🚨 WADE WILSON: WHY WAS HE STILL FREE BEFORE THE 2019 MURDERS?

Netflix’s Worst Ex Ever has brought renewed attention to a question that has continued to follow the Wade Wilson case:

Why was Wilson still free months before he murdered two women?

The question centers on a 2019 investigation involving Wilson and his then-girlfriend, Kelly Matthews.

According to Matthews, she reported to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in February 2019 that Wilson had assaulted and threatened her.

Detective Louis Potter was assigned to the investigation.

The case initially appeared to contain significant evidence. According to newly released internal-affairs records reported by CBS12, investigators collected a sexual-assault kit and other evidence, while Matthews reported injuries that included neck bruising and marks on her wrists.

But the investigation was later classified as inactive.

The most significant development came months later.

According to the internal-affairs investigation, forensic testing of the sexual-assault kit produced a DNA match to Wilson in June 2019.

The records reported that the result was communicated to Detective Potter.

However, investigators later determined that Potter did not reopen the case, seek an arrest warrant or notify supervisors about the DNA result.

Wilson remained free.

On October 7, 2019, roughly eight months after Matthews first reported him, Wilson murdered Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, in Lee County, Florida, according to authorities and court records.

Wilson was eventually convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2024.

The contrast between the February investigation and the October murders is now at the center of renewed scrutiny.

Matthews has said she believed going to police would protect her.

Instead, Wilson was not arrested in connection with that investigation before the killings.

An internal-affairs investigation later concluded that Potter mishandled aspects of the case. CBS12 reported that Potter received a 120-hour suspension and additional training.

Potter has defended his handling of the investigation, according to the reporting, and the case raises complicated questions about evidence, probable cause and how law enforcement evaluates allegations before making an arrest.

Those questions have now reached a much larger audience through Netflix.

Worst Ex Ever Season 2 opens with Wilson’s case, including interviews and previously recorded law-enforcement footage connected to the investigation. Netflix describes the episode as the story of Kelly’s relationship with Wilson and the escalation that preceded his later crimes.

The documentary does not change the legal record.

Wilson was convicted for the murders of Melton and Ruiz and is currently on Florida’s death row while his legal proceedings continue.

But it has reopened a painful question that existed long before Netflix told the story:

If authorities had acted differently in February 2019, could the October murders have been prevented?

That is a question the available record cannot definitively answer.

What is documented is that Wilson was investigated months before the murders, that the investigation was closed, that a later DNA result linked him to the sexual-assault evidence, and that he was not arrested in that case before killing two women.

For the victims’ families — and for Matthews, who says she went to police seeking protection — those events remain a haunting part of the story of Wade Wilson.

And now, years later, the question is being asked all over again:

Why was he still free?