By Staff Writer Tim Miller
Kristin Smart
This month's case is the unsolved disappearance of 19-year-old Kristin Smart. Kristin was a beautiful young college student who loved the water and spending time with her family. She was a California Polytechnic University student with a bright future, until May 25, 1996 when she disappeared and hasn't been seen since.
On the night of May 25, 1996, Kristin was attending a fraternity party with several other students. Around 2 am, she left the party with another student by the name of Paul Flores. Flores claims to have walked Kristin home, however Kristin never made it home. Due to the laws at the time, the investigation was slow in starting up.
Initially, Kristin's friends had thought she simply went home, since her disappearance had happened right at the end of the term. According to Recordnet.com when campus police were notified, they waited several days before investigating, treating it as a missing persons case. When they finally turned it over to the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Department, one month had passed. By that time, the students, including Paul Flores had all cleaned out their dorms and left for the summer.
According to the San Francisco Examiner, Paul Flores and his family have refused to cooperate with police. He'd made a statement with campus police the next morning, stating he'd walked her to her dorm then they went their separate ways. During the interview, campus police asked how he'd gotten a black eye. He told them he got it playing basketball, but during a second interview, told them he got it fixing his car. He'd told friends later that the basketball story was made up, and that he didn't know how he'd gotten the black eye. After that, he refused to speak to police again.
Two months later, San Luis Obispo police searched the dorms with "cadaver" dogs. Those are dogs trained to detect human remains. The dogs led police straight to Flores's dorm room, and to his mattress. However, there was no physical evidence to be found.
Little is known about Paul Flores. The San Francisco Examiner states that in no articles or public appearances has anyone spoken out on his behalf. The Smart family has had several private investigators look at him. Their findings are that Flores got poor to average grades in high school, and that he was considered an outsider.
In 1998, due to the initial handling of Kristin's disappearance, The State of California signed The Kristin Smart Campus Safety Act into law. This law would require any university police to call in local law enforcement for any possible violent crimes. The Smart family had lobbied for this bill, and hope that it will prevent another family from going through their experience.
This case remains open. San Luis Obispo police continue to review the case. In a quote to the San Francisco Examiner in 1998 when asked about Paul Flores, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff, Bill Wammock stated, "Because of inconsistencies in his activities, or claimed activities, during that period, we believe he has further knowledge about what happened, and he is a suspect in her disappearance."
In the meantime, the Smart family continues to put pressure on Flores by doing public appearance, interviews or whatever they can to keep Kristin's name in the public. As the seven year anniversary recently passed, they hold on to the hope that soon they'll find their daughter, Kristin Smart.
For more information on Kristin Smart, you can go to www.sonofsusan.com. If you have information regarding this case, please contact the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department at 805-781-4540. Or you can leave information online at www.slosheriff.org/crimetip.html
Have a suggestion for a future cold case investigation? Email Tim at:
ColdCases@aol.com
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