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It’s been 35 years since Suanne Burt Sardi last spoke with her older sister, Sandra.

Thirty-five years since the two women hung up the phone on an early morning in January, promising to check in again in the afternoon.

Thirty-five years since 41-year-old Sandra Burt Carrera was found shot to death in her Arlington, Virginia, home.

Suanne was only 25 years old on January 15, 1991, when she received a phone call from her 11-year-old nephew, Alex Carrera. “He said, ‘Aunt Suanne, my mother’s dead. She’s shot in the head,’” Suanne told Dateline. “It just seemed inconceivable.”

And it was. Just hours earlier, Sandra had been alive and well. The sisters had been catching up on the phone. Sandra was living in Arlington, Virginia, where she worked in marketing for HOK Architecture. “She loved living in D.C.,” Suanne recalled. “She just thought it was so exciting.”

“She was very warm, she was very funny, and bright,” Suanne said. Sandra was 16 years older than Suanne and “was kind of like a second mom” to her. She was dedicated to her work, carving out her place in the architecture industry — first in Pittsburgh, and then in Washington, D.C. But according to Suanne, “her number one job was mom” to her son, Alex.

Sandra moved to Arlington following her divorce from Alex’s father. According to Suanne, the divorce had been amicable, and Sandra had started dating again.

On the morning of January 15, Sandra and Suanne spoke on the phone. Sandra told Suanne that the man she was seeing had come over the night before, but had already left before they got on the phone. They talked for a bit before Suanne had to hang up. “I remember the last thing I said was, ‘I have to go, I have to get to econ class.’ And she said, ‘OK, I’ll call you later.’” The sisters made plans to talk again in the afternoon around 2:00 p.m., and then said their goodbyes.

The afternoon came and went. Suanne, who was earning her MBA at the University of Pittsburgh, was having friends over that night. “I never thought about the fact that she didn’t call me,” Suanne said. “And then at six o’clock that night, Alex called me.”