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Person of interest in Kristin Smart disappearance arrested on a weapons charge

February 11, 2021

Paul Flores outside his San Pedro home

Paul Flores, the lone suspect in the Kristin Smart disappearance case, was arrested on a weapons charge on Thursday.

Los Angeles police officers arrested Flores in Rancho Palos Verdes on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Officers then booked Flores into the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center.

In April 2020, San Luis Obispo County sheriff investigators served a search warrant at Flores’ Los Angeles area home. Thursday’s arrest was the result of information gathered during the 2020 search.

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 then-fellow student Flores, who claims he escorted Smart to her dorm, which was relatively empty over the Memorial Day weekend.

In January, Denise Smart, the mother of Kristin Smart, said authorities were planning on announcing a development in the case that could bring closure to her family.


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Paul the Creep got away with it because the Cal Poly Police should not exist. They are only a buffer for the PR put out by the administration. They deliberately botched the investigation and the University knowingly destroyed evidence. Eventually they gave the case up to the Sheriff’s Dept. only after they determined it was too late to matter.


4

For the last hundred years in America innocent people have been vilified and convicted of crimes they did not commit. Many spent their entire lives in prison. Decades later some were completely pardoned after it was revealed that local law enforcement planted, fabricated and falsified evidence for various reasons; including, covering up the fact that they themselves committed the crime, they were envious of the person who was targeted as the primary suspect of the crime, and lastly just to get a promotion (Mark Fuhrman the dirty LA detective who planted evidence to make his career and then destroyed the case against OJ). As of today, no substantial evidence has been produced that links this guy to the crime. If there was any evidence he would have been arrested and prosecuted. Did local law enforcement bundle or fumble the investigation in 1996, if so, why? Is all of the evidence associated with the evidence so dirty that even the FBI won’t pursue the matter beyond questioning the person? Here is an example in 1982 SDSU student Cara Knott was raped and murdered. Her car was found along a San Diego freeway. For months authorities pursued several associates of Karen’s and during the process absolutely destroyed their lives and futures. Nothing like being falsely accused and vilified in the press! Two years later Officer George Michael Gwaltney was sentenced to 90 years in federal prison for violating the civil rights of an aspiring actress found raped and shot to death in the desert near Barstow in 1982. Gwaltney was tried twice on state murder charges in the death, but both trials ended in jury deadlocks. The CHP did everything to pursue non-LEA personnel in the matter despite the overwhelming evidence that a LEA officer was the likely suspect. Law Enforcement agencies have a documented history of covering up the crimes of their own to protect the image of the agency. So the questions are which Officer was on duty that night? Who has been pursuing this case for the remainder of their career and why? Is it to solve the crime or simply to confuse everyone to cover their own tracks?

Irrespective what a horrible, horrible tragedy and loss to the family. Deepest sympathies.


-44

“Is all of the evidence associated with the evidence so dirty that even the FBI won’t pursue the matter beyond questioning the person?”


The answer is the FBI cannot pursue the matter; murder, manslaughter, rape, whatever crimes were committed are state crimes. The FBI can help, but it is by law a state matter, unless they find Kristen’s body in another state (crossing state lines in commission of a crime is a referral offense)

This investigation has gone on for 26 years and three generations of detectives have worked this case, each examining the evidence and conducting their own investigations. The same name kept coming up over the last 26 years: Paul Flores.

I am glad that after 26 years the sheriff’s office and Sheriff Parkinson are keeping this investigation alive.


27

Interesting, I struck a nerve. 26 years of investigation by the local LEA and nothing.


If the FBI can’t be involved then why have they over the years? FBI get involved when it appears that LEA maybe involved or even federal crimes, such as kid napping.


-22

No nerves struck.

The FBI will assist local law enforcement with forensics, evidence collection, and investigations when requested.

The FBI assisted with evidence collection and supplied a SWAT team to Paso Robles last summer during the manhunt for Mason Lira, the fellow who murdered a resident and shot two cops.

I wouldn’t characterize law enforcement as having nothing after 26 years. If that were the case a judge would not have signed multiple search warrants to search Paul Flores’ house in San Pedro, his mother’s and father’s houses in Arroyo Grande and his sister’s house in Washington state.


17

Oh, now you admit that the FBI does get involved in local matters. Facts speak for themselves, not what dirty cops fabricate just like the SLO Police Chief who lost her gun then had the whole department behind her to destroy the wrong guy. Now that is a corrupt police department, drug dealing officers, drug trafficking officers, an embezzling police chief, a lying gun loosing police chief. However, there have been some good slo pd, but most of them have retired in disgust.


-3

The FBI will assist when asked to by local authorities. I said that in my first post and clarified in my second. If you have an axe to grind with your local police please leave the FBI out of it.

Thank you and good day.


2

At the time of her disappearance I had a farm in Arroyo Grande off Los Berros Road. The Sherriff’s came by to take a look at our property but nothing came of it. I believe at the time, Flores was working at a gas station in Pismo.


4

For what, and when, was he convicted of a felony? I hope someone knows the answer to this, as nothing I’ve read anywhere says this.


8

He has a felony DUI on his record. I guess when killing someone is weighing on your conscious, it tends to make you drink… a lot.


13

Can’t wait for the next episode of “Your Own Backyard”


30

It’s a great podcast, although I was a bit disappointed they gave airtime to that quack Arpad Vass. There is plenty of evidence that Flores did it. Enlisting the help of Vass’s snake oil “DNA dowsing rod” machine just weakens the case.


12