Airport shooting suspect, girlfriend met at low points in their lives
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The person who might know the most about Esteban Santiago’s final troubled months in Alaska is Gina Marie Peterson, the 40-year-old mother of his child and the woman he once beat and strangled.
Accused of murdering five travelers during last week’s bloody rampage at the Fort Lauderdale airport, Santiago, 26, was due to have a domestic assault conviction dismissed in March — if he kept his record clean. He now faces the death penalty. An Alaskan native 14 years older than her boyfriend, Peterson met Santiago when both had reached low points in their lives, neighbors, friends and relatives say.
Santiago was struggling to get mental health care in Anchorage after a combat tour in Iraq that ended in 2011, his relatives said.
Peterson was reeling from the collapse of a decade-long marriage — struggling with alcohol abuse, in and out of jail and one step ahead of rent collectors, according to court records and her neighbors in the tiny town of Bird Creek, where she had lived before moving 25 miles north to Anchorage.
A judge granted Peterson a divorce on July 9, 2014.
Less than four months after the divorce became final, Peterson had been evicted from her residence for failing to pay rent. She was jobless, broke and owed child support to her ex-husband, according to court papers.
Arriving in Alaska from Puerto Rico in the midst of her divorce proceedings, Santiago began living with her by early 2015, according to court documents.
In November, Santiago brought their newborn baby with him to the Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in Anchorage. He told authorities that the government was trying to control his mind and forced him to watch Islamic State terrorist videos — an interview that triggered a call to the Anchorage Police Department, the confiscation of his 9mm semiautomatic handgun and the return of the baby boy to Peterson.
He told law enforcement interrogators in Florida that doctors told him during an involuntary but brief November stay in an Anchorage mental health facility that he may have schizophrenia, sources told the (Fort Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel.
On Feb. 23, 2015, Peterson and Santiago were evicted from their apartment and ordered to pay $929 in back rent, court documents state.
Ticketed for a broken taillight and driving without insurance, he also had been fined $1,060 but struggled to repay the bill.
In mid-2015, it was sent to collections.
Santiago’s brother Bryan said Santiago was working at an Anchorage McDonald’s and supplemented his wages one weekend per month drilling with the Alaska Army National Guard.
Santiago joined the Puerto Rico Army National Guard in late 2007 and became a combat engineer.
He deployed to Iraq for a 10month tour that straddled 2010 and 2011.
On Jan. 10, 2016, Santiago began yelling at Peterson when she was on the toilet. Breaking through the door and smashing the frame, he ordered her to get out “while strangling her and smacking her in the side of the head,” according to the criminal complaint filed in the wake of the assault.
Arraigned before a magistrate two days later, Santiago was barred from having any contact with Peterson. The arraignment judge specifically allowed Santiago to possess weapons.
He was granted unlimited contact with Peterson if she allowed it. She apparently did, neighbors said, but the couple kept to themselves and Santiago seemed distant but polite. He spent much of his time working on his car. On New Year’s Eve, the couple threw a party.
“He wouldn’t look me in the eyes usually,” said Perette Carter. “He’d usually say, ‘How you doing, ma’am,’ and then just, like, look away.”
Carter and other Fairview neighbors said that he never mentioned Florida. “That’s the puzzle. Why Florida? He was just here on New Year’s Eve, talking.” Staff writers Paula McMahon, Sally Kestin and Megan O’Matz contributed to this report.