TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — When she met Donald Santini on May 16, 1980 in Pasadena, Texas, Marla Santini was still Marla Foster. The 17-year-old got pregnant a few months later, married Santini in November 1980, took his last name, and had a baby girl in May of 1981, ready to start a family. Less than two years later, Donald Santini left her and their daughter in the city outside of Houston and never spoke to them again.

That is, until more than 40 years later, when another one of Marla’s daughters saw a news report of Santini’s arrest in California.

“It’s kind of shocking,” Marla said. “Because I honestly thought he was dead.”

Santini was not dead — but a Florida woman was. Santini was arrested by U.S. Marshals in San Diego in June when he tried to illegally obtain a passport in California, according to court documents. He had a warrant out for his arrest, accused of strangling Cynthia Wood and leaving her body in a Riverview ditch in 1984.

“I hadn’t seem him in 40 years,” Marla said. “I haven’t heard nothing, I have not talked to nobody. Everybody, his family, no one’s ever heard anything from him.”

So when Marla heard he was in the San Diego County Jail awaiting extradition to Tampa, she set up a video call with him.

“He got on the first video,” Marla recalled. “He says, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know you. Do I?’ I went, ‘Really? Really? I have your daughter.'”

Marla said he was surprised to hear from her, and the still-legally married couple spoke at least six times while he was in jail. While she says they never spoke about the alleged crimes, the two reminisced over experiences they shared.

“Surprisingly, it was pleasant,” Marla said. “He don’t act like he’s the same person.”

Marla said Santini was more settled down and talkative than the shy, quiet man she met more than four decades ago. She also got to ask burning questions to a captive audience.

“I’m just like, ‘What did I do? Did I do something for you to leave?’ He said, ‘No Marla, it was all the demons and stuff.'”

Marla said Santini’s absence put her in tough times, working at fast-food chains and relying on government assistance.

“I think it’s weird how you can just hide like that,” Marla said of Santini’s 40-year disappearance. “How can someone hide that long?”

Recent court documents shed some light on an answer to that question. A motion for pretrial detention said Santini was on pretrial release for an aggravated robbery in Galveston County, Texas in May 1980 — months after he left Marla — when he skipped town and landed in Florida. Court documents showed Santini robbed a convenience store of $270 armed with a knife, but shortly thereafter was found and admitted to the crime.

On Thursday, in Hillsborough County Court, public defender Jamie Kane and prosecutor Michelle Doherty debated Santini’s flight from Texas. While Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office detective Anthony Watson said Santini told him about the Texas robbery and arrest, Kane asked where the evidence was that Santini actually left town.

“You’re the definition of flight risk,” said Judge Catherin M. Catlin in court.

She denied Santini any pretrial release and opportunity to bond out based on what she saw was a history of running off.

“There is nothing I can do to preserve the safety of this community,” Judge Catlin continued. “If I were to let you go.”

While there are still decades unaccounted for, court documents also revealed another alias Santini used in California: Wellman Simmonds.

While in California, Santini operated in Campo, a small town on the border with Mexico about an hour east of San Diego. He was the president of the board of the Lake Morena Views Mutual Water Company and member of the Campo-Lake Morena Community Planning Group, where he chaired the groundwater subcommittee, according to Billie Jo Jannen, chair of the group.

“Just a regular guy,” Jannen said. “A little bit dotty like the rest of us, but not unusually so.”

Jannen said Santini had been part of the planning group since October 2021, when he applied for an open position. Since it was in between election cycles (the positions are usually elected) and the group doesn’t get many applicants, Jannen said the Registrar of Voters reviewed Santini’s voter registration and address — both checked out. No other background checks were completed.

Santini even gave an interview to the local FOX 5 San Diego station for another story as Simmonds.

“I was just as surprised as anyone else,” Jannen said. “It’s not the sort of thing that happens very often.”

California state documents also showed Santini’s time in the Lake Morena Views Mutual Water Company was fraught. In January 2023, he received a letter from the State Water Resources Control Board that his water utility is in need of an administrator because it “has not consistently provided an adequate supply of affordable, safe drinking water to its customers.”

Six months later, Santini was in jail for the 1984 murder.