Human remains found in hunt for Kristin Smart 30 years after California college student’s disappearance

Human remains have been discovered at the home of a man convicted of murdering missing California college student Kristin Smart, who vanished in 1996. 

Smart disappeared over 30 years ago in the town of Arroyo Grande, California, and she was declared dead in 2002 but her remains have never been found. 

Following a raid on the home of her killer Paul Flores this week, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said evidence suggests human remains were present in the property. 

Sheriff Ian Parkinson cautioned that authorities have not confirmed whether the remains are those of Smart. 

Cops searched the home of Flores’ mother Susan on Wednesday, and investigators specializing in human decomposition and soil were seen taking samples from the ground, per Live5. 

Parkinson said in a press conference that the raid marked a major breakthrough in the decades-old case.

‘We believe that based on what we’re looking at evidence-wise, scientific-wise, that a human’s remains were there at one time, or still there,’ the sheriff said. 

‘We can’t call it Kristin, but there’s evidence to support human remains.’

The search was first reported by the ‘Your Own Backyard’ podcast, who provided investigators with additional witnesses in the hopes of finding Smart’s body.

She went missing from California Polytechnic State University in 1996. She was declared legally dead in 2002.

Prosecutors alleged she was killed during an attempted rape and that the last person she was seen with was Flores, a fellow student, who claimed at the time that he walked her home from an off-campus party and they parted ways. 

Both Flores and his father Ruben were arrested in 2021, with prosecutors alleging that her body was buried on Ruben’s property before being moved. The home searched on Wednesday was not the same that Ruben was living in at the time of the murder. 

Paul Flores was convicted of her murder and is serving a 25 years-to-life sentence, but his father was acquitted of accessory charges. 

Smart’s murder has puzzled investigators for decades, with the renewed search coming after scientists found volatile organic compounds in the soil in the property’s neighboring backyard three years ago, according to the LA Times. 

That find, the outlet reported, could be an indication that there is decomposing human remains nearby. 

Following the bombshell news that human remains had been found at Flores’ mothers home, an investigator revealed that his team used forensic techniques to find traces of decomposition. 

Tim Nelligan, an expert in soil vapor testing, told Live5 that he was at the property this week, and said his team had ‘come up with a methodology to assess soil vapor’ in the grounds. 

He said these tests showed evidence of ‘human cadaver decomposition.’ 

Podcaster Chris Lambert, who runs ‘Your Own Backyard’, was outside the home as the authorities carried out their search on Wednesday. 

He told The Tribune: ‘The Flores family owned this house at the time that Kristin went missing, and it was never very thoroughly searched.

‘It’s definitely overlooked. Ruben’s property was the one searched in 2021, which led to the trials.

‘I would assume what they’re doing here is the same thing they did here, which is scanning the ground to look for anomalies underneath, where soil may have been disturbed, dug up, replaced or anything.

‘The clothing she was wearing that night was never found. The clothing that Paul wore that night was never recovered. And so those things could be here as well.’