Where Is Wade Wilson Now? Inside the Handsome Devil Killer's Life After Brutally Murdering 2 Women in One Day By Jane LaCroix 10

Wade Steven Wilson is a Florida man whose name became nationally known after he committed two senseless murders in one October 2019 day.

Wilson, better known as the “Deadpool Killer” due to sharing a name with the fictional character, killed two women — Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43 — in separate but closely connected incidents that shocked the local community and later drew media scrutiny across the U.S.

Authorities say Wilson met Melton at a Fort Myers bar and later strangled her to death in her home. Hours after her murder, Wilson encountered Ruiz and persuaded her to get into his vehicle under false pretenses, and then killed her before running her over multiple times and abandoning her body in a nearby field, per Gulf Coast News Now.

During police interviews and later testimony, Wilson reportedly made disturbing admissions about the crimes, including allegedly telling detectives he would “do it again.”

After a lengthy legal process, a Lee County jury convicted Wilson of two counts of first-degree murder in June 2024. In August of that year, a judge imposed two death sentences, ensuring Wilson will spend the rest of his life on Florida’s death row unless his appeals succeed. On Jan. 20, Paramount+ released a documentary on Wilson’s life and crimes called Handsome Devil: Charming Killer.

So, where is Wade Wilson now, years after the murders that shocked Cape Coral? Here’s what to know about the killer’s life today.

Who is Wade Wilson?

Wilson was born in 1994 in Florida to teenage parents and was adopted shortly after birth by Cindy and Steve Wilson, a couple from Cape Coral, per the News-Press. From a young age, Wilson struggled in school, facing repeated suspensions due to aggression in the classroom, according to Newsweek.

Those problems followed him into adulthood. Court records and testimony revealed that Wilson cycled in and out of counseling programs, substance abuse treatment and brief periods of stability. By his early 20s, Wilson had developed an extensive criminal history that included arrests related to domestic violence, sexual assault battery, drug possession and more.

People who knew Wilson described him as unpredictable — capable of being personable and engaging, then quickly becoming hostile or threatening. Prosecutors later argued that his volatile patterns, paired with violence, showed a clear progression long before the 2019 murders.

After his arrest, Wilson’s adoptive parents wrote a letter to the court which was read by one of his attorneys during his sentencing, per Newsweek.

“Wade was a joyful child, loved his parents and sisters and was loved immensely in return. But over the teen years, and then especially in the early years of adulthood, Wade began to slip away from us, becoming withdrawn, erratic and depressed at first,” they wrote. “Then his addiction was added to mental illness and [he] became, frankly, paranoid and delusional and a sense of loss became increasingly sharp.”

What events led up to Wilson murdering Melton and Ruiz?

According to court testimony and investigative records, Wilson met Jayson Shepard, Melton and her friend, Stephanie Johnson, at a Fort Myers bar. After the place closed, the group went to Shepard’s home.

In the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2019, Wilson, Melton and Johnson went to Melton’s residence. After Johnson left, prosecutors say Wilson strangled Melton in her bed, killing her. He then took her car and fled the scene.

Later that morning, Wilson went to his then-girlfriend’s workplace, where he assaulted her. A short time later, he encountered his second victim — Ruiz — as she walked to work. Investigators say Wilson approached her under the pretense of needing directions. After convincing her to get into the car, he strangled her.

How did Wilson kill the women?

Court testimony revealed that Melton was killed in her bed, with the medical examiner later determining the cause of death to be manual strangulation.

Several hours later, Wilson strangled Ruiz. When he attempted to dispose of her body, Wilson realized she was still alive, and repeatedly ran her over with Melton’s stolen car, causing catastrophic injuries. The medical examiner testified that Ruiz suffered both strangulation injuries and blunt-force trauma consistent with being struck by a vehicle.

During the investigation, Wilson made graphic admissions about both killings, including details that aligned with forensic findings.

How was Wilson caught?

Wilson was taken into custody less than a day after the murders, largely because of his own actions. After killing both women, Wilson contacted his biological father, Steven Testasecca, in a series of phone calls that would become central to the case.

During those conversations, Wilson confessed to killing two women and provided graphic, unsolicited details about how the crimes occurred, according to court testimony.

Testasecca later told authorities that the calls alarmed him immediately. After pressing his son for clarification and realizing the seriousness of what he was hearing, he contacted law enforcement and relayed the information, including Wilson’s admissions and the fact that he was driving a stolen vehicle. That tip prompted Cape Coral police to begin actively searching for Wilson.

Officers located Wilson later that evening and he was arrested without incident. During police interviews, Wilson did not deny his involvement. Investigators testified that he spoke openly about the killings and made statements that aligned with physical evidence already collected at both crime scenes.

Where is Wilson now?

Wilson is currently incarcerated at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Fla., which houses the state’s male death row inmates. Like others sentenced to death, Wilson is confined under strict conditions, spending the majority of his time in his cell with limited movement and restricted contact with the outside world.

Although Wilson has been sentenced to death, his execution is not imminent. His legal team filed several appeals to the Florida Supreme Court in August 2024. One of those cases began in early January 2026, according to WINK News.