Search for Kristin Smart’s body at Cal Poly
September 6, 2016
More than 20 years since the disappearance of Kristin Smart, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department is excavating a hillside near the Cal Poly “P” in a search for Smart’s remains.
Smart, a native of Stockton, was nearing the end of her freshman year at Cal Poly when she vanished on May 25, 1996 after attending an off-campus party. The 19-year-old 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.
The sheriff’s department learned that Smart’s remains may be buried on the Cal Poly hillside. FBI then brought trained cadaver dogs which alerted to several locations near the Cal Poly “P” landmark.
Investigators are performing an excavation that is expected to take up to four days.
A command post is being manned by 25 FBI agents, 15 members of the SLO County Sheriff’s Department and California Department of Fish and Wildlife investigators.
Flores, who dropped out of Cal Poly after Smart’s disappearance, was the initial focus of a police investigation. He has since left the area and is believed to now be living in southern California. He remains a person of interest, according to the sheriff’s department.
He has never denied any involvement in Kristin’s disappearance.
Smart’s parents, Denise and Stan Smart of Stockton, took a civil case of wrongful death against Flores in 2005, but dropped it after Flores pleaded the fifth amendment in court.
Flores has been arrested for DUI three times since 1997 and was sentenced to 240 days in jail for violating his probation after the last DUI.
Kristin Smart was declared legally dead in 2002.
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