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.