Authorities search home linked to 1996 killing of college student Kristin Smart

Smart went missing in California after returning from a party, and was declared legally dead in 2002

Associated Press

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Authorities plan on Thursday to enter the second day of their search of a home connected to the man convicted of killing 19-year-old college student Kristin Smart in 1996, according to law enforcement.

The San Luis Obispo county sheriff’s office served the warrant on Wednesday in the continuing investigation into Smart’s disappearance. Her remains were never found and she was declared legally dead in 2002. Paul Flores was convicted in October 2022 and ultimately sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Law enforcement officers searched a home in the central coast town of Arroyo Grande occupied by Flores’s mother, Susan Flores, according to public records and reporting by a podcast that has closely followed the case.

“The Sheriff’s office remains committed to bringing Kristin home to her family,” the sheriff’s statement said. “No further information is available.”

The Your Own Backyard podcast, which helped investigators crack the case by bringing forward additional witnesses, first reported the search and said the home belonged to Flores’s mother. Attempts to reach Susan Flores for comment on Wednesday were not successful.

Smart went missing from California Polytechnic State University in May 1996 after returning from an off-campus party. Prosecutors alleged she was killed during an attempted rape and that the last person she was seen with was Flores, a fellow student.

Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, were arrested in 2021.

Prosecutors alleged Smart’s remains were buried on Ruben Flores’s property and later moved. He was acquitted of accessory charges. That property is different from the one searched on Wednesday.

Paul Flores was sentenced in March 2023 to prison, where he has been physically attacked at least twice.

In 2024, a judge ruled that Paul Flores must pay just over $350,000 to Smart’s family for costs they incurred after her death.

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The family has said it would forgo restitution if Flores would tell them where Kristin’s body was. Flores’s attorney, Harold Mesick, said in 2024 that the defense did not know where her remains are. Flores maintains his innocence.

The county district attorney’s office said on Wednesday it was helping the sheriff’s office with the investigation.

“While those responsible for Kristin’s death – and those with knowledge of her whereabouts – could provide answers at any time, we remain firmly committed to using every lawful tool available to locate Kristin’s remains and to support her family until she is brought home,” said Dan Dow, the district attorney, in a statement.

Human Remains Appear to Have Been in Soil on Property Connected to Killer of Kristin Smart

Paul Flores was convicted of raping and murdering Kristin Smart whose body has never been found

Kristin Smart.Credit : Axel Koester/Sygma via Getty

NEED TO KNOW

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant this week at the home of Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores, who was found guilty in 2022 of the first-degree murder of Kristin Smart
Smart’s remains have never been found
Smart, a California college student, went missing while walking home from a party

After a search of a California property connected to the murder of Kristin Smart, a San Luis Obispo County Sheriff said investigators have yet to find the remains of the teen.

“I think it’s safe to say that we have not recovered Kristin yet but our search goes on,” Sheriff Ian Parkinson said at a press conference on Friday, May 8.

Parkinson said he vowed to Smart’s parents that he “would not give up the search for Kristen’s remains and it was my goal to bring Kristen home. Since that time, we’ve continued to work on the case. We’ve continued to search locations throughout probably the last couple years and that’s what led us to this past Wednesday.”

However, Parkinson said soil testing indicates that “human remains” were present on the property, at least at some point.

“We believe that based on what we’re looking at evidence wise, scientific evidence, that human remains were there at one time or still there. So we can’t call it Kristen, but you know, we think there’s evidence to support human remains there,” the sheriff said. “I’m not going to go into the details, other than just to say with soil tests, it’s about the compounds in the soil that are related to a human, decomposing body.”

Earlier this week, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant at the home of Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores, who was found guilty in 2022 of murdering of Smart, a California college student who vanished in 1996 and whose remains have never been found.

The sheriff’s office on Wednesday, May 6 announced the investigation of the Arroyo Grande property was related to the Smart disappearance.

Paul Flores.San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office

Parkinson said they returned to the home of Susan Flores with a search warrant based on “investigative leads and evidence.”

Parkinson said the home had been searched twice before with no results. Law enforcement is also using grand penetrating radar.

“We made the agreement that internally that we are not leaving that house until we are sure that we have checked everything,” the sheriff said.

“While those responsible for Kristin’s death—and those with knowledge of her whereabouts—could provide answers at any time, we remain firmly committed to using every lawful tool available to locate Kristin’s remains and to support her family until she is brought home,” the San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office added in a press release.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook

Flores, who was sentenced to life in prison for Smart’s murder in 2023, was a classmate of 19-year-old Smart’s at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo when she went missing while walking home from a party. She was last seen alive with Flores, a fellow freshman who had volunteered to walk her home.

Although he was a person of interest for decades, Flores evaded arrest until 2021.

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San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook

During his trial, San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle said Flores raped her in his dorm before killing her. He then allegedly enlisted his father Ruben to help him bury the teen under a deck at their Arroyo Grande home. Ruben was later found not guilty of accessory after the fact.

Susan Flores has not been accused of any crimes in connection with the murder of Smart.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook

After Flores and his father were arrested in 2021, Smart’s parents called the moment “bittersweet” in their decades long battle for justice. “It is impossible to put into words what this day means for our family; we pray it is the first step to bringing our daughter home,” they said in a statement.