The family of Sharon Santos, who was kidnapped and murdered 20 years ago, is pushing to reopen the cold case.

COVINA, Calif. (KABC) — Two decades after a Burbank woman was kidnapped and murdered, her family still hopes for justice, and they are more determined than ever to reopen her case and find her killer.

Family and friends gathered Saturday at the Lincoln Room in Covina to celebrate Sharon Santos’ 51st birthday.

“Sharon was just the light that came into the room, she was happy, she brought people together,” said Sharon’s friend Nina Haynes.

This group has met every year for the past 20 years to celebrate her birthday – without her.

“Twenty years later, we still haven’t gotten justice on her behalf,” 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 hoped for a better result. She went missing and we just thought, “Okay, she’s out there somewhere,” and a lot of us just got angry. And so far we have not been able to get justice from the person who did this,” Haynes said.

Family and friends now hope Burbank police can reopen the case and take steps to find the person who killed Sharon.

“Over the past 20 years, there have been a lot of new developments, technologies and forensics that we hope can be applied and that we hope will lead to new leads in this case,” Santos said.

As a group of Sharon’s loved ones come together for another year on the 20th anniversary of her death, they are now planning to launch a grassroots campaign to get her case reopened and hope it can spread throughout the community to finally get justice for her. .

Sharon’s sister said she spoke with Burbank police a couple of days ago and they said there were no new developments in the case, but they open the case periodically.