A man who lived for decades under an assumed name pleaded guilty on Thursday to being the person who murdered a woman and dumped her body in a water-filled drainage ditch.
The defendant, Donald Michael Santini, 65, was sentenced to 50 years in prison and an additional 15 years of probation as part of a plea deal, said the State Attorney’s Office for the 13th Judicial Circuit in Florida.
As previously reported, Cynthia Ruth Wood, 33, was last seen leaving her Manatee County home with a man on the night of June 5, 1984. That man’s name was believed to be “Charles Michael Stevens.” It turned out to be Santini’s alias. He had fled Galveston County, Texas, while out on bond for robbing a convenience store clerk at knifepoint in 1983.
Donald Michael Santini pleaded guilty to murdering Cynthia Ruth Wood. (Images: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office)
Wood was found dead on June 9, 1984, in the Hillsborough County community of Riverview, south of Tampa.
“I happened to look down and see the feet first,” Susan Thurlow, who discovered the woman’s body, told Tampa-based NBC affiliate WFLA. “Just looked up, and you could tell the body was bloated.”
Deputies said Santini fled Hillsborough. This prompted the almost four-decade search, taking investigators to places like Texas, California, and even Thailand. “America’s Most Wanted” profiled him in 1990, 2005, and 2013. This was something Santini acknowledged to a Hillsborough County detective in early June after federal agents caught him in California for committing identity fraud to illegally obtain a passport, according to documents.
“In addition, the defendant stated that he saw the story of himself on America’s Most Wanted,” authorities stated. “The defendant has eluded law enforcement authorities in two states for almost four (4) decades by living under aliases. The defendant further stated that he stopped using fake driver’s licenses when he became aware of facial recognition.”
He lived under the assumed name of Wellman Simmons in Texas and California. Florida prosecutors said law enforcement managed to find Santini because of the passport application — his fingerprints matched the missing murder suspect.
Santini initially insisted on his innocence.
“Things are not as they seem. (I feel I am being set up),” he wrote in a June 15 letter to WFLA, noting that Florida in the 1980s “was a safe haven” for the mafia and cocaine dealers.
“I feel I am being used as a patsy,” he wrote.
But this “patsy” now admitted he did indeed take Wood’s life.
“No family should have to spend decades waiting for justice to be served in the cruel murder of their loved one,” State Attorney Suzy Lopez of the 13th Judicial Circuit said. “This defendant not only stole an innocent life, but he also left a family without their mother, and without answers. Our thoughts are with the victim’s family and friends as they close a painful chapter and move toward healing.”
The public defender’s office did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.
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