Kristin Smart Disappearance and Murder

Kristin Smart was a 19-year-old freshman at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo who disappeared on May 25, 1996, after a party near campus. Her body has never been found, but in 2022, her fellow student Paul Flores was convicted of her first-degree murder after a cold case investigation spanning 26 years. The case became one of the longest-running missing person investigations in California history.

Smart, from Stockton, California, attended an off-campus party on the evening of May 24, 1996. Paul Flores was last seen walking alone with her toward the dormitories at approximately 2:00 AM on May 25. Smart never arrived at her dorm room and was never seen again.

When Smart's friends and family could not reach her, Cal Poly campus police began an investigation. Flores was identified early as the last person seen with Smart but provided inconsistent accounts and appeared at class the following Monday with a black eye he could not satisfactorily explain. Despite being the prime suspect from the beginning, Flores was not arrested, and the investigation stalled for years amid criticism of both the campus police and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office.

The case was reinvigorated in 2019 when podcaster Chris Lambert launched 'Your Own Backyard,' an investigative podcast that brought renewed attention to the disappearance and generated new tips that put pressure on law enforcement to reopen the investigation aggressively.

In 2020 and 2021, the Sheriff's Office executed search warrants at the Flores family home. Investigators used ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs and found evidence suggesting a body had been buried beneath the deck of Ruben Flores's home. Soil analysis revealed traces of human blood and decomposition.

On April 13, 2021, Paul Flores was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder. In October 2022, Paul Flores was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Ruben Flores was acquitted of the accessory charge. The conviction was achieved without a body — the prosecution built its case on decades of circumstantial evidence and forensic evidence from the Flores property.

Paul Flores was arrested on April 13, 2021, and charged with first-degree murder. Ruben Flores was charged with accessory after the fact. Both trials were moved to Monterey County Superior Court on a change of venue. In October 2022, Paul Flores was convicted of first-degree murder with a special circumstance that the murder occurred during the commission of rape or attempted rape. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Ruben Flores was acquitted by a separate jury on the accessory charge. Kristin Smart was declared legally dead in 2002 by a San Luis Obispo civil court, though her body has never been recovered. Paul Flores's defense team filed an appeal of the conviction.