Donald Michael Santini Arrested For A Murder He Confessed To Nearly 40 Years Ago

The murder of Cynthia Ruth Wood is finally seeing justice after nearly forty years of her death. 

Donald Michael Santini, 65, was arrested in California last week after receiving a tip from Florida and Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. He’s been wanted on a first-degree murder charge since June 18, 1984. 

The mother of three was found in a Florida ditch three days after she was reported missing. She was last seen leaving her home five days before her body was discovered.

Her cause of death was determined to have been from strangulation after Santini’s fingerprints were found on her body. 

Santini, then 26, was assumed to have been living in Texas using an unknown identity, according to the Hillsborough County Office website. 

Thirty-nine years later, Santini was found living in California using a different name. 

A witness statement from 1984 told the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office that Charles Michael Stevens, a name Santini used as an alias, confessed to killing the mother-of-three. Other names Santini reportedly used are Donald Chapman and John Trimbleon, and according to the arrest warrant, had a total of 13 aliases to hide from authorities. 

Santini is currently in California, awaiting his extradition. Detectives from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office were sent to California to interview the 65-year-old. 

“This arrest allows us to reexamine evidence collected in 1984 using the technology of today, as the case is now considered open once again,” a Hillsborough Sherrif’s Office spokesperson said. 

In a hearing after his arrest, Santini admitted to the judge that he didn’t feel safe about the extradition to Florida “because of the families.”