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SAN DIEGO, Calif. Elyxadra Rettew was on a plane when her daughter left her a frantic message last month.
“He said about grandpa. Call me. And I had no idea what was going on, and I thought maybe he had a heart attack and died or something. And like honestly it would have been a lot easier if that was the case.”
Rettews’ daughter, who was raised by her father, said he was apprehended by US Marshals in Campo.
Rettew said her sister said her father, Wellman Simmonds, had been arrested for the murder.
The 33-year-old Hawaii resident, who grew up in San Diego County, searched her father’s name on Google but did not find any news of his arrest.
Then he learned another bomb. His father’s real name is Donald Santini.
So I Googled his name and the FBI wanted poster came up. This is really strange, because the only reason the wanted poster came up was because it was for sale on eBay.
Court records
Donald Santini is seen in this historic photo in new court records.
Santini is wanted for the 1984 murder of Cynthia Ruth Wood in Hillsborough County, Florida.
Court documents filed by prosecutors say he committed aggravated robbery in Texas in 1983 before fleeing to Florida, where he allegedly killed the mother of three.
He appeared on Americas Most Wanted several times in 1990, 2005, and 2013, but he wasn’t caught until last month despite living an incredibly open public life.
Rettew, who was born with the surname Simmonds, is trying to piece together how his father was able to live a lie for more than 30 years and avoid capture.
It’s annoying because I’m lying, she said, expressing concern about not properly searching her family tree.
His father ran a Thai restaurant, owned an auction house, and managed apartment buildings over the years. He even did a broadcast interview in 2018 with ABC 10News for an unrelated story.
Screenshots
Donald Santini can be seen in this Americana wanted poster for sale on eBay. His daughter found the list and said she knew right away that the man on the poster was her father, whom she knew as “Wellman Simmonds.”
In a motion for pretrial detention document filed in a Florida court, prosecutors said he used multiple fake names and identities for more than 39 years to avoid capture.
In a June 8 interview at a San Diego jail, he openly talked to a detective about living on the lam.
The defendant said he saw the story of himself on Americas Most Wanted, a court document said.
The accused further said that he stopped using fake driving licenses when he learned about facial recognition.
Santini, 65, wept while wearing a red prisoners’ jumpsuit during his first court appearance in Florida on July 6, where he was released last month.
Caught while trying to renew passport
Federal agents found him committing identity fraud while trying to obtain a passport, according to Florida court documents.
Rettew said his father told him something was wrong when he asked for the last 40 years of tax returns and was unable to return his birth certificate after renewing his passport in the mail.
When his passport expired, he was unable to notarize things for the water company.
Simmonds serves as president of one of the two local water boards in Campo and is well known to residents.
Some told ABC 10News reporter Austin Grabish they were stunned he was a wanted fugitive, with a colleague on the water board calling him a pillar of the community.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office
Donald Santini is wanted for the 1984 murder of Cynthia Wood, a then 33-year-old who was going through a divorce from her husband.
The Florida State Attorneys Office says Santini was contracted to kill Wood, who was going through a custody dispute with her children at the time.
Santini’s public defender did not return a request from ABC 10News but Santini himself is speaking out.
In a letter sent to ABC 10News last month from jail, he said, Things are not as they seem and admitted to committing an unrelated rape. He did not respond to Wood’s murder and said his wife of more than 30 years in San Diego had no idea who he really was.
However, Rettew refuses to believe that his father is a hitman. He doesn’t act like a killer.”
He was never violent, and never beat me when I was a kid, and like, I mean, I was a pretty bad kid.
Rettew is slowly piecing together how big his father’s lies are. He had recently told her on the phone about his other wife he still married in Texas and the baby he had left with her before he ran away.
“It’s hard for me to accept the fact that my father is married and (that I have) a sister from him, which is strange.”
Raymond Higgins
Elyxadra Rettew told Team 10 reporter Austin Grabish that she feels like her life is based on a lie. Her maiden name was fake that her father had.
He was concerned about his father’s condition behind bars and said he was placed in solitary confinement, two people who spoke with Santini told ABC 10News.
“He’s not doing very well since he arrived in Florida. They don’t treat him half as good as they treated him here in San Diego.”
But despite everything he learned, he stood by his father.
I just want everyone to wait until he’s convicted of murder to actually start saying things about him.”
Santini is due back in court in Florida on July 28th.
Do you have a tip about this story? Contact ABC 10’s Austin Grabish: [email protected]
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