Missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart to be featured on CBS ’48 Hours’ show
A popular true crime television show will delve into the disappearance of Kristin Smart, a Cal Poly freshman who went missing 24 years ago.
“48 Hours” will feature Smart’s story Saturday at 10 p.m. Saturday on CBS.
Find Kristin Smart, a Facebook group with more than 30,000 members that shares the latest developments in the disappearance of Smart, posted CBS’s preview of the upcoming episode on Wednesday morning.
Saturday’s episode, “The Disappearance of Kristin Smart,” features interviews with Smart’s friends and family and Chris Lambert, an Orcutt resident who hosts a podcast about Smart’s disappearance.
“Your Own Backyard” has renewed widespread interest in Smart’s disappearance since it launched in September 2019. The eighth episode of the podcast dropped Wednesday.
Much of Saturday’s episode focuses on Paul Flores, the last person to see Smart alive. Flores has continued to be a person of interest throughout the 24-year investigation but has never been charged for a crime related to the case.
“There has been no other suspect,” Smart family attorney James Murphy tells CBS News in the “48 Hours” episode. “Every piece of evidence points directly at Paul Flores.”
Saturday’s episode finds CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti attempting to speak to Flores during an unscheduled interview outside his home.
“Were you involved in the disappearance of Kristin Smart? Paul, can you tell us what happened that night between you and Kristin,” Vigliotti asks Flores.
“Go [expletive] yourself,” Flores says.
Disappearance of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart
Smart was a Cal Poly freshman when she was last seen on May 25, 1996, walking home from a party with Flores toward the San Luis Obispo university’s dorms.
Another student called Cal Poly police to report Smart missing two days later, but a report wasn’t started at that time.
Flores was first interviewed on May 28, 1996, three days after Smart was last seen. He told a campus officer that he and Smart separated near the Santa Lucia Hall dormitory, and that he hadn’t seen her since.
On May 30, 1996, campus investigators Ray Barrett and Mike Kennedy interviewed Flores at their office and the first of several searches for the missing student was conducted on campus.
On June 29 to 30, 1996, dogs trained to search for human remains were brought in to search for clues. Four dogs independently reacted to Flores’ dorm room at Santa Lucia Hall. Dogs also reacted to his stripped mattress.
Numerous searches and inquiries have been conducted, including a search for buried evidence in June 2000 at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores, mother of Paul Flores, using ground-penetrating radar to get electromagnetic pictures of where objects might be buried. No remains or other evidence was found.
So far in 2020, five search warrants have been served in the investigation into Smart’s disappearance.
In February, the Sheriff’s Office served search warrants at four locations — two in San Luis Obispo County, one in Los Angeles County and one in the state of Washington.
One of those warrants was served at Susan Flores’ Arroyo Grande home. Another was served in the Los Angeles neighborhood where Flores has lived since 2010, according to public records.
In April, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant at Flores’ Los Angeles County home.
And in January, the Sheriff’s Office announced it had taken two trucks into evidence that belonged to members of Flores’ family in 1996.
The Find Kristin Smart group announced in August that it was considering buying an Arroyo Grande home next to the property of Susan Flores. The home on the 500 block of East Branch Street was sold in September, but not purchased by the group.
This story was originally published November 25, 2020 at 9:27 AM.
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