Wayne Nance is one of the few unlucky serial killers to be murdered by his final intended victims. Unfortunately, it would be too late for at least three people that saw their lives snuffed out by the homocidal Montana man.

The beginning of the end for Nance occurred when he invaded the home of co-worker Kris Welles and her husband Doug in Missoulla. Nance had quietly become obsessed with Kris and obviously intended to make her pay for some unknown snub towards him by killing her and her husband on September 4, 1986. The obsessed slayer clubbed and stabbed Doug, leaving him for dead in the basement of the couple's home, and then forced Kris upstairs to the bedroom with the intent of raping her and most certainly killings her as well. Despite Doug's injuries, however, he managed to grab a rifle loaded with a single shot and confront Nance in an upstairs hallway where the two men exchanged shots, both being hit. Still Doug kept coming and with help from Kris, clubbed their attacker into submission and shot him dead with Nance's own pistol. Doug Welles recovered from his injuries.

It soon became evident to authorities that this was not an isolated incident from Nance. In 1974, when Nance was just eighteen, Donna Pounds was murdered in a fashion eerily similar to elements of the Welles' attack. Nance was a close friend of Pounds' son. A search of Nance's home showed that he was in possession of property stolen form the home of Michael and Theresa Hook, victims of a 1985 double-murder that also bore similarities to the Welles. crime. In addition, hairs from the search matched those of a Jane Doe found dead in 1984. Around that time a woman, unnamed still but believed to be the Jane Doe, disappeared after staying for a short time with Nance.

Nance is also believed to possibly be the killer of a Seattle runaway found dead near Missoulla in 1980 and the attacker of a five-year-old girl in 1974. The youngster had been sexually molested and stabbed by managed to survive.