Police Search Home Linked To Kristin Smart’s 1996 Disappearance Case

Nearly three decades after Kristin Smart vanished from a California college campus, investigators this week searched the home of her killer’s mother as authorities continued their efforts to find the missing student’s remains.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant on May 6 at a property on East Branch Street in Arroyo Grande. It is owned by Susan Flores, the mother of the convicted killer Paul Flores. Officials said the operation is linked to the ongoing investigation into Smart’s disappearance in 1996.

“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 search continued on May 6 and was expected to resume on May 7.

Smart was only 19 when she disappeared during Memorial Day weekend in 1996 while attending California Polytechnic State University, known as Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Prosecutors earlier shared that Paul Flores killed her during an attempted r--e after an off-campus college party. He was the last person seen with her before she vanished.

Flores was convicted of murder in 2022 and sentenced the following year to 25 years in prison. He has continued to maintain his innocence. Earlier this year, the California Supreme Court denied his request to review the conviction.

Smart's body has never been found, though she was legally declared dead in 2002.

The latest search comes three years after scientists used soil vapor testing at several Flores family properties and reported that compounds found in Susan Flores’s yard were “consistent with human decomposition,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Authorities have not said whether those findings led to the new search warrant.

The case has renewed the public’s interest through the podcast “Your Own Backyard,” which is created by Chris Lambert. The podcast helped generate new witnesses and evidence after the crime became a cold case.

While speaking to The Tribune, Lambert said: “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.”

In 2021, investigators arrested both Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores. Prosecutors claimed that Ruben helped Paul hide Smart’s body beneath a deck at his Arroyo Grande home before the remains were later moved. Investigators also found a soil disturbance about the size of a casket and traces of human blood beneath the deck. However, these samples were too degraded for a DNA test.

While Ruben Flores was acquitted of accessory charges, Susan Flores has never been charged. District Attorney Dan Dow said authorities remain determined to locate Smart’s remains.