Wade Wilson’s Ex-Girlfriend Speaks Out About Alleged Assault

LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Cape Coral murder convict Wade Wilson will soon find out whether he’ll go to prison for life or be put to death. Fox 4 senior reporter Kaitlin Knapp dug into his past after a state prosecutor made a comment to her following Wilson’s death penalty recommendation.

“We’ve heard from many women who have been victimized by the defendant but may not have filed charges or for whatever reason have not received justice in the court system,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Sara Miller. “I think this victory really ensures the safety of a lot of people.”

People like Kelly Matthews, who dated Wilson in 2018. She was interviewed by Scripps station WPTV in West Palm Beach shortly after he was named a person of interest in October 2019 in the murders of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz.

More recently, Matthews spoke out on TikTok about her experience with Wilson.

“I dated this man in February of the same year he killed these two women,” she said in the nearly nine-minute video.

She agreed to talk to Knapp about her life with Wade in Palm Beach County.

“I don’t want to be silent on this,” Matthews said.

They met online in 2018, describing him as charismatic and polite.

She said things changed when he started using drugs.

“It was a very toxic relationship, but he was never violent, ever,” Matthews said.

It’s until February 18, 2019, she says.

Matthews claims Wilson agreed to go to a nearby rehab, but she backed out. Then, Matthews claims Wilson said he wanted to go to rehab in the Florida Keys. However, she said that wasn’t true and that she wanted to meet someone there instead. They ended up arguing in a parking lot.

“I got back in the car, put my seatbelt on and that’s when he started choking me,” Matthews said. “He choked me two or three times. I started to pass out, I was panicking.”

She said Wilson pushed her onto the floor of his car, cut off her clothes with a knife and told her to stay there.

Wilson allegedly put her in the back of his car and sexually assaulted her.

According to Matthews, Wilson tied a shirt around her face and rubbed her hands and feet with a used trash bag inside the car. She says he also gagged her.

“At one point he bit me on the face, he bit me on the chin,” she said.

Matthews said Wilson eventually untied her before they got to the Keys. Then he allegedly got out, gave her the car keys and drove off with a woman.

That’s when Matthews said she got in the car and drove away.

“I drove 100 mph all the way home, hoping to get pulled over,” she said. “I should have stopped at a gas station or something, but I guess I thought no one would believe me.”

Back home, she and her mother called the police. Matthews said she went to the hospital with officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. They retrieved a sexual assault kit and took photos of her injuries, she said.

A police report states that they interviewed Wilson, who did not admit to any assault.

When deputies spoke to Matthews, they noted in the report that she had bruises on her neck and a cut on her lip.

However, they did not arrest Wilson.

“He said, ‘No, that’s hearsay, we have no probable cause,'” Matthews said.

She refers to the detective, who also stated in the report: “…there are no witnesses to the alleged crime and no evidence to establish probable cause.”

Matthews says she thinks the system failed her.

“I was even more angry that this (the Cape Coral murders) could have been prevented if they had listened to me and put him in jail at the time,” she said.

Fox 4 reached out to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, asking why they didn’t arrest Wilson despite visible injuries, a sexual assault kit and photos of the injuries. As of Monday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said it was working on our request.

“I don’t understand how someone can do something so serious to someone else and not be arrested for it,” she said.

About eight months later, Wilson was in Cape Coral where he killed Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz.

Throughout the trial, Matthews said he listened to the entire case and that the hardest part was hearing about the murders.

“I hear the details of what he did to women, because that’s almost exactly what he did to me,” she said.

Wilson faces the death penalty on the jury’s recommendation.

“There’s something wrong with him – he’s a horrible person,” she said.

Matthews sees his conviction and recommendation as a form of justice.

“I feel like it’s a good thing for everyone that he’s hurt,” she said.

She says she wants to talk about what happened, for herself and for other cases of domestic violence.

“I just want people to know that they can leave, they can get help,” Matthews said. “If I had seen the signs and I hadn’t been so infatuated with him or whatever, you know, I wouldn’t have gone through all this.”

As for Wilson, he is in jail waiting to see if a judge will accept the jury’s recommendation and sentence him to death.

“We’re a strong group of people that he didn’t beat and unfortunately it took the deaths of two women for him to get noticed,” Matthews said. “You didn’t win and you’re going to get what you deserve.”

Wilson will be sentenced on July 23.