Wade Wilson, who killed two women within a matter of hours, was ultimately reported to police by his own father.
Wilson—often referred to as The Deadpool Killer—was responsible for the October 2019 deaths of 35-year-old Kristine Melton and 43-year-old Diane Ruiz. The case is revisited in season two of Netflix’s true crime series Worst Ex Ever.
In the hours after the murders, Wilson called his biological father, Steven Testasecca, and boasted about what he had done. Testasecca contacted law enforcement right away and later took the stand during his son’s trial.
Testasecca became a father as a teenager and later placed Wilson up for adoption. Wilson reportedly reconnected with him at 18, though their relationship remained irregular, with contact described as “sporadic.”
Following the killings, Wilson broke into a home in Northeast Cape Coral, Florida, and stayed there. The homeowners had left for Ohio only hours earlier, and Wilson later told his father he would have gone on a “rampage” and killed them if they had been home.
During that phone call, Wilson asked for help leaving town. Testasecca played along and requested an address, suggesting he would send an Uber—then used the location to direct police to his son.
Testasecca later delivered key testimony at the Lee County Courthouse during Wilson’s June 2024 murder trial.
“He just told me he did something,” his father told the court. “There was two people gone that would not be back. He said, ‘I’m a killer’. I just told him to call me back, I thought it was another story.”
Describing Wilson’s admission about Kristine Melton, Testasecca said: “He said ‘I got on top of her and I choked her.’ He said I ‘choked that b***h.’”
Testasecca told the court that Wilson then went on to confess the killing of Diane Ruiz, saying he choked her in the vehicle, pulled her out, and drove over her.
Investigators said Wilson met Melton during a night out and later went back to her home, where she was killed the following morning.
Prosecutors said he then took her car and, while driving, encountered Ruiz. He reportedly asked her for directions to a nearby school, persuaded her to get in the vehicle, and then murdered her.
“He said that he pulled her out of the car and realized that she was still breathing,” Testasecca recalled to the court.
“He said he got back in the car and ran her over until she looked like spaghetti.”
“What was his demeanor as he was telling you?” Testasecca was asked on the stand.
“He was excited,” he responded, before being asked what he meant.
“I felt like he was wanting me to feel the way he felt about it,” Testasecca responded.
Testasecca said Wilson appeared “proud” as he described the killings and showed no remorse, providing extensive detail about both deaths.
In August 2024, Wade Wilson was sentenced to death for the murders.
Judge Nicholas Thompson told the court “the evidence shows the murders were heinous, atrocious and cruel” while the second murder [of Ms Ruiz] was “cold, calculated and premeditated”.