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Kristin Smart still missing 15 years later

May 22, 2011

Cal Poly officials seek to confront the latest wave of problems arising from alcohol abuse and sexual assaults as Wednesday marks the 15th anniversary of the greatest unsolved mystery on campus: Whatever happened to Kristin Smart?

Smart, a native of Stockton, was nearing the end of her freshman year at Poly when she vanished on May 25, 1996 after attending an off-campus party. She was last seen in the company of fellow student Paul Flores who claims he escorted Smart to her dorm, which was relatively empty due to Memorial Day weekend.

Family and friends continue to press local law enforcement for answers in unraveling the 15-year-old mystery.

Dennis Mahon, a self-appointed private investigator from North Carolina, has made the Smart investigation a personal crusade. Mahon says he has been asking Ian Parkinson, new San Luis Obispo County Sheriff, to devote more resources to the case. Parkinson did meet with Denise Smart, Kristin’s mother, last January, but there has been no further announcement from the Sheriff’s office.

“This is so insidious that it makes me wince to even think about it,” says Mahon. “I first met Denise Smart a year-and-a-half after Kristin vanished. I vividly remember sitting on Kristin’s bed with Denise and she was telling me for the first time all about her daughter’s disappearance.”

Mahon sent Parkinson a letter, dated March 5, 2011, in which he shared multiple emails claiming information about Paul Flores’ involvement in the case. Mahon goes on to trace the anonymous emails to Sonoma State University and believes that university officials there can identify the sender of the emails, a potentially major break in the case.

“The lead came in . . .2,837 days ago,” Mahon wrote to Parkinson. “I know that the cops of ‘Law and Order’ could have the lead checked out in under an hour. But in the real world, I can’t see why it would take a single work week—five days tops—to check this lead out, let alone 2,837 days.

“I don’t care how many different ways the Sheriff’s office tries to spin it—there is no way to justify allowing dust to collect on this lead.”

Paul Flores was investigated, but never charged. He has since left the area and is believed to now be living in southern California.

Anyone with information regarding the case is welcome to call Crimestoppers at 549-STOP.


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I think we should have elected a different sheriff.


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Guess who went on a date with Kristin a few months before she went missing? Scott Peterson…. ironic,

but Paul totally did this.


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Check out Kristin’s Facebook page !! Share it with your friends !! It’s amazing. And if you know anyone

who went to Cal Poly, or went to that party, or knew Paul Flores or any of his friends, share the page with

them..


If you have ANY information PLEASE go to Kristin Smart’s Facebook page and click the link – for Kristin’s

cause. Kristin Smart is still missing. Someone out there KNOWS more than they are saying. Someone is now an adult who was there that night.


By the way, has the NEW Cal Poly president done ANYTHING like dedicating this day / week or some of his money to Krisin’s cause ? Haven’t heard a word that he even knows she ever walked his campus…


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This makes perfect sense. Paul Flores was known as kind of a goody two shoes in high school and when he drank he got really drunk. We always thought that Kristen died an accidental death in Paul’s room. He had been drinking and would not be able to handle Kristen’s body by himself. She was almost 6 feet tall. He also did not have a car. Either he called his parents to help him (and any phone call could be traced) or he got help from a friend or friends to get rid of the body. Being closer to his friends than his family, he could have just gone to them for help.


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She was also known as Roxy, who knew her by that name.?


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My wife was working at CalPoly when Smart was missing.

At that time the new dormatories were partially built.

My wife speculated at the time that if Smart died of toxin and someone wanted to bury a dead body to never be found, the right place would be in the foundation of the incompleted dorms.


Interesting theory, but the fact is, the partially constructed dorms was the most ideal place to bury a body, now virtually impossible to detect or dig up a body.


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I remember reading about this theory and I believe that it could be true.


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Likewise the construction for the local California Aqueduct pipeline was just south of SLO at the time.


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Thanks for running this article again . This is good info for students and a reminder for those who have forgotten .


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The sad part is the barney fife campus police bungeled the evidence and the crime scene so badly no would ever really know what happened in those dorm rooms.

I feel very badly for the Smart family as they have had to suffer for decades, not knowing what happened to their daughter…


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Obviously, I don’t know for sure

but I don’t think Paul Flores did it

According to record Rex Kreb was shortly released after Smart’s disappearance

I suspect Rex Kreb was out prior to his official release, he fits more the profile

Flores did what any other young man would do with a drunk he can’t help or handle, left her when she laid

Someone else who cruise the night looking for college gals happened upon her (I suspect Krebs)


As for OJ, he is guilty

But I don’t believe he has the guts or the know how experience to kill his wife himself, the actual killer had know how and experience.


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I try not accuse anyone or make judgements until all the facts are out and they’re not all out yet. But willie, how do you explain that cadaver dog singled out Flores dorm room? Flores demeanor and lack of cooperation makes it difficult for me believe him. But I won’t convict him yet. Krebs wasn’t in the area at that time, you even said that he was released shortly AFTER Smart’s disappearance.


OJ could easily kill his wife and Goldman by himself. He was in a rage, it’s amazing what adrenaline can do and he is a very large strong man. I’m not saying that I’m sure he did it on his own but I believe that he absolutely could and probably did kill them on his own.


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Typo

Just my suspicion:

Krebs was “officially” released after Smart was missing, but has anybody investigated whether Krebs had any compassion leave while in prison, he had a wife and baby!

This I know:

As for OJ large or his strong physique, there are a lot of little whimps and little thugs out there that can and know how to kill someone like OJ or the size of John Wayne or the built of Arnold Swartzneger in a blink of an eye or split second!


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Regarding OJ, there just seems to be overwhelming evidence that he did it. That was one of those trials where when the verdict came in my jaw hit the ground There was mountains of evidence against him and he fits the profile. He got off because of two reasons, a bungling DA and Money.


If Krebs had been out on compassionate leave then his parole officer would have known it and it would be made public as his name came up several times in regard to Ms. Smarts disappearance. Plus he confessed to the murders that he did and was very cooperative. Knowing that he had nothing to lose and seeing the way he acted afterwards I believe that he would have told the detectives if had anything to do with the Smart case.


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Willie – I have seen some pretty compelling evidence that it was not OJ that committed the murders, but that he was covering for the murder – his son.


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Why would his son kill them? OJ had shown that he was very jealous. What evidence? Do you know of a link? I just can’t imagine anyone else doing this. If I’m reading this right willie is saying that OJ had help, you (mkaney) are saying that the only thing OJ did was cover for his son? OJ’s shoe prints, OJ’s blood, blood on OJ’s car, the testimony from the limo driver, the past domestic abuse, no one to back up where he was, gosh there’s so much more besides all of this. I would need something that really makes sense to believe it was anyone other than OJ.


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Hum, It’s my understanding that Mrs Flores did eventually allow them to dig up her back yard and nothing was found. What’s odd is that she say’s in the video that the concrete slabs in her back yard were poured in 1981 and the permits were on file so why was this made a big deal of to begin with? I feel sorry for this woman, I doubt she knows anything, do people actually believe that she helped Paul dispose of Christine? I don’t.


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Wow, that was the first time that I’ve seen Ms. Flores, I feel sorry her. I’m sure it’s hard for any mother to believe that their child might be murderer.


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Listed are three cases with simularities that I believe when the cases happened who it was that did it and am yet to have anyone change my mind.


Nicole Brown Simpson I still believe O.J. did it.


Kristin Smart I still believe Paul Flores did it.


Natalee Holloway I still believe Joran Van Der Sloot did it.


All three of these guys are the last people seen with the victums and yet they all are innocent. Yea right.


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Interesting BTDT, I have to agree about OJ Simpson and Van Der Sloot. I don’t know enough about the Smart case, she went missing a couple of years before I moved here, but if you put Flores right up there with Simpson and Van Der Sloot, then he is guilty. From what I’ve read, this case was bungled right from the start with both the CP police and the SLOSD. I understand that initially, they found a piece of jewelry that had been ran over in the Flores driveway and they lost that evidence within a day!


I should think these two friends of Paul would have been interviewed early on and several times. I think they probably were interviewed, too bad the SD didn’t go back to these guy’s every couple of years, who knows, maybe the SD would have garnered some new info. I think pressuring somebody every couple of years would psychologically break that person down. Murder or the knowledge thereof, can’t be an easy burden to carry around. No doubt, it’s worth another shot.


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Here’s the part the really kills me. The contempt that Van Der Sloot shows to the press and everyone, with the head held high and almost saying F— You to the world. Well I can tell you from being here at the time the Smart case went down, Flores and Van Der Sloots demeaner and contempt are almost identical. I could easly confuse these two cases in how they had simularites in how they went down (after night of parting and lone guy with victum, then victum disappears) and both the suspects.


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My curiosity got the best of me and I spent my lunch break reading up on the history of this case. If the cadaver dog’s reacted like the PD say’s they did, then it is rather disturbing. According to the Sheriff’s, the dog’s all led them down the hall to Paul’s room and all of them signaled the bed and trash can. That speaks volumes. There is a great deal on information that isn’t available on the net, such as any eyewitness corroboration to the two people who initially began walking Kristen home. Did Paul really promise to take Kristin straight to her dorm and then leave her to walk the remaining 50 feet alone? Is it possible that someone was hanging around that dorm because he knew the parties were breaking up and many people were away that weekend? Hard to say. Regardless, it does appear that Paul needs to clear up some questions because he looks mighty guilty.

This Mahon character seems to have obsessed over this case and went way beyond what one would expect, what with coming out here from the east to assist with the case and befriend the Smart family. Is he even a licensed private investigator? I’m not surprised that he has a difficult time getting people to talk with him, he has done some rather bizarre things. No doubt that if we ever find Kristen, he will have earned his rights to write the book.


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