Family of Burbank woman kidnapped, killed 20 years ago pushes to reopen cold case

COVINA, Calif. (KABC) -- Two decades after the kidnapping and murder of a Burbank woman, her family is still holding out hope for justice, and they're as determined as ever to reopen her case and find her killer.

On Saturday, inside the Lincoln Room in Covina, family and friends gathered to celebrate Sharon Santos's 51st birthday.

"Sharon was just a light coming into a room, she was happy, she brought people together," said Sharon's friend Nina Haynes.

This group has been getting together every year, for the past 20 years, to celebrate her birthday - without her.

"Twenty years later we have still not had justice in her name," said Sharon's sister Sandra Santos.

Sharon disappeared 20 years ago after leaving her job at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank. She was later found dead in the trunk of her car in Chinatown.

Her sister says no one has been arrested in connection with her death.

"It was devastating. We had hoped for a better outcome. She went missing and we just thought 'OK she's somewhere,' a lot of us were just angry. And up to now, we haven't been able to get justice from the person who did this," Haynes said.

Family and friends are now hoping that Burbank police can reopen the case and make moves to find the person who killed Sharon.

"In the 20 years that have transpired there is a host of new developments, technology and forensics-wise that we hope can be applied that we're hoping will bring new leads to the case," Santos said.

As the group of Sharon's loved ones comes together for another year - on the 20th anniversary of her death, they now plan to start a grassroots campaign to get her case reopened, and they hope it can spread into the community to finally get justice for her.

Sharon's sister said she spoke with Burbank police a couple of days ago and they shared that there aren't any new developments in the case but that they open the case periodically.