Francesca Santana thought nothing of her conversation with the dirty-blond-haired woman in the nursery of the Brookdale Hospital in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. With smiles on their faces, the two women were looking through the window at the newborn babies.
Three days earlier, on October 18, 1985, Francesca had given birth to her third child, a girl she named Marlene. When Francesca pointed her out, the other woman lavished her with compliments, saying Marlene was the prettiest and quietest newborn of them all. Francesca thanked her and was filled with the warmest of feelings.
Three hours later, as Francesca was leaving the hospital with her newborn daughter, she again encountered the woman; this time, her demeanor was starkly different. The result was a stolen life as Francesca was deprived of raising her daughter.
Marlene Santana
Twenty-four-year Francesca Santana was a naturalized American who lived in the Crown Heights sections of Brooklyn. Her husband, Tomas, was in their native Dominican Republic when Marlene was born.
Francesca Santana
Following the birth, Marlene was found to have a mild case of jaundice. She and Francesca were kept at the hospital for observation.
After three days, mother and daughter were each given a clean bill of health.
Drawing of Marlene Santana
At approximately 9:30 p.m. on the evening of October 21, Francesca was checked out of Brookdale Hospital. Her two sisters-in-law picked her up (some articles state one of the women was instead her cousin).
As the women exited the hospital, the same woman whom Fancesca had spoken to earlier in the hospital nursery lurked outside waiting for them. She approached Francesca and pointed a large black gun at infant Marlene’s head.
With an ominous tone in her voice and look of anger on her face, she ordered the women to walk, all the while with the gun pointed at Marlene’s head. She threatened to kill the infant if any of the women tried to wrestle the gun away. They walked for six blocks before the assailant ordered them to stop at a deserted junkyard.
The women thought they were being robbed, and they were, but of something far more valuable than money. The assailant ordered Francseca to hand Marlene to her. After the new mother hesitated, the armed woman pressed the gun further into Marlene and demanded that she be given the baby. With tears of terror streaming down her face Francesca, fearing for her daughter’s life, relented. The abductor also took a pink shopping bag containing a gift bag with samples of baby powder and disposable diapers.
At that moment, a car sped into the junkyard parking lot. The last image Francesca has of the daughter she would never know was of her being carried into the car and the vehicle speeding away.
Francesca Is Forced to Surrender Her Baby
On October 20, the day before Marlene’s abduction, two-month-old Christopher Martin had been kidnapped from New York City’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, twenty miles north of Brookdale Hospital, where he was receiving treatment for an eating disorder. He was found safe in Harlem four days later.
Christopher had been taken by a woman named Toni Reed, a mother of three who had suffered a stillbirth ten days earlier. She had told her husband the baby was still at the hospital because it was sick.
Police believe the woman who took Marlene may had recently had a stillborn child, but Toni Reed did not have the physical features of her kidnapper. She was cleared of any involvement in her abduction. Police concluded the two kidnappings are unrelated and that the timing was coincidental.
Investigators checked all New York City area hospitals for women who had miscarriages or stillborn children shortly before the kidnapping. They found many, but none matched the description of Marlene’s abductor.
On October 22, the day after Marlene’s kidnapping, the body of a newborn girl was found in a dumpster in the Fort Green section of Brooklyn, approximately five miles northwest of where Marlene was kidnapped. Fingerprint comparisons confirmed the infant was not Marlene.
Few clues have surfaced to Marlene Santana’s fate in the thirty-eight years since her abduction.
A Second Infant Is Kidnapped
The woman who kidnapped Marlene Santana is Caucasian with Hispanic features, but she spoke without an accent. At the time, she had a medium build, was approximately five-feet-two-inches tall, and weighed about one-hundred-thirty pounds. Her hair appeared to be either dyed reddish-blond or dirty blond; she was possibly wearing a wig. She appeared to be in her late-twenties to early-thirties, meaning she would likely now be in her mid-to-late sixties.
Marlene may have been put up for adoption shortly after her kidnapping, but police believe it more likely she was abducted by the woman to be raised as her own child. They do not believe the abductor was a career criminal, but instead was an emotionally disturbed woman who was either unable to have children or who had recently lost a young child, suffered a miscarriage, or given birth to a stillborn baby.
The car driven by the woman’s accomplice was a white 1976 Chevy Malibu with red lettering on its doors; it may have been a gypsy cab (an unlicensed taxi cab). Francesca and her sisters-in-law could not tell if the driver was a man or woman.
Composites of Marlene Santana’s Abductor
Following Marlene’s kidnapping, Tomas and Francesca Santana returned to the Dominican Republic where they still live, running a small supermarket.
The couple had a daughter and son, Jasmin and Juan, before Marlene. They later had another daughter and son, Ana and Jose. Jose is not pictured in the photo.
The Santana Family, Still Minus Marlene
Marlene Santana was three days old when she was kidnapped at gunpoint on October 21, 1985. She is Hispanic with brown hair and brown eyes. When taken, she weighed seven pounds and was wrapped in a blanket with pastel pink and blue print adorned with small white rabbits over a white background. The thick cotton garment had a zipper on the front. Marlene was still wearing her hospital ID bracelet when she was taken.
No photographs of the infant Marlene were taken prior to her kidnapping. The images are composite sketches of her done to the approximate age of three-years-old.
No dental records of Marlene Santana are available.
Composites of Marlene Santana
Marlene was born with a foot deformity termed a metatarsus adductus. Commonly called “pigeon toe,” the condition would have made her feet appear C-shaped if viewed from the bottom during her early years.
Treatment is rarely needed as the problem is usually corrected as the child grows and walks normally.
Marlene Had a Foot Deformity
Marlene Santana turned thirty-eight-years-old three days ago. The most recent computer-aged image of her which I could find is below, done in 2010 to age twenty-five.
I assume, but could not find, any source stating that Marlene’s parents and siblings have submitted DNA samples in the hopes of finding a match.
If you have any information of the whereabouts of Marlene Santana, please contact the New York City Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at 1-212-694-7781, or Child Find of America at 1-800-426-5678.
Computer-Aged Image
Nineteen-day-old Carlina White was kidnapped from Harlem, only a few miles from Brooklyn, on July 15, 1987, a little over two years after Marlene Santana. In 2011, a woman who was raised as Nedjra Vance was determined through DNA testing to be Carlina.
In 2012, Carlina’s abductor, Ann Pettway was sentenced to twelve years in prison. Investigators do not believe she was involved in Marlene’s abduction.
Carlina White and Marlene Santana’s cases were profiled on the same episode of Unsolved Mysteries in 1989. The Santana family hopes there will one day be a similar resolution to Marlene’s case as to that of Carlina’s.
Carlina White Reunited with Her Parents
SOURCES:
- America’s Most Wanted
- Charley Project
- Doe Network
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
- New York Times
- Unsolved Mysteries
I remember watching the episodes of both Marlene Santana & Carlina White on Unsolved Mysteries when they aired in 1989. I continue to watch it and it remains one of my very favorite TV shows.