A new development in the Kristin Smart case? Her mother says FBI told her to ‘be ready’
The mother of missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart — who disappeared 23 years ago — says there may be a development in the case soon.
Denise Smart, of Stockton, told the Stockton Record that she was recently contacted by the FBI, which is investigating Kristin’s 1996 disappearance along with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, and told to prepare herself and her family for “a development,” according to the newspaper.
“Denise said she was told by authorities, ‘Be ready. This is really going to be something you don’t expect. We want to give you the support you need,’” according to the article, published online Saturday.
The Stockton Record reports that the FBI also suggested Denise Smart secure a family spokesperson and that the family “might want to get away for a while.” But the agency didn’t say when this development might be announced, according to the newspaper.
Denise Smart had not responded to multiple requests for comment from The Tribune as of early Sunday afternoon.
John Segale, who identified himself as a spokesman for the Smart family, said in an email Sunday that the family “will not have any comment or statement regarding the story in the Record.”
Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old Cal Poly freshman, disappeared early on the Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend in 1996, after leaving a house party just off campus. She would have turned 43 years old in 2020.
Though the case has long remained unsolved, a podcast series hosted by Orcutt resident Chris Lambert has sparked renewed interest in the community — as well as calls to search the Arroyo Grande property of Susan and Ruben Flores, parents of the only suspect in Smart’s disappearance.
Paul Flores, who was also a Cal Poly student in 1996 and now resides in San Pedro, was the last person seen with Kristin Smart, who was officially declared deceased in 2002.
On Sunday, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Los Angeles office said only that the case is still pending, but added that any announcement of any new information would be made by the Sheriff’s Office.
A spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Sunday afternoon.
Kristin Smart’s disappearance
Kristin Smart was last seen leaving a house party at 135 Crandall Way near the Cal Poly campus about 2 a.m. May 25, 1996, with Paul Flores and friend Cheryl Anderson.
Anderson later told investigators that she left Smart with Flores at the intersection of Perimeter Road and Grand Avenue, and continued to her dorm at Sierra Madre Hall.
Smart was to supposed to walk back to her Muir Hall dorm room, and Paul Flores later told police he and Kristin Smart parted ways near his own room at Santa Lucia Hall.
Two days later, a friend of Smart’s called the Cal Poly University Police Department to report her missing. But due to a jurisdictional fumble between that agency and the San Luis Obispo Police Department, a search didn’t begin until May 30, 1996.
Organized searches were conducted on and around the campus, and Cal Poly police and county District Attorney’s Office investigators interviewed Flores.
But it wasn’t until June 5, 1996, that police searched Kristin Smart’s dorm room and Flores’ room on June 10, 1996.
By then, the academic quarter had ended and Flores had moved all of his belongings out of the room.
In a taped interview, Flores admitted to previously lying to investigators when he told them he received a black eye playing basketball. He reportedly told investigators he received the injury while fixing his truck, then abruptly ended the interview and refused to answer any more questions.
After a month went by and criticism from the Smart family and their supporters grew, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office took over the case.
Over the weekend of June 29, 1996, about 400 volunteers turned out for a large-scale search of the campus. Investigators also searched Flores’ parents’ Arroyo Grande home, which did not yield any clues.
The Smarts filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against Paul Flores in November 1996, alleging that Flores murdered Kristin at Cal Poly. The Smarts would later add Cal Poly to the lawsuit, alleging the university failed to keep their daughter safe.
That lawsuit remains in legal limbo due to the Sheriff’s Office’s ongoing criminal investigation. The Smart family’s attorneys have requested Sheriff’s Office records necessary to prove their civil case, but those records remain confidential.
Former San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ed Williams previously said “there are no other suspects” than Paul Flores in Kristin Smart’s disappearance.
Developments in Cal Poly missing student’s case
In September 2016, the Sheriff’s Office and the FBI conducted a joint excavation of a hillside on the Cal Poly campus after announcing new information strongly suggested that Smart’s remains could be buried in an area near the Cal Poly “P” that had been searched by about 400 volunteers in June 1996.
Between Sept. 6-10, 2016, the agencies sifted through approximately 20,000 cubic feet of dirt, taking away bones and a possible “item of interest” to a facility out of the county for analysis.
Though the Sheriff’s Office called the dig “beneficial,” it has not said what, if anything, the effort revealed.
Lambert’s podcast, Your Own Backyard, was launched in September 2019 and has brought renewed public interest in the case.
In November 2019, hundreds of people gathered in the Arroyo Grande Village in a candlelight vigil in Kristin Smart’s memory.
This story was originally published January 19, 2020 at 1:59 PM.
