CA KRISTIN SMART: Missing from San Luis Obispo, CA - 25 May 1996 - Age 19 *PAUL FLORES GUILTY*

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Kristin was last seen on May 25, 1996. Her nickname is Roxy. FOUL PLAY IS SUSPECTED.
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Smart was a freshman architecture major at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, California in 1996. She departed from an off-campus party and headed for her dormitory at approximately 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. on May 25, 1996. At the party, Smart was acting as if she was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. When she left the gathering, she was having trouble walking.

Smart was accompanied by a female acquaintance and another student from the university, Paul R. Flores, when she left the party. Her friend separated from Smart and Flores at the intersection of Perimeter Road and Grand Avenue on the college campus.

Flores allegedly told Smart's friend that he would see Smart to her home. She was last seen walking north on Grand Avenue with Flores, towards Muir Hall, her dormitory. Smart has never been heard from again. She was not carrying any identification, cash or personal belongings at the time she vanished.

NCMEC - NamUs - Doe Network -

 
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New evidence revealed in decades-old case of missing Cal Poly student

Investigators revealed new evidence in the decades-old case of a missing 19-year-old Cal Poly student from Stockton.

Kristin Smart disappeared almost 24 years ago. A fellow Cal Poly student, Paul Flores, was the last person known to have seen her alive.

At the time, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office said Flores was the only suspect, but charges were never filed against him.

Sheriff's investigators announced this week they took two trucks as evidence. Both vehicles belonged to the Flores family in 1996, the year Smart disappeared.

Law enforcement said 37 pieces of evidence in the case are being re-examined using DNA testing.



Break in the Cal Poly Kristin Smart case? Sheriff seizes trucks

In response to the large number of recent public inquiries, San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s investigators revealed they confiscated two trucks that belonged to a family of a male Cal Poly student who was the last person seen with Kristin Smart nearly a quarter century ago.

In a Wednesday news release, the sheriff wrote: “Although it is generally not our practice to comment on items of evidence in active investigations, in this specific case we can confirm that the Sheriff’s Office currently holds two trucks in evidence that belonged to Flores family members in 1996.”

It is unclear how long the sheriff has had these trucks and what relevance, if any, they hold to the case of the missing 19-year-old. The sheriff would not say anything more specific.

 
Kristin Smart disappearance: Search warrants issued in hunt for California student who vanished in 1996

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s office served four search warrants and detained the primary suspect Wednesday in the case of the disappearance of California Polytechnic student Kristin Smart, who vanished more than 20 years ago.

Police served four search warrants in two locations in San Luis Obispo County, one in Los Angeles County and one in Washington state, respectively, according to a press release.

Kristin Smart was a 19-year-old freshman at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo when she disappeared May 25, 1996. The prime suspect in the case, Paul Flores, has maintained his innocence but reportedly refused to cooperate with police.

On Wednesday morning, members of the Sheriff’s Office and the FBI were seen outside of the home of Flores’ mother in Arroyo Grande, and caution tape was posted to keep onlookers out, according to The SLO Tribune.

Another location was a home in a neighborhood where Flores himself has lived since 2010. Flores was detained during the duration of the search and then released, The Tribune reported.

[...]

Former San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ed Williams previously said “there are no other suspects” than Paul Flores in Kristin Smart’s disappearance.

 

Chris Lambert’s “Your Own Backyard” sparks resurgence in Kristin Smart’s case

For just over two decades, the name “Kristin Smart” has been locally associated with an unresolved murder, a potentially botched investigation, and an outdated billboard posted in the Village of Arroyo Grande.

Kristin Smart is a household name now, which can be largely attributed to Chris Lambert, an Orcutt, Calif. based singer/songwriter. Lambert’s debut of his podcast, “Your Own Backyard,” on Sept. 30, 2019, has prompted yet another revival of the case.

The podcast, available on his website, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, has reached almost four million downloads since it first aired six months ago, and its popularity has helped a once local story gain international attention.
 
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office has served another search warrant related to missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, the agency announced Wednesday.

The Sheriff’s Office said the search warrant was for specific items of evidence at the Los Angeles County home of longtime person-of-interest Paul Flores.

The warrant was served at around 7 a.m. Wednesday with the help of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, according to a news release.

 

Supporters observe 24th anniversary of Kristin Smart’s disappearance

Monday marks 24 years since the disappearance of Kristin Smart.

Despite the time, her case is far from cold.

"There is more hope than ever before," said Sandee Hunt-Burns, social media coordinator for Warriors for Kristin. "At this time last year, Chris Lambert was just simply in production of Your Own Backyard podcast."

Oructt resident Chris Lambert renewed attention to the case with his podcast Your Own Backyard. He is credited with inspiring many to share Smart's case, like radio personality Sandy Danger.


This year's anniversary shows marked progress in the case.

"We've now had a worldly recognized podcast about Kristin," said Hunt-Burns. "We've had transparency from the sheriff's department that we've not had in 24 years... and all these warrants we've been able to witness."

Smart supporters hope that the next anniversary brings justice.

"We're really hoping to see that tick-tock of the clock turn to a very loud chime," said Hunt-Burns.
 

Missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart to be featured on CBS ’48 Hours’ show​

A popular true crime television show will delve into the disappearance of Kristin Smart, a Cal Poly freshman who went missing 24 years ago.

“48 Hours” will feature Smart’s story Saturday at 10 p.m. Saturday on CBS.

Saturday’s episode, “The Disappearance of Kristin Smart,” features interviews with Smart’s friends and family and Chris Lambert, an Orcutt resident who hosts a podcast about Smart’s disappearance.
 

WAS THE BEEPING IN A BACKYARD COMING FROM A MISSING WOMAN'S DIGITAL WATCH?​

A popular podcast raises intriguing questions about the disappearance of college freshman Kristin Smart

In the fall of 1996, a young mother named Mary Lassiter was looking for a house to rent in Arroyo Grande, California. She spotted an ad for a rental that a woman named Susan Flores had put in the local newspaper. The charming blue house with the picket fence on East Branch Street seemed perfect. In October 1996, Mary and her family moved in.

The Lassisters say soon after, strange postcards began showing up in their mailbox. They were meant for Susan Flores – asking her to cooperate with police and have her son come forward. That's how the Lassiters learned that their landlord's son, Paul, was the prime suspect in the disappearance of a young college student in nearby San Luis Obispo.


More than two decades later, Chris Lambert, a podcaster who was investigating Kristin's disappearance, tracked down and interviewed Mary Lassiter. His podcast, "Your Own Backyard," has become a big hit – attracting millions of listeners eager to hear every detail surrounding this unsolved case. "48 Hours" contributor Jonathan Vigliotti takes viewers inside the popular podcast and haunting case in "The Disappearance of Kristin Smart," an all-new "48 Hours" airing Saturday, November 28 at 10/9c on CBS.

Over the years, Susan Flores's backyard has been the focus of widespread speculation because of stories like the ones Mary Lassiter told Chris Lambert. She told him that shortly after moving in, she was washing her car in the driveway and found an earring next to the left front tire. The earring was turned over to the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office, but investigators will never know if it belonged to Kristin, because it was misplaced. Lassiter told Lambert the earring she found matched the necklace Kristin was wearing on one of the "Missing Cal Poly Student" billboards.

But perhaps Mary Lassiter's most disturbing story was about being awakened very early in the morning by a beeping sound coming from the backyard.

As she told Chris Lambert, "In the master bedroom, I'm hearing this 'beep beep' every night at 4:20, or 4:20 in the morning." It sounded like a digital watch alarm, but Lassiter couldn't find a watch anywhere outside. The backyard was all concrete except for a couple of areas where planter boxes had been created by cutting out the concrete and filling them with soil.

Chris Lambert told Jonathan Vigliotti, "It drove [Mary Lassiter] crazy and she went out there many times in the middle of the night to try to find it with sticks, sticking down into the planter boxes down in the soil." She told Lambert that after several months, the beeping stopped. He believes that meant "the batteries went dead and that the object that was beeping hadn't been there very long."


When Lambert later told Kristin's mother, Denise, about those early morning beeping sounds in Susan Flores's backyard, he said her reaction was "shock … we just kind of stared at each other for a good long time … I think it took a while to settle in, that this could potentially be huge." And very chilling. Denise had told Lambert that her daughter had been working as a lifeguard at the university's rec center, and every morning Kristin's watch alarm went off to make sure she was at the pool by 5 a.m.

Over the years, law enforcement and the Smarts' lawyers have searched Susan Flores's backyard several times, but nothing has ever been found. Investigators could have excavated the yard, but their decision not to was a crushing blow for the Smart family.
 

WAS THE BEEPING IN A BACKYARD COMING FROM A MISSING WOMAN'S DIGITAL WATCH?​

A popular podcast raises intriguing questions about the disappearance of college freshman Kristin Smart

In the fall of 1996, a young mother named Mary Lassiter was looking for a house to rent in Arroyo Grande, California. She spotted an ad for a rental that a woman named Susan Flores had put in the local newspaper. The charming blue house with the picket fence on East Branch Street seemed perfect. In October 1996, Mary and her family moved in.

The Lassisters say soon after, strange postcards began showing up in their mailbox. They were meant for Susan Flores – asking her to cooperate with police and have her son come forward. That's how the Lassiters learned that their landlord's son, Paul, was the prime suspect in the disappearance of a young college student in nearby San Luis Obispo.


More than two decades later, Chris Lambert, a podcaster who was investigating Kristin's disappearance, tracked down and interviewed Mary Lassiter. His podcast, "Your Own Backyard," has become a big hit – attracting millions of listeners eager to hear every detail surrounding this unsolved case. "48 Hours" contributor Jonathan Vigliotti takes viewers inside the popular podcast and haunting case in "The Disappearance of Kristin Smart," an all-new "48 Hours" airing Saturday, November 28 at 10/9c on CBS.

Over the years, Susan Flores's backyard has been the focus of widespread speculation because of stories like the ones Mary Lassiter told Chris Lambert. She told him that shortly after moving in, she was washing her car in the driveway and found an earring next to the left front tire. The earring was turned over to the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office, but investigators will never know if it belonged to Kristin, because it was misplaced. Lassiter told Lambert the earring she found matched the necklace Kristin was wearing on one of the "Missing Cal Poly Student" billboards.

But perhaps Mary Lassiter's most disturbing story was about being awakened very early in the morning by a beeping sound coming from the backyard.

As she told Chris Lambert, "In the master bedroom, I'm hearing this 'beep beep' every night at 4:20, or 4:20 in the morning." It sounded like a digital watch alarm, but Lassiter couldn't find a watch anywhere outside. The backyard was all concrete except for a couple of areas where planter boxes had been created by cutting out the concrete and filling them with soil.

Chris Lambert told Jonathan Vigliotti, "It drove [Mary Lassiter] crazy and she went out there many times in the middle of the night to try to find it with sticks, sticking down into the planter boxes down in the soil." She told Lambert that after several months, the beeping stopped. He believes that meant "the batteries went dead and that the object that was beeping hadn't been there very long."


When Lambert later told Kristin's mother, Denise, about those early morning beeping sounds in Susan Flores's backyard, he said her reaction was "shock … we just kind of stared at each other for a good long time … I think it took a while to settle in, that this could potentially be huge." And very chilling. Denise had told Lambert that her daughter had been working as a lifeguard at the university's rec center, and every morning Kristin's watch alarm went off to make sure she was at the pool by 5 a.m.

Over the years, law enforcement and the Smarts' lawyers have searched Susan Flores's backyard several times, but nothing has ever been found. Investigators could have excavated the yard, but their decision not to was a crushing blow for the Smart family.
If this is true, it makes me mad. You have a missing young woman and you misplace an earring in a case like that? And if the beep is true, you don't keep looking or at it until you can find the item that caused the beep and perhaps her as well? I am going to guess the victim's family never heard this until long after the fact...
 
Search warrant served at home on Central Coast for Kristin Smart missing since 1996
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday that it served a search warrant at the home of Ruben Flores on the 700 block of White Court in Arroyo Grande.

Flores is the father of Paul Flores, who remains the prime suspect in the disappearance of Kristin Smart in 1996.

The sheriff’s office has been authorized to use cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar during the search.

The search could take one to two days to complete.

The search warrant has been sealed so law enforcement can't provide any other details.
 
Search warrant served at home on Central Coast for Kristin Smart missing since 1996
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday that it served a search warrant at the home of Ruben Flores on the 700 block of White Court in Arroyo Grande.

Flores is the father of Paul Flores, who remains the prime suspect in the disappearance of Kristin Smart in 1996.

The sheriff’s office has been authorized to use cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar during the search.

The search could take one to two days to complete.

The search warrant has been sealed so law enforcement can't provide any other details.
What kinds of things do you think they might find after all these years? Emails on the computer, maybe?
 

Long time suspect in Kristin Smart's 1996 disappearance is arrested along with his father after investigators searched their family home for her remains​

  • Paul Flores, the long-time suspect in the 1996 disappearance of California college student Kristin Smart, was arrested on Tuesday in San Pedro, California
  • His father, Ruben Flores, was also arrested around the same time
  • The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff announced soon after they would be announcing 'major developments' regarding the Smart investigation on Tuesday
  • The arrests come less than a month after officers conducted a search warrant at the Flores' family home
  • Investigators brought in ground penetrating radar equipment and cadaver dogs to search the home on March 15
 

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