October 21st 1985 was a Monday that started out just as normally as any day from the week
before.
However, it would prove to be a day that changed the lives of the Santana family for decades
to come.
Hi YouTube, it’s Joshua Miles and welcome back to my channel!
Today I’m going to be doing a true crime case, I’ve never done this on my channel
before.
In fact, I got rid of all my old videos so this is a new video.. new leaf.
Mhm.
I’d just like to point out that this video has not been made to cause disrespect or anything
like that - it has just been made to spread awareness about this case by compiling information
from various different public sources on the internet.
I’ve left contact information for the New York City Police Department and the Child
Find Of America organization in the description below just in case anybody watching this video
may have more information that could help with this case, or maybe even help close it.
Now with all that being said, let’s delve right into the case.
Friday October 18th 1985 was a beautiful day for the Santana family as they welcomed a
newborn baby into their lives.
Marlene Santana was born to Francisca and Tomas Santana at Brookdale Hospital, Brooklyn.
I’d just like to point out that various different sources list Francesca’s name
as slightly different variants but for the purpose of this video, I’m going to go with
the most popular reported name which is Francesca.
Marlene was kept longer than usual in the nursery due to jaundice, so Francesca would
regularly visit Marlene and watch her through the nursery window.
On the day of Marlena’s birth, Francisca was put in a wheelchair and wheeled to the
nursery window during visiting hours where she met a woman who was admiring the babies.
The woman told Francesca (idk why I said Francine) that Marlene was the prettiest baby and the
quietest one.
Francisca (oop i messed up her name again) agreed and after a few more moments of admiring the baby, the mystery woman left.
Fortunately, after three more days of being kept in the nursery, Marlene was discharged
with a clean bill of health.
A few hours later, at 9pm, Francesca checked out of the Brookdale Hospital and was met
by her two sisters who had come to take her home.
They were headed down the stairs when the same woman that Francesca met three days prior
came up to them.
The woman told Francesca that she had been waiting for her all day and then pulled out
a gun and aimed it at the baby.
She told them to walk or she was going to blow off the baby’s head.
And, scared for the baby’s life, Francesca and her step-sisters began to walk.
In fact they walked for over six blocks before they were stopped outside a deserted junkyard.
At first, Francesca believe that the woman was going to rob them but she soon realized
the woman had much more sinister plans.
The woman then took the baby, Marlene, got into the passenger side of a car and began
to drive off leaving Francesca and her step-sisters in a state of shock and horror.
Francesca thought quickly and tried to stop the car by jumping in front of it however
she soon realized that the driver of the car was not going to stop and was forced aside.
That was when Francesca immediately went to the police and detectives were assigned to
the case.
Francesca was able to describe to the police officers that the car that had got away with
Marlene was a 1976 Chavy Malibu with red lettering on its door.
She described to the police that the woman that took Marlene appeared to be in her late
20s, with short hair that was dyed to a reddish blonde.
She was white with hispanic features and had no particular accent.
Immediately after reporting this to the police, investigators were suspicious of Tomas Santana,
Marlene’s father, however this lead was quickly settled once Francesca explained that
Tomas Santana had actually been in the Dominican Republic for quite some time and thus investigators
didn’t consider him to be a suspect in this case anymore.
The same week as Marlene’s disappearance, a two-month old baby named Christopher Morgan
was also kidnapped from a different NYC hospital however he was soon returned fully healthy
back to his parents a few days later.
His abductor was immediately arrested and investigators do not believe these cases to
be connected.
Marlene Santana has not been seen since.
Marlene would be 33 years old today.
And at the time of her disappearance, she had brown hair, brown eyes and a foot condition
called metatarsus adductus which meant that Marlene’s feet appeared in a C shape when
viewed from the bottom.
Now let’s get into the theories surrounding this case.
Please keep in mind that these theories are just that, theories.
They are purely speculation and not fact and I don’t discuss them to cause disrespect,
only to further this case.
Theory 1 - Marlene was trafficked.
Investigators believe that there must be a reason that the kidnapper waited all day for
an hispanic baby.
What if Marlene was kidnapped and sold to a wealthy hispanic family that tried to have
children but couldn’t.
The kidnapper successfully held three grown woman hostage at gunpoint and then escaped with the
baby.
She committed a felony, took her target and escaped leaving no evidence.
Was this kidnapper a professional child trafficker?
A question investigators on this case ask to this day.
Theory 2 - Family Planned
A popular theory on this case is that Francesca and her step-sisters were somehow involved
in the disappearance of Marlene.
Investigators sat down Francesca and her two step-sisters separately with a police sketch
artist.
And the two sketches done by the sketch artists, do not look alike.
The lead photo-fit looks hispanic with horrible features while the other looks white with
totally different hair, face shape and is fairly attractive.
According to some sources, the three women couldn’t agree on the ethnicity of the kidnapper,
or even what color her hair was.
Strangely enough, the photo-fit that was pushed to the public looks eriley like Richard Ramirez
aka The Night Stalker who was responsible for the satanic murder of 13 people, the attempted
murder of 5, the sexual assault of 11 people and burglary of 14.
Richard Ramirez was actually captured and arrested two weeks prior to Marlene’s disappearance
with his face being plastered all over public news.
Maybe Francesca and her step sisters desperately needed the money so sold the baby into child
trafficking.
Maybe they accidentally killed the baby and they were covering it up.
Theory 3 - An Affair
The final theory in this case builds on the previous theory that Francesca and her two
step-sisters were involved.
It is the theory that Marlene was not actually Tomas Santana’s child (Francesca’s husband),
and was in fact the result of an affair Francesca had had while Tomas was in the Dominican Republic.
The theory states that Francesca and her step-sisters worked together to cook up an elaborate scheme
to sell the child to a rich family, or to human traffickers, or even more sinisterly,
murdered the baby and hid the body
All we know is that Francesca soon after the kidnapping moved back to the Dominican Republic
as she did not feel safe in the US.
Maybe she was running away from potential prosecution.
Maybe she thought that she’d be found out.
I know that if I were in her shoes, and my baby was kidnapped, I would not move country
and I’d work tirelessly day and night to try and find my baby.
What really happened that fateful day in October 1985, only the Santana family know for sure.
Thank-you so much for watching this first episode in my true crime series.
Again, if you have any more information about this case please use the contact information
in the description box below.
Let me know in the comments what you think about this case.
Which theory do you believe?
What do you think happened to Marlene?
Give this video a thumbs up if you found it interesting and don’t forget to subscribe
if you wanna see more videos like this in the near future!
Goodbye!