TAMPA, Fla — In 2005, Donald Santini was featured, for the second time, on 'America's Most Wanted" in connection to the 1984 murder of Cynthia Wood.
According to his warrant, Santini strangled the 33-year-old mother and left her in a ditch. At the time the episode aired, John Walsh announced that Santini's case was part of an effort by the show to spotlight older cases.
"Over the 18 seasons we've been on the air, this program has grabbed more than one fugitive per show. Now, that's a pretty good rate. But it also means we haven't been able to get them all. That's why we started our new feature, 'Cold Case,'" he said.
But in the end, it would be 39 years before he was arrested. In June, Santini was picked up in California after trying to get a passport.
"He had made separate applications over the course of a decade and had put differing information on those two applications, which set off a red flag to the federal authorities. And then they investigated it. And they were able to determine, through fingerprint evidence, that he was, in fact, Donald Michael Santini," said Assistant Hillsborough County State Attorney Scott Harmon.
According to authorities, Santini had been living there for decades under an alias.
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In late November, Santini was set to stand trial for first-degree murder in this case. But less than two weeks before the start of that trial, he took a plea deal that offered him 50 years in prison, with 15 years probation, instead of life in prison.
"[The] defense came to us last week with an offer. We discussed it internally and we went back to them and we were able to negotiate what we believe to be a fair settlement for both sides," said Harmon.
As part of that deal, Santini was able to plea down to a second-degree murder charge.
"First-degree murder carries a life sentence, and it's a mandatory life sentence. So if he pled guilty to that, we wouldn't have had any ability or room to negotiate a sentence. It would have been a mandatory life sentence. So, to reduce it to second-degree murder simply was our way of allowing us to negotiate a term of years, a sentence. That was really the only reason," said Harmon.
With this nearly 40-year-old case now closed, there are still so many questions left hanging. So we asked Harmon and the Hillsborough County State Attorney, Suzy Lopez, for more details on the crime itself.
The first thing they confirmed was that Santini was hired to murder Cynthia Wood.
"And he took off the following day after, we believe, getting the second of two payments that he received to commit this murder," said Harmon.
But who hired him?
"We strongly suspect that her former brother-in-law was involved. And there may have been some individuals that acted as go-betweens," said Harmon.
And why?
"We strongly suspect it had to do with the child custody situation over her two small children," he said.
But, the State Attorney's Office said they're not able to charge anyone else.
"Unfortunately, all the other parties that were involved are dead," said Harmon.
But in the end, Lopez told us it's a level of resolution that they hope will bring Wood's family some sense of justice.
"We know that one of her children has committed suicide. We know that her other two children have suffered addiction issues. And one of those two is homeless. And they were robbed of their mom," she said.
ABC Action News also spoke to the step-daughter of Cynthia Wood, Denise Kozer, by phone.
She told us that she still has so many questions that will go unanswered. She's hoping to hear from the State Attorney's Office and, ideally, she'd like to hear from Santini himself.
