Disappearance of Kristin Smart

Kristin Smart
Smart in March 1995
Born	Kristin Denise Smart[1] (1977-02-20)February 20, 1977 Augsburg, Bavaria, West Germany
Disappeared	May 25, 1996 (aged 19) San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.
Status	Missing for 25 years and 19 days; declared dead in absentia on May 25, 2002(2002-05-25) (aged 25)
Nationality	American
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[2][3] or 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[4][5]
Parents	Stan Smart (father) Denise Smart (mother)

Kristin Denise Smart (born February 20, 1977,^[1][6] legally presumed dead May 25, 2002) was an American woman who is presumed to have been abducted, raped and killed at the end of her freshman year of college on the campus of California Polytechnic State University. Three fellow students escorted Smart back to her hall of residence after an off-campus party; two of them asked the third, Paul Flores, to complete the trip. After Flores completed the trip with Smart, she was never seen again.

On May 25, 1996, at California Polytechnic State University, Smart attended a birthday party of a friend. At approximately 2 a.m., she was found passed out on a neighbor's lawn, and two students helped her walk to her dorm room. A third student named Paul Flores joined the group due to the close proximity of his dorm to Smart's. Paul Flores told the other two students he would get Kristin home safely. This was the last known sighting of her.

Originally, authorities believed she was on an unannounced vacation. Between 1996 and 2007, there were various searches for her, with none being successful in finding her.

Her disappearance resulted in state legislation, including the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act, a bill which requires all public colleges and publicly funded educational institutions to have their security services make agreements with local police departments about reporting cases involving or possibly involving violence against students, including missing students. The bill was passed unanimously by the California State Legislature and was signed into law by governor Pete Wilson.

On April 13, 2021, Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, were arrested and taken into custody on suspicion of Smart's disappearance. Their homes were searched, and investigators found numerous "items of interest".

Background

Kristin Denise Smart was born February 20, 1977, in Augsburg, Bavaria, West Germany, to Stan and Denise Smart, both teachers to children of American military personnel.^[2] She had one brother and one sister.^[2] When she was a child, Smart moved with her family to Stockton, California. She attended and graduated from Lincoln High School in Stockton, California in 1995.^[2] Before her disappearance, she worked as a lifeguard and camp counselor at Camp Mokuleia, Hawaii.^[7]

Disappearance

Kristin Smart enrolled at California Polytechnic State University, or Cal Poly, in San Luis Obispo, California in 1996. On the night she disappeared, which fell on Memorial Day weekend, on May 25, 1996, she attended a birthday party for a friend at a fraternity house. Her friends did not want to attend the party, so they dropped her off.^[8]

At approximately 2 a.m. she was found passed out on a neighbor's lawn by two fellow students, Cheryl Anderson and Tim Davis, who both had just left the party.^[8][9] They helped Smart to her feet and decided to walk her back to her nearby dormitory. Another student from the party, Paul Flores, joined their group and offered to help the two return Smart to her dorm room.

Davis departed the group first since he lived off campus and had driven to the party. Anderson was the second to depart the group, heading to Sierra Madre Hall, after she told Flores that he could walk Smart back to her dorm, since he lived closer.^[10] Flores stated to police that he walked Smart as far as his dormitory, Santa Lucia Hall, and then allowed her to walk back to her Muir Hall dorm by herself.^[11] This was the last known sighting of her. She did not have any money or credit cards at the time she went missing.^[12]

Official investigation

The University Police Department^[13] originally suspected that Smart had gone on an unannounced vacation, as was common among students over the holidays, and as a result were slow in reporting her as a missing person to local law enforcement.

Several volunteers searched for her. Some of them were riding horses, and some used ground-penetrating radar devices.^[8]

During the Laci Peterson murder investigation, there were unfounded rumors in the media that Laci's husband Scott Peterson had something to do with Smart's disappearance due to their simultaneous attendance at the Cal Poly campus.^[14] There was a brief initial inquiry into whether Peterson was tied to the disappearance, with Peterson denying any involvement, and he was eventually ruled out as a suspect by police.^[15]

Although her body was never discovered, what might have been Smart's earring was found by a tenant at the former residence of Paul Flores's mother. This earring was not marked as evidence and has since been lost by the police.^[16] Between 1996 and 2007, various searches for her remains and other evidence were conducted, some using cadaver dogs trained to detect the scent of human remains, including searches of properties owned by the Flores family. No useful leads were found for nearly two decades.^[17]

On September 6, 2016, officials from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office announced they were investigating a new lead in the case.^[18] Cadaver dogs from the FBI were brought in and investigators were preparing to spend approximately four days excavating an area on the Cal Poly campus.^[18] After three days, items were found at all three dig sites located on the same hillside near Smart's dorm. A spokesman for the sheriff's office said, "The items are being analyzed to see whether they are connected to the case, which could take days, weeks or months".^[19] The items uncovered are still being investigated as of 2020^[update].^[20]

On April 20, 2021, it was announced by the prosecutor that they believe Kristin's body had been buried beneath the deck of Ruben Flores' home, but had recently been removed. Biological evidence was found by using ground penetrating radar and cadaver dogs.^[21]

Legal proceedings

Smart was declared legally dead on May 25, 2002, the sixth anniversary of her disappearance.^[22] In 2005, her parents, Denise and Stan Smart, took a civil case of wrongful death against Flores, one of the three students who walked Smart to her dorm. The Smart family was represented by James R Murphy,^[23] on a pro bono basis. Flores denied any involvement in the disappearance. The Flores family had also filed a lawsuit against the Smart family for emotional distress.^[17]

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office regularly reviewed the case, and spent thousands of hours and dollars during the period 2011–2016.^[24] The FBI have her on file as a high priority missing person investigation, with a reward of $75,000 for information leading to finding her or resolving her case.^[25] Terry Black, a Delta-area man, offered a $100,000 reward for Smart's body.^[26]

Beginning September 30, 2019, musician Chris Lambert released a series of eight podcast episodes.^[27] The podcast recounts, in detail, Kristin's probable abduction and subsequent death at the hands of another student on the campus of California Polytechnic State University over 24 years ago. The podcast has been downloaded over ten million times. Renewed public interest led to a new billboard being put up in Arroyo Grande in January 2020 to replace the original, which had been up since 1997.^[28]

On January 18, 2020, the Stockton Record reported that the FBI informed Smart's family that additional news about her disappearance would be coming and that the family "might want to get away for a while" but did not provide any specific information. However, on January 22, 2020, The Record issued a correction: the FBI did not contact the Smart family; rather, a retired FBI agent who had been in contact with the family for years was the source of the advice.^[29][30] On January 29, the San Luis Obispo police department confirmed that two trucks owned by Flores had been taken in as evidence.^[31] On February 5, 2020, search warrants were served for "specific items of evidence" at four different locations – two in San Luis Obispo, one in Washington state, and at a home in Los Angeles County.^[32] Flores was briefly detained during the search.^[33][34][35]

On April 22, 2020, the Los Angeles Times reported that a search warrant was served at the home of Paul Flores in San Pedro, California. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department assisted detectives from San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Department in the search.^[36] It was reported that numerous "items of interest" were successfully found during the search.^[37] The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department is now continuing the investigation but no further public information is available at this time. Those items of interest included computer towers, cell phones, and electronics decades old.

On February 11, 2021, KSBY reported that Paul Flores was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which is a felony.^[38] On March 15, 2021, a search warrant was issued to search Ruben Flores' home, including the use of cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar. An older-model Volkswagen was towed from the home of Ruben Flores after cadaver dogs searched the vehicle.^[39] On April 13, 2021, Paul Flores and his father Ruben Flores were taken into custody by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department in relation to the case. Paul Flores was charged with murder; Ruben Flores was charged with being an accessory.^[40][41] Investigations later concluded that Paul Flores attempted to rape Smart, although Dan Dow, District Attorney of the County of San Luis Obispo, has stated that the statute of limitations has expired on a sexual assault charge, but murder committed in the course of rape or attempted rape justified first-degree felony charges.^[42][43]

Aftermath

Legislation

Smart's disappearance and slow response by the campus police resulted in the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act being written and sponsored by State Senator Mike Thompson, passed 61–0 by the California State Legislature, and signed into effect by then-Governor Pete Wilson on August 19, 1998. The law took effect on January 1, 1999, and requires all public colleges and publicly funded educational institutions to have their security services make agreements with local police departments about reporting cases involving or possibly involving violence against students, including missing students.

See also

• Disappearance of Lauren Spierer
• Disappearance of Tara Grinstead
• Disappeared (TV series)
• Holly Bobo murder case
• List of people who disappeared
• List of kidnappings

References

Sources

• Mitchell, Corey (2003). Dead and Buried: A Shocking Account of Rape, Torture, and Murder on the California Coast. New York City, New York: Pinnacle Books. ISBN 978-0-786-01517-7.
• https://www.nytimes.com

External links

• FBI Missing Person Report on Kristin Smart
• San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department Report on Kristin's Disappearance (Archived January 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine)
• North American Missing Persons Network Report on Kristin's Case
• Article about the investigation into Scott Peterson's possible connection with Kristin Smart's disappearance. (Archived November 15, 2004, at the Wayback Machine)
• The Charley Project: Kristin Smart
• Reader's Room Article on Kristin's disappearance (Archived October 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine)
• findkristinsmart.org
• The text of Kristin Smart Campus Security Act 1998 from the California State Legislature Senate website.
• KSBY Investigates: Kristin Smart disappearance
• Kristin Smart at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• kristinsmart.org website
• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/us/flores-kristin-smart.html