Kristin Smart

Case background and investigation

Kristin Denise Smart, a 19-year-old freshman at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, was last seen in the early morning hours of May 25, 1996, after attending an off-campus party. Found intoxicated on a neighbor's lawn, she began walking back toward campus in the company of several other students. One by one the others peeled off toward their own dorms until only fellow freshman Paul Flores remained with her. Flores said he left her near her residence hall, but Smart was never seen again. Because she was reported missing only after several days had passed, the trail was cold before a serious search began, a delay later blamed on a slow response by campus authorities.

Paul Flores emerged almost immediately as the prime suspect. He was seen with a black eye in the days after the disappearance, offered shifting explanations for it, and in a 1996 grand jury appearance and a later civil deposition repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Investigators searched multiple locations over the years, including properties tied to the Flores family, using cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar, but no body was recovered. Kristin Smart was legally declared dead in 2002. Despite persistent suspicion, prosecutors long felt they lacked enough physical evidence to bring charges, and the case languished for roughly two decades.

Renewed momentum came in 2019 when Chris Lambert, a local musician with no prior investigative background, launched the podcast "Your Own Backyard," which meticulously re-examined the case, interviewed witnesses, and pressed for answers. Downloaded millions of times, the series drew national attention, surfaced new witnesses, and helped reinvigorate the sheriff's investigation. On April 13, 2021, authorities arrested Paul Flores on a charge of murder and arrested his father, Ruben Flores, as an accessory after the fact, alleging that Ruben had helped conceal Kristin's body.

The two men were tried together but before separate juries in Monterey County, where the case had been moved because of extensive publicity. Prosecutors argued that Paul Flores killed Smart during an attempted rape in his dorm room and that her body had at one point been buried beneath the deck of Ruben Flores's Arroyo Grande home before being moved. On October 18, 2022, Paul Flores was convicted of first-degree murder. His father, Ruben Flores, was acquitted of the accessory charge the same day.

On March 10, 2023, Paul Flores was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Kristin Smart's remains have never been found, and searches connected to the case have continued in the years since. Her disappearance also prompted the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act, signed into California law in 1998, which requires public colleges to coordinate with local police on reporting serious crimes. Paul Flores has pursued appeals of his conviction.