad] I said, "What's going on?"

So he goes,
"Do you want me to tell you the truth?"

And I said, "Yeah."

He said, "I k*lled a girl last night."

And I said, "What?"

And he said, "Two."

And he said, "I choked the b*tch."

He said, "Dad, I'm a k*ller."

"I'm a k*ller,
and I k*ll with my bare hands."

He said, "They'll find the first one.
I know that." You know?

He went in detail what he did.

And he laughed,
and he thought it was funny.

[ominous music playing]

And I said, "Where are you?"

He said, "I got away. I found a house."

[woman] Wade Wilson broke into a home
nearby in Northeast Cape Coral.

Luckily, the couple that was living there
had left the day before

and went back to Ohio.

Wade Wilson helped himself
to some White Claws, food, and clothing.

During that time,
he ended up calling his biological father.

We found out that his dad didn't have
much of a connection with Wade

until he had reconnected
when he was 18 years old,

and had started asking his parents
for money.

[Andreas] Wade had asked him
whether or not he would assist him

in getting out of town.

The dad put out a ruse to indicate that,
yeah, he would get him an Uber,

but he needed to know
what the address was,

where he was located.

So at that point in time, the father let
Cape Coral Police Department know

where Wade Wilson was.

[sirens blaring]

When the task force got there,
they then invited Mr. Wilson to come out.

And that's how he was ultimately located
and ultimately arrested.

[officer] All right, man, listen.
I'm a nice guy, okay?

[Wade] Good. Me too, bro.

-[officer] All right, good. So…
-[Wade] What's up?

[officer] All right, I'm gonna put
some new handcuffs on you.

Do anything stupid, I'm gonna slam you.

[Wade] Do I look stupid?
You can slam me if you want. I don't care.

I can't do nothing.
You don't have to threaten me.

[officer] Face the f*cking car, man.
Spread your feet.

-[Wade] Man, f*ck you, man.
-[officer] f*ck you. Burn-a*s b*tch.

[handcuffs click]

Watch your knee.

I got a phone call from his dad saying,

"I'm on the other line with the marshals.
And they have Wade surrounded."

"And he m*rder*d two women."

[pensive music playing]

[officer] Come this way.

Of course, I was like, "Are you serious?"

But deep down, I wasn't shocked at all.

I knew that that's what he was capable of.

[officer] It's the second door here.

[Jones] After Wade Wilson was placed
under arrest,

the first interview with him
went very quickly.

You know, suck my d*ck, cr*cker.

How about that?
I'll see you in trial. Suck my…

[Jones] He did not admit
to knowing Kristine Melton,

did not admit to having anything to do
with the homicide of Kristine Melton.

[enigmatic music playing]

The next morning, an email came
from Diane's cell phone carrier.

At that point,
I now have her cell phone records.

And I'm looking at the last calls
or text messages

that were made or came through.

And when I looked at the phone number,
immediately, my heart sank

because I recognized the phone number
that was being dialed,

belonging to the girlfriend
of Wade Wilson.

Wade was calling his girlfriend Mila
from Diane Ruiz's phone.

At that point,
I knew that the Kristine Melton case

and the Diane Ruiz case were connected.

So at this point, my strategy changes.

I go from working a missing person case
to working a possible homicide.

[music intensifies]

[music fades]

[newscaster1] A painful night
for a Southwest Florida family.

Their loved one is missing.

[newscaster 2] Diane Ruiz
disappeared yesterday morning

on her way to work,
her purse found nearby.

This t*rture just… It's just sitting
back here and just waiting. It's…

It's k*lling us. It really is k*lling us.

[newscaster 3] Brandon Cuellar
and his family are still reeling

from the sudden disappearance
of his mother.

I want my mother to come home.
That's my mother.

[Jones] After getting the phone records,

I was able to go in the elementary school
and take a look at the surveillance video

from the time where the purse
was dropped off.

And now I see Kristine Melton's car
in the same spot

where Diane Ruiz's purse was located.

I also obtained GPS
and longitude/latitude coordinates

for every spot that her phone was pinging.

Diane's phone had traveled a lot
within her neighborhood,

and then had traveled west
on Pine Island Road.

Pine Island Road is a lot of vacant lots,

a lot of trees, bushes, wooded areas

that you could potentially hide a body
if you wanted to.

I had believed that Diane Ruiz's body

was somewhere located
along Pine Island Road.

We had canines out searching for her.

We had side-by-side ATVs
out looking for her, squad cars.

You name it, everybody was out looking.

[dramatic sting]

[pensive music playing]

Within, I would say,
about two and a half days of searching,

Wade Wilson's dad
had another conversation with him

while he was in the Lee County Jail.

-What's up, Dad?
-What's up, boy?

-All right. How're you doing?
-I'm all right. You okay?

Yeah, not really.
So I found out how they found me.

-What?
-They said they found me through you.

-What'd they say?
-They said you called 'em.

[Steven] Yeah?

-Did you?
-What do you think?

-Yeah.
-Yeah?

Yeah.

All right. And how do you feel about that?

Bad. Yeah.

-Yeah.
-I do too.

Yeah.

Do you understand that?

-No.
-Why?

'Cause why would you want me here?
You know I'm gonna be here.

Wade, son. Listen to me.

I love you more than anything
on this f*cking earth.

[Wade] Yeah.

And I'm gonna be honest with you, son.

[choking] You…

-You… You broke my heart.
-Yeah.

When I say that to you, I don't mean that
to make you feel like sh*t.

But I say that to you
because, you know, you came from me.

Yeah.

And the pain that you have caused, son,
I can't even describe to you.

[Wade] Yeah.

It's something that'll never be forgotten.

-But listen to me, son.
-Yeah.

-[Steven] We got to fix it.
-Well, how do you want me to fix it?

[Steven] I'm here to help you fix it.

Because I'm gonna tell you
why we got to fix it.

Three reasons.

[Wade] Yeah.

That 15-year-old boy that's missing
his f*cking mom right now.

-[Wade] Yeah.
-Who is about to f*cking lose his sh*t.

Because he's waiting on his f*cking mom
to walk back in that door.

[Wade] Yeah.

[Steven] We got to fix it.

That… that… that fiancé
who's waiting on his…

[Wade] Yeah.

-…wife to come home? We got to fix it.
-Yeah.

And the only way, Wade, that you are
going to get any f*cking leniency

is to fix this sh*t. Okay?

Everybody in the state
thinks you're a monster.

-[Wade] Yeah, I know. I know.
-Okay?

-Yes, yes, you did some monstrous sh*t.
-Yeah.

But you know what?
You can show them that you have remorse,

and you fixed it, son.

Did they put the story on the news
and everything?

-[Steven] Yeah. Yeah.
-Yeah?

So what do you want me to do?
I mean, when?

[spluttering] We… We gotta…
We gotta send that…

that lady home to her family, son.

-All right, Dad.
-Okay?

She's got to go home to her family.

As painful as it's going to be
for those people…

-Yeah.
-…not knowing is harder for them.

[Wade] Yeah.

And that little boy's been
on that f*cking news…

-Yeah.
-…just crying for his mama, son.

Are you kidding me?

No, dude,
I'm not f*cking kidding you, Wade.

-It's f*cking heartbreaking.
-Yeah.

Okay? And this is what I don't understand.
You know, and I don't… whatever…

Was that… Was that just random as f*ck?

-Yeah.
-Yeah, I knew it. I knew it was.

Yeah.

It's just… you know,
you lost your g*dd*mn mind.

[Wade] Yeah. Yeah, it was random.

[Steven] And my biggest fear was,

that you were gonna lose it
and go on a rampage.

[Wade] And I just about did.
That's what I was doing.

-I know you were heading there.
-Yeah, I was.

-I was going to do more.
-I know.

How did you know? That's crazy!

-'Cause you're my son.
-You're right!

-I knew what you were gonna do.
-Yeah. That's why I went…

That's why after the first one, I said,
"Number two, then number three."

-Right, yes. You think I didn't know that?
-Yeah. That's right.

-You know what's crazy, son?
-What's that?

Is the people's house that you went in?

-Yeah.
-They just left.

-No! Just left?
-They f*cking just left to go to Ohio.

You're kidding me.

-No, I'm not.
-I believe it.

What do you think would've happened
when you went in that house?

-Oh, everybody.
-Right.

-Everybody.
-Okay.

[tense music playing]

[Jones] October the 10th
was now the third day

that we were looking for Diane Ruiz.

All of the officers
at our police department

were still searching
the Pine Island corridor.

Two of our officers
had taken a break from searching,

and they were having lunch
in a vacant field.

While they were having lunch,
one of our officers noticed a buzzard

in the sky in the area.

[buzzard cries]

The buzzard ended up landing
in a vacant field

next to some pepper bushes.

Buzzards are attracted
to decomposing flesh.

So the officer went into, uh,
the pepper bushes in this vacant lot,

and that's where he had located
the body of Diane Ruiz.

[music fades]

[pensive music playing]

When the medical examiner
had responded to the scene,

Diane Ruiz had some marks on her body
that looked like tire marks.

However, it was really hard to tell
from the naked eye any cause of death.

While we were on scene,
I get a phone call saying,

"Hey, Wade Wilson wants to talk to you."

[Wade speaking]

[Jones speaking]

[Wade speaking]

He wanted to trade a body for a meal.

But Wade Wilson has no idea

that we just located
the body of Diane Ruiz.

[Jones] Yeah.

[Wade speaking]

[Wade speaking]

[Wade speaking]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Wade speaking]

While talking with him,
he's got really dark eyes.

It's almost like that
there was just nothing there.

There was no remorse.

No empathy.

[Jones speaking]

[Wade speaking]

[Jones speaking]

[Wade speaking]

[Jones speaking]

[Wade speaking]

The fact that
we had already located Diane,

there was no reason for me
to take him out of jail.

[newscaster] Cape Coral Police tonight
are confirming

they consider Wade Wilson,

who's in custody, seen here
in a court appearance yesterday,

a person of interest
in the deaths of both these women.

[Courtney] I started watching the news,
and my heart dropped.

Like, it had to have been someone else.
It can't be him.

Like, he's not that type of person.

Like, yeah, he cheats,
but he's not a m*rder*r.

[newscaster] …confirming
they consider Wade Wilson…

I turn on the news and, like,
it's literally Wade on the news.

Like, Lee County, m*rder.

I was like, "Oh my gosh."

But looking back,
the night Wade stabbed me

could have ended up very differently.

I could have been dead.

[Jones] A couple of months later,
we were able to get DNA confirmation

for both Diane Ruiz and Kristine Melton.

Wade Wilson's DNA was recovered
from both crime scenes.

And we were able to confirm
that Wade Wilson

sexually assaulted Diane Ruiz

after he k*lled her.

[dramatic sting]

Grand jury officially indicted Wade Wilson
on two counts of first-degree m*rder

in the deaths of Ruiz
and another woman, Kristine Melton.

Both women were k*lled
within hours of each other

in Cape Coral last month.

These two women were preyed upon
by the defendant,

and their murders impacted their families
and shook our community.

[woman] The grand jury indictment
comes out,

and the public is very interested
in this case.

The media attention grew and grew
and grew over time.

This is not what we're used to,

this type of
just absolute random violence.

[Kaitlin] Some people made a bit
of a weird connection

between Wade Wilson in Cape Coral

and Wade Wilson, the anti-hero,

also known as Deadpool.

Some people were calling him
the Deadpool k*ller,

using it in headlines, saying
the Deadpool k*ller is going to trial.

Anytime we would have court,
he'd be on the news

and people would see his face.

And so women started writing him.
Women started reaching out to him.

[Kaitlin] I did a public records request
for Wade Wilson's visitor log.

There were hundreds of kiosk calls
from women.

[Wade sighing]

[Wade speaking]

-[female caller 2]
-[Wade] Hey, baby.

[Wade laughing]

[Wade speaking]

[female caller 3 speaking]

[chuckling]

[Wade laughing]

-[Wade speaking]
-[female caller 3 chuckles]

[Amira] During the time period
up to the trial,

Wade Wilson is changing his appearance
while he's in jail,

including adding tattoos on his face
and head, such as a swastika.

This grabs media attention, of course,
and it just caused a media sensation.

-Wade Wilson.
-Wade Wilson.

-Wade Wilson.
-Wade Wilson.

Wade Wilson's receiving an interesting
number of messages from the outside.


since June 12th of this year.

["Double Dutch" by Helena playing]

♪ …sip it up like a lemonade ♪

♪ Sweet and sour, make it bussin'… ♪

[Sara] He ate it up. He loved it.

Every time he'd come to court,
he'd look behind

and see who was there watching him.

He gained a following
from all over the world

that went on email writing campaigns
for him

and started GoFundMe pages for him.

And he started collecting money

basically for brutally k*lling
two young women.

[Wade speaking]

[female caller speaking]

[Sara] The attention was very upsetting
to the families.

To just think that
women could be attracted to

and giving attention to this man
that really was a monster,

um, and who upended their lives,

that was a really difficult thing
to deal with.

[dramatic sting]

[Sara] I think one thing about this case
that stands out

is how justice can't be served

without people that are willing
to come in and testify.

[Sara] You know someone
by the name of Wade Wilson?

Yes, ma'am.

How do you know Wade Wilson?

He's my son.

How old were you when you found out
you were going to be his father?

Fourteen or fifteen.

How old was his mother at the time?

A year younger than me.

Was he placed up, uh, for adoption?

Yes, ma'am.

Kristine Melton was my best friend
and my cousin until October 7th, 2019.

[Andreas] Did you have any contact
with her after you left for work that day?

Um, a brief text message.

Um…

She, uh…

She, uh…

[sniffling]

She…

[voice breaking] She didn't think
I gave her a kiss goodbye.

[sniffling]

[Andreas] Had you?

Of course.

This was certainly a group effort
of people in the community

willing to come in and testify
against someone who was so dangerous.

And because of that,
we were able to do what we did.

[foreperson] We the jury
find the defendant is guilty

of first-degree m*rder.

[Amira] There are certain people who,
I'll say it,

they are poster children
for the death penalty,

and Wade Wilson is one of them.

So our goal from the minute we knew
what he had done to these two women

was to receive a death penalty sentence.

[Andreas] He k*lled
for the sake of k*lling.

That's what he wanted to do,
and that's why he did it.

I don't think there was any ounce
of remorse whatsoever.

[judge] The totality of the circumstances
warrants that the defendant,

Wade Steven Wilson, be sentenced to death
for each count of first-degree m*rder.

Count 1, first-degree m*rder
of Kristine Melton.

The defendant is hereby sentenced
to death.

Count 4, first-degree m*rder
of Diane Ruiz.

The defendant is hereby sentenced
to death.

[Kelly] When I heard that
he got the death penalty,

all I could think of was if the Palm Beach
County sheriffs had done their job,

these two women
would probably still be here.

So I filed a complaint against
the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office

for not thoroughly investigating
my sexual as*ault.

[Kaitlin] The Palm Beach
County Sheriff's Office

did do an internal affairs investigation.

At the end of the report,
they did find that

Detective Potter did not do
a thorough investigation

on the sexual as*ault of Kelly Matthews.

Detective Potter was supposed to be
suspended for three weeks,

but he ended up only being suspended
for two weeks.

[pensive music playing]

[Kelly] Wade ruined my trust
in the dating world,

but he didn't ruin my life.

I have a great life.

as*ault is, like, such a dirty thing
that no one wants to talk about it,

and I refused to be one of those people.

I'm not a victim. I'm a survivor.

And I will always advocate for people
that have gone through this

and want to share their story.

And if they're too afraid to,
they can always reach out to me,

and I'll help them.

They shouldn't hide
from this kind of stuff.

[music fades]

[suspenseful music playing]

[music ends]