30-year-old murder case sees fresh twist as cops raid California home of killer’s mom in hopes of finding 19yo student’s remains

Kristin Smart disappeared in 1996 but there has been renewed hope that her remains could still be found.

Kristin Smart went missing 30 years ago. Her murderer, Paul Flores, is currently serving 25 years in prison although her remains have never been found. However, a new development in the case has seen California cops swarm the home of Paul’s mother in the hopes of finding her body.

Smart was a 19-year-old student at the California Polytechnic State University. On May 24th 1996 she attended an off-campus party and was later found passed out on a neighbor’s lawn by two students. They began carrying her back to her dorm when Paul Flores joined and offered to take Smart back by himself, promising to get her home safely. That was the last time she was ever seen.

Campus police were reportedly slow to act resulting in the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act later being passed to prevent such an incident from possibly occurring again.

Kristin Smart was declared legally dead in 2002 despite no body ever being found. It would take 25 years before police finally arrested Paul Flores along with his father, Ruben, although the charges against the father were later dropped. Prosecutors concluded that Flores had attempted to rape Smart before killing her. It was ruled that there was sufficient evidence for a conviction of murder in September of 2021, (the statute of limitations for a sexual assault charge had expired).

A break in the Kristin Smart case

While Flores was convicted almost five years ago, Smart’s remains were still nowhere to be found and for a while it seemed it may stay that way. However, on Wednesday police raided a home in Arroyo Grande. The house was connected to Paul Flores with his mother being the current occupant of the property.

Cadaver dogs were brought in to investigate Flores’ home in 2021 which indicated that Smart’s body may have been buried underneath the decking of Ruben Flores’ home. However, no body was ever found.

According to an article from the Los Angeles Times, three years ago, scientists working in Susan Flores’ neighbor’s backyard detected volatile compounds that may be associated with a decomposing body.

At around 7 AM on Wednesday, a sheriff’s detective served Susan with a warrant to search the property and officers also entered the neighboring property’s backyard. San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson was accompanied by investigators and experts in ground-penetrating radar and soil science and the search is expected to last two days.

While it’s too early to say for certain whether Kristin Smart’s body is lying under the soil in Susan Flores’ backyard, the group who first detected the volatile compounds are reportedly confident in their findings. If the investigators are right then they could finally be able to bring Smart home after 30 years.