Investigators search Susan Flores’ Arroyo Grande home for Kristin Smart evidence

May 6, 2026

Sheriff Ian Parkinson at Susan Flores’ home in Arroyo Grande

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

Investigators are currently serving a search warrant at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores as part of an ongoing investigation in the Kristin Smart murder case, according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.

Early Wednesday morning, investigators arrived at Susan Flores’ home on the 500 block of East Branch Street. Susan Flores is the mother of Paul Flores – the man convicted of murdering Smart.

Susan Flores’ backyard in Arroyo Grande

In 2022, a jury found that Flores murdered Kristin Smart in 1996 during an attempted rape following a Cal Poly frat party. After the party, Flores helped escort Smart, who was found passed out on a lawn outside the party, back to her dorm room. She was never seen again and her body was never found.

In 2023, environmental engineer Timothy Nelligan, retired FBI forensic scientist Brian Eckenrode and environmental scientist Steve Hoyt extracted soil from a home next to Susan Flores’ yard, to perform soil vapor sampling. Their testing detected human remains had been buried behind the home.

Search of Susan Flores’ home in Arroyo Grande

The three forensics experts asserted that, at some point, Smart’s body was buried in the backyard of Susan Flores’ home in Arroyo Grande. However, the technology they used to make the determination was experimental and was not used in criminal court.

During Paul Flores’ trial, prosecutors provided evidence a body had been buried under the home of Ruben Flores (Paul Flores’ father), and later moved. Law enforcement had voiced concerns that attempts to obtain a subpoena to dig in Susan Flores’ yard could be used to challenge the murder conviction.