Donald Michael Santini extradited to Florida for 1984 murder – After 39 years, the man who allegedly strangled a woman and abandoned her body in a water-filled drainage ditch is in the hands of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
Donald Michael Santini, 65, was arrested on June 7 across the country in California, where authorities said he lived under the assumed name of Wellman Simmons. Hillsborough deputies announced that he arrived Wednesday at 3:03 a.m. to the Orient Road Jail.
Online records show that he is now held without bond at the Falkenburg Road Jail for a single count of murder in the first degree.
Donald Michael Santini is escorted into the Orient Road Jail early June 28, 2023. Deputies said he strangled Cynthia Ruth Wood and abandoned her corpse in a drainage ditch sometime in June 1984. (Images: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office)Donald Michael Santini extradited to Florida for 1984 murder
Prosecutors want him staying put until he stands trial for allegedly murdering Cynthia Ruth Wood, 33, in 1984. According to a Thursday morning for pretrial detention, Santini had initially been wanted in Galveston County, Texas, for robbing a convenience store clerk at knifepoint of $270 in May 1983. Investigators tracked him down because the victim got his license plate number, and though he gave authorities the knife, handed back $219, and showed them the getaway vehicle, he fled the Lone Star State while out on bond, authorities said.
