Investigators searching the San Luis Obispo County home belonging to the mother of Kristin Smart’s killer found evidence that human remains were once present at the property — three decades after the 19-year-old college freshman vanished.
Authorities spent this week combing through the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores, mother of convicted killer Paul Flores, using soil testing and ground-penetrating radar to search for signs of human decomposition, he Los Angeles Times reported.
Their findings came back positive, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said Friday.
“We believe that, based on what we’re looking at, evidence, wise scientific evidence, that a human remains were there at one time,” Parkinson said. “So we can’t call it Kristin, but you know, we think there’s, there’s evidence to support human remains there.”
Investigators will continue the search and won’t stop until every lead is exhausted, the sheriff added.
“Our search goes on, and I don’t know how long we’re going to be there,” Parkinson explained during a press conference Friday. “The warrant that we obtained means the occupants of the residence, once we serve it, have to depart and cannot return to the residence. It’s not unusual.”
Earlier this week, sheriff’s investigators and experts in human decomposition arrived at the property.
Smart, a California Polytechnic State University student from Stockton, disappeared over Memorial Day weekend in 1996 after attending an off-campus party near the college.
She was last seen walking back to her dorm with Paul Flores, then 19, after friends decided she was too intoxicated to go home by herself.
Flores — who was convicted of murdering Smart in 2022 — was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison three years ago. His father, Ruben, was acquitted of helping him.
The case remained cold for years despite repeated searches. District Attorney Dan Dow vowed Wednesday that officers are still focused on finding her remains.
“Since the jury convicted Paul Flores for the murder of Kristin Smart, the District Attorney’s Office has continued working in coordination with the Sheriff’s Office to fulfill our shared commitment to the Smart family and this community: to bring Kristin home,” he said.
Flores was a longtime suspect in the case and the last person known to have seen Smart alive when he walked her home from the booze-fueled off-campus party.
Prosecutors allege he also attempted to rape her, possibly in his dorm room, on the night of May 25, 1996, when both were freshmen at the school.
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