What happened the night Kristin Smart disappeared? Unsealed records offer new details
On the night of Kristin Smart’s disappearance in 1996, a “hyperactive” Paul Flores spent the evening at an off-campus party hitting on the 19-year-old Cal Poly student and other women to the point one attendee warned her to “stay away from that guy,” according to detailed witness accounts included in recently unsealed court documents.
Flores, 44, is the last person to see Smart alive after walking her back from the party toward the red brick dorms on May 24, 1996. He is accused of raping or attempting to rape Smart in his dorm room before killing her.
In addition to the account of that evening, the District Attorney’s Office document notes that one of Smart’s friends said it seemed Flores was “hunting” Smart and would lurk around her residence hall in the months leading up to her disappearance.
The document also suggests a scenario in which Flores could have removed Smart’s body from his dorm room without being noticed.
The court filing lays out how investigators caught inconsistencies in Flores’ story during a series of interviews in the weeks following Smart’s disappearance, and it details how four cadaver dogs repeatedly alerted to Flores’ room during three forensic searches of Santa Lucia Hall.
The filing, written by Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle on July 9, lays out a statement of facts that are the basis for the prosecution’s case.
Smart’s body has never been found, but investigators believe it was buried at the Arroyo Grande home of Paul Flores’ father, Ruben Flores, and “recently” moved, according to a San Luis Obispo County probation report.
Court records related to an unsuccessful prosecution attempt to charge Paul Flores with two counts of rape involving female victims in Los Angeles were unsealed in court Wednesday.
In addition to information from 29 women about Flores’ alleged sexually predatory behavior, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Statement of the Case also showed that investigators found video evidence of rape of an intoxicated person against Flores at his San Pedro home, as well as traces of human blood in disturbed soil underneath Ruben Flores’ home.
The documents were unsealed ahead of an upcoming 12-day preliminary hearing where evidence will be presented. That’s set to begin Aug. 2.
The party on Crandall Way
In 1996, Smart and Flores were both freshmen at Cal Poly. She lived in the Muir dormitory; he lived in Santa Lucia Hall.
According to Peuvrelle’s statement of the case, a close friend of Smart’s said she and Smart were looking for a party all evening when they found the house party at 135 Crandall Way. That friend parted ways with Smart between 9:30 and 10 p.m., the filing says.
The party was well attended and several people there reported to investigators seeing Smart being openly flirtatious with multiple male attendees.
A woman who was at the party described a “hyperactive” Paul Flores drinking alcohol and hitting on her, bragging “to her about how great he was and the drugs he used.”
Tim Davis, a fraternity member who organized the party, told investigators he remembered Flores being aggressive toward the female attendees, even those with boyfriends. Davis later told a police officer that Flores “was a little weird and everybody realized it.”
“People repeatedly told him, ‘Dude, we hate you,’ and yet Flores kept bugging people,” Peuvrelle wrote.
Davis also reported seeing Flores and Smart together at the bar despite Flores later telling investigators that they never socialized or had any contact at the party. At one point, Davis said, the two fell to the floor together, though it was unclear why.
A female attendee of the party reported that Flores had been following her around that evening and at one point he grabbed her and attempted to kiss her. She had to shove him off of her, she said.
After seeing Smart and Flores fall to the floor, the woman said she cautioned Smart to “stay away from that guy.”
Flores then approached a male attendee at the party and asked him if he knew Smart. When he said he did not, Flores made a comment about Smart being attractive. The statement contradicts Flores’ statements to investigators that he wasn’t interested in Smart.
The party ended around 2:30 a.m., and Davis said he was standing outside making sure everyone got a ride home when he saw Smart “passed out” on the front lawn and Flores “lurking” by the side gate.
Davis helped the intoxicated Smart to her feet and a friend of Smart’s, Cheryl Anderson, told Davis the two could make the walk from Crandall Way up the hill on campus to Smart’s dorm.
Davis reported seeing Flores joining the two on the walk even though Anderson told Flores they didn’t need his help. Based on his observations that evening, Davis said he “believes Flores would have tried to have sex with Smart.”
Anderson told investigators that Smart had difficulty during the roughly half-mile trek. Flores had his hands around Smart’s waist to steady her, the record says, but Anderson never saw Smart hugging Flores back.
Anderson said Flores repeatedly told her he could take Smart back to her room “as if trying to get rid of her.” At some point the three stopped and Anderson said she gave Smart a 20% chance of reaching her Muir Hall dorm without assistance.
After Flores attempted a hug and kiss from Anderson and was refused, Anderson split from the two.
She later told investigators that Flores’ nickname around campus was “Chester the Molester” due to his suspicious behavior with women.
Other than Flores, Anderson was the last person to see Smart alive.
Flores was ‘hunting’ Kristin Smart, Muir Hall resident said
Steven Fleming, a student living at Muir Hall who was friends with Smart, told officials that he had seen Flores in Smart’s room a few times in February or March 1996. He said Flores “would generally follow Kristin Smart and was obviously interested in her, but those feelings were not returned.”
“However, Kristin Smart was too kind of a person, according to Fleming, to tell Flores she was not interested,” Peuvrelle wrote.
Fleming described Flores as “very creepy” and always “lurking” around Muir Hall in the early-morning hours. He likened Flores’ behavior toward Smart to “hunting.”
Crystal Calvin, Smart’s roommate, reported last seeing Smart on the evening of May 24, when she went out looking for a party and never returned. She told officials that she would often stay out late but always return. Calvin said she was especially concerned because Smart never went anywhere without her red backpack, which remained in the room in the same position as she left it the evening of May 24.
Another roommate, Jennifer Phillips, reported Smart missing on May 28, 1996.
Paul Flores’ dorm room and a suspicious black eye
Peuvrelle’s case summary also says that phone records from Flores’ Santa Lucia dorm room shows he called his sister, Ermalinda, at 8:50 p.m. on May 24, 1996, though he would later deny that call to investigators. There were no calls from the room on Saturday, May 25, and the next call is to his father Ruben at 9:47 a.m. on Sunday, May 26, 1996.
The record says that at the time, Flores’ sister lived about one mile from the campus on Olive Street. Her husband at the time told investigators that Paul “would walk over all the time and had access to their vehicles.”
She reported that she worked every day that Memorial Day weekend from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and could not account for her now-ex-husband’s whereabouts while she was at work. The ex-husband, Brett McArthur, told investigators that he would let Flores borrow his pickup truck on occasion. He also said he helped Flores move out of his dorm room shortly after Smart’s disappearance.
The court record appears to explain how a body could have been moved from the Santa Lucia dorm room, which was a double, noting that the room had a large horizontally sliding window above a desk, and that “the height of the window at the exterior is approximately the same height as a typical truck bed or car trunk.”
Derek Tse, Flores’ roommate at the time, described Flores as “an asshole” when he drinks alcohol. Tse told officials he “made sure” to tell Flores he would be gone all Memorial Day weekend. He said that Flores told him he walked Smart to her room before returning to his own on May 24.
One of Flores’ best friends at the time, Jeremy Moon, told investigators that he noticed Flores had a black eye when he picked him up on Sunday, May 26. Flores told him he had it when he woke up and did not know how he got it.
Flores later told investigators he got the injury playing basketball with Moon, which Moon refuted. When Moon later confronted Flores about the lie, he said Flores told him, “It would have sounded stupid if I said I didn’t know how it happened.”
Another friend, Javier Carrillo, said Flores contradicted his statement to Tse when he said he, Smart, and Cheryl Anderson each went their own ways after the May 24 party. Flores also told Carrillo that he had been flirting with Smart at the party, despite his denial to investigators.
Another friend, Mike Rofail, said that he met with Flores the night of Saturday, May 25, 1996, but did not recall him having a black eye until May 28, when he said he got it playing basketball.
Flores told Rofail that he walked Smart back to her room after the May 24 party and left, Rofail said.
What Flores told investigators in 1996
On May 28, 1996, Flores spoke with a Cal Poly police officer following up on Phillips’ missing persons report.
Flores told the officer that he did not know how he ended up walking with the two women after the party, but that he, Anderson, and Smart all separated toward their respective dorm rooms and that he did not walk with Smart up a stairway toward her room. He said he drank “too much” and threw up when he reached his own dorm.
He was “adamant” that he had not had physical contact with Smart that night other than two hugs on the way home, despite other witness statements. He told the officer Smart was overly flirtatious and he found her unattractive.
Flores said Smart was walking “just fine” and denied that he ever asked Smart or Anderson for a hug or kiss during the walk home.
Flores said that he took a shower at about 5 a.m. and didn’t notice anyone else at the dorm until he was met by friends that Saturday night.
He told the police officer he received the black eye from playing basketball with Moon.
On Friday, May 31, 1996, Flores was interviewed by District Attorney’s Office investigator Bill Hanley, who noted several discrepancies in Flores’ story.
When asked what he did on Saturday, May 25, 1996, Flores said he just “hung out” all day until dinner with friends.
Flores again told Hanley that he received the black eye playing basketball, this time saying it occurred that Monday, or Memorial Day.
When asked what he thought happened to Smart, Flores reportedly told Hanley: “I think she’s dead.”
In his final interview with Hanley on June 19, 1996, Flores said that despite remembering specific details about playing pool and the types of alcohol at the party, Flores said he recalled very little about what happened there.
“I guess I had a blackout at about that time,” Flores told Hanley.
Asked again about the black eye, Flores admitted to lying and said he “got it working on his Ranger at around 2 a.m. Monday morning,” and said he “got it hitting the steering wheel,” according to Peuvrelle’s summary. He claimed that he lied because “it doesn’t sound like a very likely thing.”
Flores said his inaccurate statements were not lies, but rather “a fib ... a little white lie.”
Flores also denied ever falling to the floor with Smart at the party, and Hanley asked if witnesses who reported it were mistaken.
“No, I don’t, the only person — well, I was at the one party that I was kind of like a little aggressive, I guess,” Flores responded, according to the filing. Flores said people were making stuff up about him because they didn’t like him.
Shortly before Flores ended the interview, Hanley also confronted Flores about an incident in which police were called after Flores would not leave a balcony of several Cal Poly female students’ dorm room.
“Did you just forget to tell us about that?” Hanley asked Flores, according to the court record.
“I just that, I just, yeah,” Flores said.
“Just slipped your mind? Kind of like the black eye?” Hanley asked.
Flores replied, “yeah,” before admitting that he went up on the women’s balcony uninvited and wouldn’t leave until police arrived.
Hanley asked,” When you drink, you’re a different person, aren’t you?”
Flores responded: “Yeah, I guess.”
Four cadaver dogs alerted on Flores’ dorm room, mattress
On June 29, 1996, detectives searched Flores dorm room at Santa Lucia Hall with four cadaver dogs, trained to detect human remains. All four dogs alerted to Flores room, with three of them specifically focused on his mattress.
One of the handlers told detectives that his dog showed interest in the exterior of the building underneath Flores’ window, as well as inside the room. The handler said he was “stunned” by what he saw and recommended officials use additional dogs to confirm the presence of a body.
Another handler who brought two dogs to the dormitory independently of the first handler said her first dog “went screaming down the hallway” to Flores’ room and entered “intensely.” The dog could not “vacuum up the scent enough,” the handler said, and focused on the left side of the room containing the mattress and a trash can.
The dog showed “zero interest in anything else,” Peuvrelle wrote, and the handler’s second dog similarly alerted to the area.
The mattress was confiscated as evidence.
A third handler examined the dorm later that day, unaware of the three previous searches. Her dog ran down the hall and did a “fish hook” and started scratching at Flores’ door. Once let in, the dog targeted the bed frame that held the mattress, as well as a trash can, the desk and possibly the phone.
The dog was “doing ‘air searching’ because she was looking for the primary source of the scent, which was most likely the missing mattress,” Peuvrelle wrote.
Investigators removed the trash can from the room, placing it in a hallway with other trash cans, and the dog again alerted to the receptacle, what the handler called a “double alert.”
Detectives found no evidence of human remains in any other room.
Andy Rebman, a cadaver dog expert, told the District Attorney’s Office that cadaver dogs have been documented to identify the presence of human remains from immediately after the time of death to one documented case of 26 years after death.
Peuvrelle wrote that based on common sense, cleanliness in dorm rooms would be an issue, with blood, urine, semen, fecal matter, saliva and other bodily fluids present in any given living space. And once the fluids are outside the body they begin to decompose.
But Rebman told officials this indicates there was “some strong odor related to a cadaver in Flores’ room because it was strong enough for the dogs to detect amongst the other odors,” the prosecutor wrote.
The room in Santa Lucia Hall is still regularly occupied by new Cal Poly freshmen, university spokesman Matt Lazier confirmed.
This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 5:06 PM.
