Nearly three decades after Kristin Smart vanished, investigators served a search warrant at the home of her killer’s mother, as the search continues for the late Cal Poly student’s remains.
Investigators with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office returned Wednesday to the Arroyo Grande property on East Branch Street to serve a search warrant three years after a group of scientists say they discovered a detection of potential remains.
The home belongs to Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores, who was convicted in 2022 of killing Smart in 1996 when they were both students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in 2023, where he has been attacked twice.
Smart was legally declared dead in 2002, but her body has never been found, despite previous searches of multiple family properties.
Susan Flores has never been charged in connection with Smart’s murder. But her property has drawn renewed attention within the past three years after a team of scientists using soil vapor testing on several of the Flores’ properties detected compounds they said were “consistent with human decomposition” in her yard, the Los Angeles Times reported. It is unclear whether those specific findings played a role in obtaining the recent search warrant.
Few details were released by the sheriff’s office about the operation, with authorities only saying that the search was related to the ongoing investigation into Smart’s disappearance and the ongoing effort to find her remains.
“The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to bringing Kristin home to her family,” the agency said in a statement. “No further information is available.”
The Independent has reached out to Susan Flores for comment.
Smart was 19 years old when she went missing from California Polytechnic State University during Memorial Day weekend in 1996.
Prosecutors said Flores, a fellow student at the time, killed Smart during an attempted rape after an off-campus party. He was the last person seen with her before she vanished.
The case remained cold for years until renewed public attention, fueled in part by the podcast Your Own Backyard, helped generate new witnesses and evidence.
In 2021, investigators arrested Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores.
The same group of scientists who searched Susan Flores’ yard had also searched beneath Ruben Flores’ deck, uncovering what prosecutors described as a soil disturbance roughly the size of a casket, along with traces of human blood, prosecutors said, but it was too degraded to extract a DNA sample.
Prosecutors alleged Ruben Flores helped conceal Smart’s body beneath the deck of his Arroyo Grande home before the remains were later moved. He was acquitted of accessory charges.
Chris Lambert, the creator of the Your Own Backyard podcast, which helped investigators crack the case, first reported Wednesday’s search and said the home belongs to Flores’ mother.
“Kristin’s parents have been waiting all this time to learn what happened to her remains – regardless of where they are today – to just know where they ended up and what happened to them,” Lambert told The Tribune.
“So hopefully, every time a search like this happens, the hope is that they are going to finally recover her, and if they don’t, then something they recover here will lead them to those answers.”
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.
The family has said it would forgo restitution if Flores would tell them where Smart’s body was. Flores’ attorney, Harold Mesick, said in 2024 that the defense did not know where her remains are. Flores maintains his innocence.
Earlier this year, the California Supreme Court denied Paul Flores’ petition to review his conviction.
District Attorney Dan Dow said his office continues to work closely with investigators in the effort to locate Smart’s remains.
“Since the jury convicted Paul Flores for the murder of Kristin Smart, the District Attorney’s Office has continued working in coordination with the Sheriff’s Office to fulfill our shared commitment to the Smart family and this community: to bring Kristin home,” Dow said in a statement.
“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 search continued into Wednesday evening and was expected to resume Thursday, officials said.
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