Netflix dropped Season 2 of Worst Ex Ever at 3 a.m. on May 6, and the four new one-hour episodes open with a case that ended in two murders and a death sentence. Episode 1, titled Dating the Deadpool Killer, centers on Wade Wilson’s volatile relationship with Kelly Matthews in West Palm Beach before the 2019 killings.
Matthews, who thought Wilson was “the perfect man,” is the emotional hinge of the premiere. The season’s first episode goes back to the years before Oct. 7, 2019, when Wilson murdered Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz, was later convicted of both killings and was sentenced to death in 2024. Wilson was dubbed the Deadpool Killer because he shared a name with the Marvel character Deadpool’s alter ego, a detail that has helped keep the case in public view long after the crimes.
That nickname, though, sits on top of a far darker record. Before the murders, Wilson had been repeatedly accused of battering women he dated and was accused in two separate cases of sexually assaulting women he had been in relationships with. In one case he was acquitted; in the other, authorities chose not to bring charges. He was born May 20, 1994, grew up in Tallahassee and attended Chiles High School. His biological parents were teenagers when he was born and gave him up for adoption.
Wilson also had a history of arrests in Leon County dating back to 2012. He was incarcerated for burglary and grand theft from Nov. 26, 2013, to Sep. 19, 2014, and later served a second prison sentence for firearms theft from Oct. 17, 2017, to July 15, 2018. Those earlier encounters with the justice system form the backdrop to a case that turned deadly on a single night in 2019.
On Oct. 7, 2019, Wilson met Melton and her friend Stephanie Sailors at Buddah LIVE, a Fort Myers bar. After closing time, the three went to the home of Jayson Shepard and stayed there for several hours before later heading to Melton’s Cape Coral home. After Sailors left, Wilson strangled Melton to death as she slept in her bed, then stole her car and drove to his girlfriend’s business in Fort Myers. When he tried to pull her into the car and she fought back, he attacked her.
Wilson then saw 43-year-old Diane Ruiz walking along a Cape Coral street and asked her for directions to a nearby school before luring her into Melton’s car. The case was ultimately broken by Wilson’s biological father, Steven Testasecca, who was instrumental in his capture and testified at the murder trial. That family testimony gave the prosecution another thread in a case that had already been built from a trail of violence and opportunity.
What keeps Worst Ex Ever from feeling like a rehash is the way it ties the personal to the criminal. This season is still about troubling ex-partners, but Episode 1 makes clear that Kelly Matthews was living with a man whose record was already marked by arrests, convictions and allegations long before the murders. For viewers looking for the broader series, Geoffrey Paschel’s 90 Day Fiancé story also returns in Worst Ex Ever, while a separate review of season 2 found the show gets tighter and darker. The premiere answers its own question plainly: the man Matthews thought was perfect had already left a long wake of warning signs, and the documentary is built around what happened when they were ignored.
