05:25 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 24, 2006

By Chau Nguyen / 11 News

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Thursday marks 20 years since a Texas City girl disappeared.  There are now disturbing new developments.

KHOU-TV

Shelley Sikes

Shelley Sikes was just 19 when two men admitted abducting her and burying her alive.

Sikes had just left a Galveston Island restaurant where she worked.

Her family and investigators question whether there is still justice for Shelley.

Twenty years later they remember the victim through pictures and the stories.  Shelley Sikes was a college student at the time of her death.

“It’s always just right there under the surface,” said Dana Wild, victim’s sister.

“It’s a constant companion her loss,” said Erin Sikes, victim’s mother.

Shelly Sikes vanished from her family’s lives exactly 20 years ago Thursday.

“Someway it seems like yesterday and sometimes it’s like a lifetime,” said Erin Sikes.

Now, the new ordeal is figuring out how to keep the men investigators said killed her, in prison.

Erin Sikes said, “The public does not deserve to have them unleashed on them.”

John King and Gerald Zwarst are up for parole next June.

The men admitted running Shelley Sikes car off the road as she was driving home from the Galveston restaurant where she had been working.  They said they abducted her and buried her alive.

Both received life sentences on aggravated kidnapping convictions, but were never charged with her murder,

The victim’s body was never recovered.

“We think about it often,” said Mike Guarino, former prosecutor.  “I was D.A. for 20 years.  I tried a lot of cases but this is one of the very worst.”

Tommy Hanson and Wayne Kessler were the lead investigators in the case.

Hanson still keeps Sikes’ file on his desk, frustrated the men never revealed where they buried Sikes body.

“Through the years we’ve dug up acres and acres of land in this county based on tips we’ve had with no success,” he said.

Shelly Sikes’ family may never recover her remains, but they want justice.

Now you may be wondering how the men could be up for parole even though they received life sentences.  Well, at the time, a life sentence only meant a mandatory sentence of 20 years. 

Shelley Sikes’ family plans to petition the parole board to demand their continued incarceration.