New episode of Kristin Smart podcast reveals witness saw ‘struggle’ between man, woman
A Central Coast podcast producer who has gained widespread attention for his true-crime Kristin Smart series has released a new episode, nearly a year after dropping his last series addition.
Orcutt resident Chris Lambert said his latest program posted Wednesday. “Episode 08: The 16-Hour Gap” traces the initial behaviors and movements of Paul Flores, a person of interest in Smart’s disappearance from Cal Poly’s campus on Memorial Day weekend in 1996.
Smart went missing on a Saturday, May 25, 1996, and Lambert covers the window of time when Flores and his parents weren’t yet connected to the unsolved case.
Flores was the last person seen with Smart, a 19-year-old freshman at the time, walking back to the dorms late at night after an off-campus party at 135 Crandall Way.
For 24 years, Flores has been considered a person of interest, but he has never been arrested.
“There was a three-day window (on Memorial Day 1996) when nobody knew Kristin was missing,” Lambert said. “That gave whoever did this time to get rid of evidence.” A missing person’s report wasn’t filed until May 28, 1996.
In February 2020, the Sheriff’s Office issued warrants at two locations in San Luis Obispo County, one in Los Angeles County and one in Washington state, according to an agency news release at that time. Those included warrants served at Flores’ home in San Pedro, near Los Angeles, as well as Susan Flores’ home in Arroyo Grande.
Lambert said he believes authorities may be getting closer to solving the case, noting a much more confident tone in their voices now compared to his communications with sheriff’s officials from a year or so ago. But he doesn’t have any direct knowledge of the evidence they’ve gathered.
The eighth episode follows “Episode 07: The Iceberg” released earlier this year in January.
Lambert traces Kristin Smart family notebook contacts
Lambert, who said his podcast’s goal is to find Kristin’s body and bring closure to the mystery, has formed a close relationship with Smart’s parents, Denise and Stan Smart, of Stockton.
The Smarts shared notebooks with Lambert, documenting calls and visits to the San Luis Obispo area from 1996 that have enabled Lambert to add more details to the timeline and history of the case, including new information about Flores.
Lambert said they include detailed notes taken by Stan, who wrote down dates and times of personal searches for his daughter around the Cal Poly campus, as well as calls to officials.
In the days after her disappearance, Denise Smart stayed home in Stockton, waiting for her daughter to come home, while Stan searched.
“There are notes like ‘At 10:50 a.m., talked to Cal Poly president for half hour,” Lambert said. “Then he’ll write things like, ‘Went to search by creek area at 1 p.m.’ or things like that. It’s very chaotic, but it documents every lead, every phone call, every tip, every search. Eventually, you see in the notes the name Paul Flores. And that starts the effort to find out everything about him.”
Lambert said he spent hours tracking down people mentioned in the notebooks, and then talked to them to glean details from any memories they had. One lead spurred him to contact a man in Norway.
“He was a 30-year-old Australian exchange student at Cal Poly at the time, who saw a 5-foot-10 man and a 6-foot-tall woman in a struggle” in a common room such as a campus lounge, Lambert said. “He didn’t know if it was Paul and Kristin, but the location and the heights fit their description. It would be unlikely it could be two different people at that time and place.”
The Australian man saw the struggle through a window, he said, and kept on riding his bicycle home.
In early statements, Flores said he walked Smart back toward to her dorm before separating, and was unaware of what happened to her after that.
Police dogs later found Smart’s scent in his dorm room.
“This is the first time that I’ve heard of a struggle might have occurred between them,” Lambert said. “The Australian exchange student had been studying late and was riding his bike home when he saw this. He was sober, he said, which lends even more credibility to his story.”
Lambert said the man was shocked that he tracked him down, thinking the case had been closed years ago.
True crime podcast attention surprises producer
Lambert told The Tribune his podcast has greatly exceeded his expectations, with an outpouring of community and national support. Currently, it has a 4.9 rating out of 5 stars with 9,200 listener reviews on Apple Podcasts Review platform, with downloads in the millions.
“When I first started this, I thought it would have local interest and wouldn’t have a lot of listeners outside of SLO County, or that I’d be perceived as having the right podcast style,” Lambert said.
But since then, he’s had offers from a corporate podcast label and for movie rights. But he has turned those proposals down, he said.
“I’ve had so many offers,” Lambert said. “But I don’t believe it’s something I should be selling. That doesn’t feel right. ... My interest from the start has been to find Kristin’s body.”
Lambert said that the renewed interest could lead to important information.
He said multiple law enforcement agencies have worked on the case from different perspectives and are continuing to review evidence and information that could help put pieces of the puzzle together.
As for Flores, Lambert believes that even though he hasn’t been arrested, the case has caused him personal anguish for years.
“His life has been a testament to that,” Lambert said. “He has had multiple (driving under the influence) arrests and appears not to have any friends. He lives kind of a hermit life.”
Flores has repeatedly declined media interviews, including after being approached by a reporter from CBS’ “48 Hours” for a program scheduled to air at 10 p.m. this Saturday, according to a clip released by the network.
This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
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