SAN DIEGO – Law enforcement officials in California captured a Florida fugitive who changed identities multiple times and managed to avoid capture for 39 years in connection with the murder of a 33-year-old mother of three in 1984.
The United States Marshals Service arrested Donald Michael Santini, 65, in Campo, an unincorporated area in San Diego County on Wednesday, June 7. The federal agents said they received a lead from the Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. Santini is accused of killing Cynthia Ruth Wood, 33, whose body was discovered in a drainage ditch on June 9, 1984, in Hillsborough County, Florida, according to 10News.
A medical examiner determined Wood had been strangled to death and Santini’s fingerprints were discovered on her body, the Tampa Bay Times reported, citing information from the arrest warrant.
Santini called Wood promising to provide information about her husband that could assist her win custody of her children, according to previous reporting from the Bradenton Herald.
Wood met with Santini on June 6, 1984. She wasn’t seen again until June 9, 1984, when her body was found in a water-filled ditch in Riverview, Hillsborough court documents revealed.
Investigators said Santini was the last person seen leaving Wood’s residence before police discovered her body.
“The suspect has not been seen since this incident and may be in the state of Texas using an unknown identity,” the sheriff’s office noted in an “Unsolved Homicides” page, saying Santini was a suspect in the 39-year-old cold case.
Prior to his arrest, Santini lived in California as a fugitive under multiple assumed identities, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. He reportedly used the names Charles Michael Stevens, Donald Chapman, and John Trimble before the homicide occurred and during 39-years of evading capture, the New York Post reported.
Witness Pamela Lynn Kincaid told homicide detectives with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office that Charles Michael Stevens, one of Santini’s aliases, had admitted to killing Wood, the records indicate, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Donald Michael Santini, left, and Cynthia “Cindy” Ruth Wood are seen in these file photos from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Law enforcement authorities had been searching for Santini for 39 years in connection to the strangulation death of Wood, a mother of three whose body was found in a Riverview ditch June 9, 1984. (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office)
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that “technology of today,” helped detectives open the cold case back up.
“This arrest allows us to reexamine evidence collected in 1984 using the technology of today, as the case is now considered open once again.”
Santini appeared in San Diego County Court on Friday, June 9, and awaits extradition to Florida. During his court appearance, he admitted to being the man authorities in Florida have been trying to find for nearly four decades.
Nevertheless, his public defender, Douglas Miller, emphasized that was not an admission of guilt, 10News reported.
“We don’t know anything about the underlying facts that are alleged. He could have not committed this,” said Miller.
Santini agreed to be extradited from San Diego to Florida, but said he does not “feel safe because of the family,” prompting his attorney to tell him to quit talking.
According to a 1985 Herald article, Santini has a criminal history dating back to 1978 when he was convicted of rape while serving in the U.S. Army in Frankfurt, Germany.
Santini was later charged with aggravated robbery in connection to a convenience store robbery in 1983 in his home state of Texas. He confessed, then disappeared from the state just days later, reported the Tampa Bay Times.
The next time Santini resurfaced, he was working as a janitor in Longboat Key, Florida, under the Stevens alias.
